Lesson

Lesson 44 for
for the
the 25
25thth of
of July,
July, 2009
2009
“Dear friends, I am not writing you
a new command but an old one,
which you have had since the
beginning. This old command is the
message you have heard. Yet I am
writing you a new command; its truth
is seen in him and you, because the
darkness is passing and the true
light is already shining”
1 John, 2: 7-8
1 Love God above all. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your
strength”
Deuteronomy, 6: 5

Love your neighbour “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge

2 against one of your people, but love your
as yourself. neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus, 19: 18

Love everybody as “A new command I give you: Love one

3 Jesus loves you. another. As I have loved you, so you must
love one another”
John, 13: 34
KNOWING GOD

KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS

 KNOWING GOD

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of

our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To
him be glory both now and for ever!
Amen” 2 Peter, 3: 18

Knowing God means having a close relationship with Him.

This relationship must be progressive and in a daily basis.
 KNOWING GOD
Knowing
Knowing God
God involves:
involves:

 Salvation.
Salvation.

 Forgiveness
Forgiveness ofof sins.
sins.

 Eternal
Eternal life.
life.

“To give his people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke, 1: 77)
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent” (John, 17: 3)
 KNOWING GOD

God’s knowledge and God’s love are

inseparable.
We cannot know God without love.
Knowing God is loving Him. “Love God
above all things”.

“Whoever does not love

does not know God,
because God is love”
1 John, 4: 8
 KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS

“The man who says, "I know him," but

does not do what he commands is a
liar, and the truth is not in him. But if
anyone obeys his word, God's love is
truly made complete in him. This is how
we know we are in him” 1 John, 2: 4-5

While Gnostics said that knowledge was enough for

salvation, John made it very clear that knowing God must be
expressed with a change in your life: Keeping His
commandments.
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is
still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the
light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But
whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in
the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the
darkness has blinded him” 1 John, 2: 9-11
 “We, who understand the magnitude of God’s
incomparable love for us, are obliged to imitate
that love in our relationship with our
neighbours. Since God loved us despite we are
unworthy; shouldn’t we love our brother,
although he may seem unworthy to us?...

We are urged to love each other, and this

shared love grows when a brother helps
another. The more we are ready to take
care of others first (Rom. 12: 10) and the more
we are willing to give our life for our
brothers (1 John 3: 16); the more we will be
similar to God and the more our love will
be similar to God’s”

SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, on 1 John, 4: 11

 “Whoever claims to
live in him must walk
as Jesus did”
1 John, 2: 6
Walking as Jesus did means imitating him in everything.

He is our example. Each time we make a decision, we

have to wonder:
 Jesus’ example transforms the old
commandment “love your neighbour as
yourself” into a new commandment:

“Love your neighbour as I

have loved you”
John, 13: 34 (paraphrased)

“The new commandment ordered men to

preserve the same mutual relationship that Jesus
cultivated with them and with all humanity. The
old commandment ordered men to love their
neighbour as theirselves, but the new one urged
them to love as Jesus had loved them. Actually,
the new one was harder than the old one, but
enough grace was given to carry it out.”
(SDA Bible commentary. Vol. 5, on John, 13: 34)
“Love to God and our neighbor is the very essence of our
religion. No one can love Christ and not love His children.
When we are united to Christ, we have the mind of Christ.
Purity and love shine forth in the character, meekness and
truth control the life. The very expression of the
countenance is changed. Christ abiding in the soul exerts a
transforming power, and the outward aspect bears witness
to the peace and joy that reign within. We drink in the love of
Christ, as the branch draws nourishment from the vine. If we
are grafted in Christ, if fiber by fiber we have been united
with the Living Vine, we shall give evidence of the fact by
bearing rich clusters of living fruit. If we are connected with
the Light, we shall be channels of light, and in our words
and works we shall reflect light to the world. Those who are
truly Christians are bound with the chain of love which links
earth to heaven, which binds finite man to the infinite God.
The light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ shines in the
hearts of His followers, to the glory of God.”
E.G.W. (Reflecting Christ, March 31)