God's Love and Justice - 1st Quarter 2025 Plot
God is love. So says 1 John 4:8 and 16. The entirety of the Bible testifies to this fact. The Christian faith is centered around God’s character of love. Love is at the core of who God is, at the core of everything that we believe, and should be at the core of everything we do. Accordingly, the way we understand love affects the entirety of our faith and practice. If, for example, one believes that God’s love must be earned or merited, a person might think that God does not love them because they are sinful and unworthy. And, in relation to others, one might expect others to merit love—a recipe for disaster.
Sabbath School Study Hour God's Love and Justice - 1st Quarter 2025 aired on January 4th, 2025.
God's Love and Justice - 1st Quarter 2025 Episodes
1. God Loves Freely
Scripture: Hosea 14:4 Lesson: 1 God not only asks us, “Do you love Me,” but God Himself loves each person, and does so freely. Indeed, He freely loves you and me and every other person more than we could possibly imagine.
2. Covenantal Love
Scripture: John 14:23 Lesson: 2 Some might think that they are unlovable, or that God might love everyone else, but not them. Yet, the Bible consistently proclaims that every single person is loved by God. There is no one whom He does not love. And because God loves everyone, He also wants everyone to be saved, as well.
3. To Be Pleasing to God
Scripture: Zephaniah 3:17 Lesson: 3 Hard as it is for us to imagine, God considers each person of incalculable value, which is why He rejoices over the salvation of even one soul.
4. God Is Passionate and Compassionate
Scripture: Isaiah 49:15 Lesson: 4 How can we model our lives after the life of Christ, focusing on the felt needs of others, and, thus, not merely preaching God’s love but showing it in tangible ways?
5. The Wrath of Divine Love
Scripture: Psalm 78:38 Lesson: 5 Though God’s compassion is often celebrated, many find the idea of His wrath disturbing. If God is love, they think He should never express wrath. That notion, however, is false. His wrath arises directly from His love.
6. God’s Love of Justice
Scripture: Jeremiah 9:24 Lesson: 6 Throughout Scripture, love and justice go together. True love requires justice, and true justice can be governed by and meted only out in love.
7. The Problem of Evil
Scripture: Revelation 21:4 Lesson: 7 Perhaps the greatest problem facing Christianity is the problem of evil—how to reconcile the fact that God is perfectly good and loving, with the fact of evil in this world. In briefest terms, if God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there evil, and so much of it, too?
8. Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:24 Lesson: 8 The God of the Bible could not be more different from these demonic forces. Yahweh is perfectly good and His character changeless. And it is only because of God’s constant goodness that we can have any hope, now and for eternity.
9. The Cosmic Conflict
Scripture: Genesis 3:15 Lesson: 9 The theme of a cosmic conflict, in which the kingdom of God is opposed by the devil and his angels, is not one that we can neglect without missing a great deal of what the biblical narratives are about. The Gospels alone are filled with references to the devil and demons who oppose God. This week, we will address how the two following questions might be answered according to some crucial biblical passages: 1- Where does Scripture teach that there is a cosmic conflict between God and Satan? 2- According to Scripture, what is the nature of the conflict?