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Commentary on "A Love Response"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, June 2, 2012 - Introduction
The Memory Text is one of the passages in Scripture most frequently misused by SDAs:
"If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
The lesson rightfully points out that Christ gave us commandments that are not part of the Ten Commandments. Yet it still perpetuates the error that this verse is primarily about the Ten Commandments. Jesus defines what He means in the verses shortly before and shortly after this quote.
John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
If we honestly want to let Scripture interpret Scripture for us, then we should look to the surrounding verses that are part of the exact same discourse first and foremost. And sure enough, Jesus defined EXACTLY what He meant. Jesus was not referring to the Ten Commandments.
Jesus also commanded us to spread the Gospel. I'm not sure why the quote in the lesson was incomplete "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit".
Observations
The idea that the underlying issue for improving participation in evangelism is having the proper motivation sounds very pious. However, I would contend that this description, and this entire lesson, is built more on popular psychology, with a smattering of Bible references and a few incomplete quotes to make it sound more religious. The underlying problem is that SDA doctrine and theology doesn't allow for a truly Biblical response to this question.
If you lived in a building full of starving people (family, friends, and long-time neighbors) and you met a generous multi-billionaire who gave you all of the free food you could eat and told you that he was so rich there was an endless supply of free food for every person that you invited, would you need the right "motivation" to go back and tell your starving neighbors? Would he have to "order" you to tell the others? Or would the good news of what you just experienced and learned be so "good" that you would all the starving people in your building?
But if the news that you have isn't really that good. If you never experienced your starving being filled, you don't have much of anything to share with others. Perhaps we can find the "right" incentives to motivate you to tell others about the lastest news you learned. And that is what this entire lesson seems to be geared around, finding a reason or motivation to do something you aren't really sure you want to do.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised June 1, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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