Third Quarter 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Sanctuary Themes"

Insights to Lesson 12
Jesus and the Christian Walk
Sept. 13-19, 2003

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

Note: Part of this week’s Sabbath School lesson is concerned with “sex” and “marriage.” Let us look at encouraging messages from E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones that can be insightful:

“We are to have in us the mind that was in Christ while He was still in the royal court in heaven, ‘in the form of God,’ which led Him to take ‘the form of a servant.’ Philippians 2:5-7. This is further seen by the fact that He washed the feet of the disciples with full consciousness of the fact that He was their Master and Lord and that He came from God and went to God. See John 13:3-13. Moreover, when all the redeemed saints appear in glory Christ Himself ‘will gird Himself, and have them to sit at table, and He will come and serve them.’ Luke 12:37.

“The greatest freedom is found in service—in service rendered to our fellows in the name of Jesus. He who does the greatest service (not greatest as men reckon, for what they would call lowest is the greatest). This we learn from Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords because He is servant of all, performing service that nobody else would or could do. …

“Love is not a substitute for the keeping of the law, but is the perfection of it. …

“Since love means service, the doing of something for others, it is evident that love takes no thought of itself. He who loves has no thought but of how he may bless others. … It is just on this vital point that many make a mistake. Happy are they who have found out their mistake and have come to the understanding and practice of true love. ‘Love seeketh not her own.’ Therefore self-love is not love at all, in the right sense of the word. It is only a base counterfeit. Yet most of that which in the world is called love is not really love for another; but is love of self.

“Even that which should be the highest form of love known on earth, the love which is used by the Lord as a representation of His love for His people, the love of husband and wife, is more often selfishness than real love. Even leaving out marriages that are formed to gain wealth or position in society, in nearly every case the parties to a marriage are thinking more of their own individual happiness than of the happiness of the other. In proportion as real unselfish love exists, there is real happiness. It is a lesson that the world is slow to learn, that true happiness is found only when one ceases to seek for it and sets about making it for others.

“‘Love never ends.’ Here again is a test which shows that much that is called love is not love. Love never ceases. The statement is absolute: never. There is no exception and no allowance made for circumstances. Love is not affected by circumstances. We often hear about one’s love growing cold, but that is something that can never happen to true love. True love is always warm, always flowing; nothing can freeze the fountain of love. Love is absolutely endless and unchangeable, simply because it is the life of God. There is no other true love than the love of God, therefore the only possibility for true love to be manifested among mankind is for the love of God to be shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

“Sometimes when a declaration of love is made, the loved one asks, ‘Why do you love me?’ Just as if anybody could give a reason for love! Love is its own reason. If the lover can tell just why he loves another, that very answer shows that he does not really love. Whatever object he names as a reason for love may sometime cease to exist, and thus his supposed love ceases. But ‘love never ends.’ Therefore love cannot depend upon circumstances. So the only answer that can be given to the question as to why one loves is ‘because,’—because of love. Love loves, simply because it is love. Love is the quality of the individual who loves, and he loves because he has love, irrespective of the character of the object” (E. J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, pp. 114–116).

A thought from A. T. Jones:

“Are your affections fixed there [on Christ]? So that He takes precedence of everything? So that He is first before everything? Nothing at all coming into the account anywhere or at any time? Is that so? When a person does that he knows it. Well, says one, is not a man to care for his wife and children? Why, they are all surrendered to the Lord too, and cannot the Lord care for them a great deal better than you can without being surrendered to Him? They are surrendered too, and instead of the situation being this: that when my affections are fixed upon Him they are severed from those who are dear to me, it is the other way; when my affections are fixed upon Him, they are intensified and deepened and glorified, upon those who are tenderly connected with me. Why, people miss it all when they think that to fix the affections on God is going to separate them from somebody they like while on the earth; it is the only way they can love properly those whom they think they like on the earth” (General Conference Bulletin, 1893, p. 300).

Read the study notes for lesson 13