LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: 1 JOHN 3
KEY VERSE
“The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us”.
INTRODUCTION
Who is your daddy? This is the question our Lesson answers. It tells us that family connections are most important. God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ uses the language of family, parents and children, brothers and sisters, to teach those who He is.
God the Father tells us that those who believe in His Son Jesus Christ are children that belong to Him. Because we are His children and He is our Heavenly Father He loves us in a way that is remarkable and very different from human love. We call this kind of divine love “agape love”.
It is so strong that even when we do not love God back and we do things which are against what He tells us to do and do not keep or obey His commandments He does not destroy us but does things that make us turn around from the wrongs that we are doing and do what is right.
When we are children of God He places His divine love in us and His Holy Spirit is there to strengthen us in this love and make us able to do things that the people in the world who are not children of God cannot ever do.
God the Heavenly Father has told us what is best for us. He reminds us that His children will do what their Father does. You know that children generally behave like their parent. They have the same nature and disposition as their parent. Children of God like you are therefore to be like the Heavenly Father. Love like the Heavenly Father loves. He will help you to do that.
The kind of love that we have received from the Heavenly Father and which we will now show to the people in the world and in the church is so strong that we can be confident in our behaviour and how we show this love.
We do not have to be afraid because we know that God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit who lives in us would strengthen us and give us the ability to show this divine “agape love” to others. We can be confident therefore in our love.
When we listen to what God the Father says and keep His commandments we know that the Holy Spirit is leading us and will always give us the ability to do what God the Father wants.
So we can be obedient to God’s commandments for God gives us the power to obey Him. We can trust God in every respect. That is what we call confidence. We do not have to be afraid of anything at all for we are depending on God the Heavenly Father.
It is very important that when you are abiding in God the Heavenly Father and Jesus and in His love you remember that He has told us that we should also love each other and therefore we should be kind to other people and not make fun of them when they are at school or when they are in the neighbourhood. It will help you to show your love in little ways such as helping them pick up things that had fallen out of their backpack or from their pocket.
Loving them also means that you are not to push in front of them when you want to get into the line before them in the Cafeteria. There are all kind of practical things that you can think of to show that you care for others whether at school or at home.
So you’re to love one another for you know that Jesus loves you and will help you to love others. That is what makes Jesus and God the Heavenly Father happy.
The Apostle John warns us that we are not to have what he calls “tongue love” the kind of love which means that all we do is talk. But we are to have the kind of love which shows itself in the things that we do. Our deeds are to show love.
The Apostle John who most people call “the Apostle of love” warns us by telling us that we are not to make people who teach false things bother us.
Besides that he tells us that since we know that we are in God but that we are not yet perfect, we therefore will sometimes feel guilty for forgetting to do acts of love. Sometimes we will do things that we know are not quite right. We might even be unsure about whether the things we do are right or not. We might not understand the will of God and what God wants us to do all the time so our hearts might make us feel a little troubled.
The Apostle who we know was very, very close to Jesus and was Jesus’ special friend when He was on earth tells us that we shouldn’t be too troubled. If we feel troubled in our hearts we can approach our Heavenly Father boldly and with confidence and talk to Him honestly about how we feel.
God knows everything in our hearts. He knows exactly what to do to assure us that we are still His children.
So we know for sure that our Father will always look after us and do the best for us . But He wants us to keep His commandments and that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.
So make sure you have the same special kind of love always remember what we are told in chapter 3 verse 1:
“Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God”.
The word God used is very clear. He calls us to attention so he says, Behold! That is a strong word and it is used to remind us who we are. It reminds us that God has definitely given us His love, and this love is deep down inside us.
So let us just keep on doing what God wants and our Father in Heaven will keep on blessing us. We can be confident of that. This Dad, your special Dad will never let you down.