Sabbath: God Loves Freely
Sabbath Afternoon
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Exod. 33:15-22; Hosea 14:1-4; Rev. 4:11; John 17:24; Matt. 22:1-14; John 10:17-18.
Memory Text: “ ‘I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him’ ” (Hosea 14:4, NKJV).
Though Peter had denied Jesus three times, just as Jesus had predicted (Matt. 26:34), these denials were not the end of the story. After the resurrection, Jesus asked Peter, “ ‘Do you love Me more than these?’ ” And Peter replied, “ ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ ” And Jesus said, “ ‘Tend My lambs.’ ” Then, Jesus again asked Peter, “ ‘Do you love Me?’ ” And Peter replied,
“ ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ ” And Jesus said, “ ‘Shepherd My sheep.’ ” Then, yet again, a third time Jesus asked Peter, “ ‘Do you love Me?’ ” And “Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’” And Peter replied, “ ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ ” And Jesus said, “ ‘Tend My sheep’ ” (John 21:15-17, NASB 1995). Just as Peter had denied Jesus three times, Jesus—by way of the crucial question,
“ ‘Do you love Me?’ ”—restored Peter three times.
However different our circumstances may be from Peter’s, in many ways the principle is the same. That is, the question that Jesus had asked Peter is really the ultimate question that God poses to each of us in our time and place: Do you love Me?
Everything depends on our answer to that question.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 4.
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We too deny Jesus when deliberately disobey him. I just can’t fathom how he still has so much patience, grace and mercy to forgive and still repeatedly call us back to him just like he did for Peter. I praise and thank God for his deep love🙏🏼