An Important Note To Students And Teachers
This series of lessons concludes a year's emphasis on the importance of people from God's perspective. This series has only 9 lessons.
The theme for this and the previous three sets of lessons has been "The Importance of People to God." At first glance, that may seem to be so obvious. Yet, it is an ignored or forgotten fact in the universal church or in congregations when moments arise that produce "more heat than light." In stressful moments, many think the "truth" is more important to God than people (and of course the "truth" always seems to fully "agree with me"). Or, many think "the issue" is more important to God than people. Or, many think "the church" is more important to God than people (forgetting that in the New Testament the church is people). Or, "the long established way of doing things" is more important to God than people.
The end result of such thinking is that Christians do some horrible things to people with the justification that they are serving God's purposes. This year has been devoted to a biblical understanding: God has done and continues to do everything He does because of His love for people. His creation was to serve people. His promises to Abraham reflect His love for "all families of the earth." His work through ancient Israel was to reach out to people. (Read Isaiah 46:3, 5, 6.) His work through Jesus' ministry stressed His love for people. Jesus died and rose because of people. The church was established because of God's love for people. The New Testament presents the resurrected Jesus' return as a hopeful event.
When Christians ignore or oppose people, they ignore or oppose God's ancient purpose. The patient God has worked and waited for centuries to achieve the end result of His love for people. The human desire for justice, for hatred, or for abuse of people does not, will not, and cannot accomplish God's purposes.
Mark 2:27,28, Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
In God's purposes, nothing is bigger than people. Nothing is to be evaluated independently of its effect on people. He or she who has the courage to be Jesus' disciple understands people are # 1 in God's priorities.
Nothing stresses the importance of people to God more than the emphasis of 1, 2, and 3 John.
