1 Corinthians 7 Lesson

SHOWING OUR LOVE FOR JESUS

How do we show Jesus that we love Him? 

That is an important question, and the answer is found in the Bible.

Jesus said:

• “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” – John 14:15.

In this scripture from the Gospel of John, Jesus makes it clear that we show our love for Him by learning and trying to keep His commandments.

This can be difficult to do in a world that is ruled by Satan.

But we must try.

The character is in the trying!

Others, such as the Apostle Paul, and King Solomon, weighed in on the importance of keeping God’s commandments.

Consider the following two scriptures:

1. “What matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” –1 Corinthians 7:19,
2. “The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13.

As Christians, we were created to do two things:

1. Glorify God,
2. Serve others.

WE NEED TO LEARN GOD’S COMMANDMENTS TO KEEP THEM

It stands to reason that we cannot keep God’s commandments if we do not know what they are. And the only way to do that is by reading the Bible.

Fortunately, for us, reading the Bible is easier than ever!

THE BIBLE IS ACCESSIBLE IN MORE WAYS THAN EVER BEFORE

According to wordsrated.com, there are more than 100 million Bibles printed each year, and there are an estimated 6 billion Bibles currently in print.

Digital applications like virtualbiblestudy.com give us access to hundreds of lessons on virtually any topic we need to learn about. 

As more people convert from paper books to digital media, we have everything that we need to learn God’s commandments at the click of a button.

These are not requests, they are commandments, and they come from God.

The question is, will we put our time in to learn what His commandments are?

And once we learn them, will we humble ourselves enough to keep them?

LEARNING THE BIBLE

The Bible is so much more than just an interesting book.

It is:

1. The inspired Word of God,
2. Our moral compass,
3. Our “true north.”

Once we understand this, our lives should be forever changed!

And if we submit ourselves to doing what God wants, as opposed to what we want, it will be!

Jesus was constantly searching the scriptures during His time on earth. When He faced adversity, He looked to His Father’s inspired Words to shape His actions.

Perhaps the best example of this is the three temptations of Jesus.

TEMPTATION #1

• “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.  And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”  - Luke 4:1-4.

TEMPTATION #2

• And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” - Luke 4:5-8.

TEMPTATION #3

• And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”   And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”   When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” – Luke 4:9-13.

THREE THINGS JESUS DID WHEN TEMPTED BY SATAN

Jesus had a common response to all three temptations. 

Each time Jesus was tempted, He did these three things:

1. He applied scripture,
2. He allowed the Spirit to work in His life,
3. He resisted the devil, and the devil fled from Him.

These are the same techniques that we are to follow in our lives.  

We will look at them one at a time, and then the lesson will be yours.

APPLYING THE CORRECT SCRIPTURE

The temptations of Jesus were all different. 

• One involved food,
• Another involved power
• The third involved glory.  

In each of these situations, Jesus applied the correct scripture and let the word of God shape His actions.  

And that is why studying the Bible is so important to our salvation!  

If we do not know what the scriptures say, how can we possibly apply them?  

Paul wrote to Timothy:

• “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” – 2 Timothy 2:15.

Being a Christian is not a passive thing.  

There is work to be done, and the work can be divided into two areas:

1. Learning what God’s commandments are,
2. Acting based on what we learn in the Bible.

BE AWARE OF OUTSIDE INFLUENCES

If God’s voice were the only voice that we heard, it might be easier to avoid temptation and sin. 

But that is not the case! 

We live in a world that is constantly telling us that we “need” something.   

The world promotes things like:

• Wealth,
• Power,
• Success,
• And prestige.

And whether we want to be or not, we are all influenced by what we see and hear.  If we are not careful, it is easy to fall victim to the influences of others, including peer pressure.

The acronym, “S.N.I.O.P.” stands for:

• Susceptible to the
• Negative
• Influence of 
• Other pe ople.

One of the biggest influencers in the world today is social media. 

According to Smart Insights:

• “58.4% of the world's population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 minutes.”

That is a lot of influence pulling us in the direction of the world and away from God. 

BE WILLING TO SACRIFICE

When we make the decision to follow Jesus, we make a commitment to live life differently than we have in the past.  Instead of living to satisfy our own desires and ambitions, we live to serve others and to glorify God. 

Jesus said:

• “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” – Luke 9:23.

In other words, we no longer just do whatever we want to do.  Instead, we do what the Bible teaches us to do, what God wants us to do.

CONCLUSION 

The best way to show Jesus how much we love Him is to keep His commandments. 

To do this, we must commit ourselves to regular Bible study and apply what we have learned. 

As our knowledge of the Bible increases, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, our focus will shift from our own selfish desires to serving others and glorifying God. 

This will give our lives a new sense of purpose.

We will end today’s study with the following scripture:

• “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”- John 14:23.