Lesson 12: Love and Justice: The Two Greatest Commands (Matthew 5, 19, 22 & 25, Leviticus 19)

Last week the GoBible website was down on most of Friday and Saturday. This was due to errors on my part involving the management of the site. I apologize. Readers know that I work very hard to give you confidence that the lessons will be there when you need them. Now to our new lesson.... Do you know what "justice" means? Most would answer, "Yes," but I'm doubtful about the accuracy of their answers. Right now, I'm in a debate with some very sophisticated people about "justice." They are determined to eliminate discrimination against their race, but are strong advocates for discrimination against other races. That is not justice. We are all guilty of this error to some degree or another. We want the police to ticket the annoying speeder who just passed us on the road. On the other hand, we do not want to be ticketed when we speed. The Bible says much about helping the poor and powerless in society. Is that because God favors the poor and powerless, or because those are the people that society is most likely to abuse? Let's dive into our study of the Bible and see what it says about "justice," and whether that has anything to do with love

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The Current Quarter’s Bible Studies on God's Love and Justice.

Lesson 11
What More Could I Have Done?
(Isaiah 5, Matthew 21, Romans 3)
James 3:10-11 tells us that a spring cannot produce both fresh and salt water. From that James argues that the same mouth cannot produce both blessings and curses. Is James right? Not in my experie...
Lesson 10
Rules of Engagement
(Revelation 12, 1 Corinthians 10, Daniel 10)
In Lesson 7 of this series we discussed how the two trees of Eden and the test of Job were agreed-upon contests between God and Satan. They had "rules of engagement." What does that mean for us? Ar...
Lesson 9
The Cosmic Conflict
(Matthew 4 & 13, Isaiah 14)
Imagine a sports game in which you could not determine who were the teams or the players on the field. Much of the misunderstanding about God comes from this basic ignorance. If there is no God, th...
Lesson 8
Free Will, Love, and Divine P
(Genesis 22, Psalm 81, Hebrews 11, Ephesians 1)
What do you think God's "providence" means? Our recent lessons remind me of a meat slicing machine that I observed as a young man. The machine could make impossibly thin slices. In the last few les...
Lesson 7
The Problem of Evil
(Genesis 1-4, Job 1 & 23, Romans 8)
In American law we call it "negligent supervision." It means the person or company in charge of an area failed to adequately protect those within from harm. The issue arises in the workplace, in sh...
Lesson 6
God’s Love of Justice
(Luke 16, Micah 6, Matthew 5)
Do you trust people in power? Do you think they are unjust? An old saying is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In recent years I have witnessed a lot of injustice among p...
Lesson 5
The Wrath of Divine Love
(Deuteronomy 28, Romans 1, Psalms 78, Jonah 4)
Do you like the idea of a God who shows wrath? I imagine that you love the idea for certain people, but never for yourself. When my mother became old, she retained a healthy body but her mind deter...
Lesson 4
God Is Passionate and Compas
(Psalms 103, Hosea 9, 1 Corinthians 13)
Does God have emotions? The Old Testament often refers to how God is feeling. Do God's emotions affect His judgment? I know people whose judgment is primarily based on emotions, rather than logic, ...
Lesson 3
To Be Pleasing to God
(Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 5, Psalms 149, Mark 9)
What is your attitude about pleasing others? Because I'm a professor, my students want to please me. Because I'm old enough that I don't have to work, I could say that I've had enough of pleasing m...
Lesson 2
Covenantal Love
(Deuteronomy 7, 1 John 4, Matthew 18)
A "covenant" is an agreement. We might call it a "contract" today. For most people, love is "covenantal," meaning that we love those who love us. And we don't love those who do not love us. But is ...
Lesson 1
God Loves Freely
(Matthew 22, Exodus 33, and John 10)
How do you understand the word, "love?" In the West many people have lost all understanding of the words "love" and "hate." When you were dating, did you wonder whether you were in love? After bein...

Emotional Intelligence

Can the Bible help you get promoted at work? Can the Bible increase your pay? Can the Bible help you keep your job? Improve your marriage? The answer is “Yes!” The Bible teaches principles of “emotional intelligence” that can actually help you to be smarter and get along better. Bruce Cameron, the writer of these Bible studies and a law professor, has published a paper written for lawyers which presents 17 Bible-based rules of emotional intelligence which God gave us to improve our lives. Best of all, Professor Cameron’s paper is free and you do not have to be a lawyer to understand it. To get your free copy, first click on this link. Second, when you see the title of the paper (EI, EI, Oh What an Employee), click on the “One-Click Download” and the paper will download to your computer as a PDF. If you have friends who want to read the paper, have them go to the website and download it as well.