Tag: Bruce Johanson

The Fruit of the Spirit Is Truth

• Lesson 12 for the week of March 13 to March 20

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Leading Question: How certain can we be that we have the truth? 1. Jesus is the way to truth; he is truth: John 14:6. How does the truth in Jesus relate to all the rest...

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Righteousness

• Lesson 11 for the week of March 6 to March 13

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Leading Question: Is obedience to the law ever a means of gaining favor with God? 1. Gratitude is the key word: Deut. 4:5-8. If defined in terms of its purpose, God’s law was intended as...

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Self-Control

• Lesson 10 for the week of February 27 to March 6

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Leading Question: To what extent does self-control simply flow from a changed heart, or does it involve blood, sweat and tears as we grapple with temptations, passions and people who irritate us? 1. Two stories:...

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Meekness

• Lesson 9 for the week of February 20 to February 27

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Leading Question: When Paul asked the Corinthian believers if he should come to them with a stick or with love in a spirit of gentleness (1 Cor. 4:21), how did he expect to find the...

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Faithfulness

• Lesson 8 for the week of February 13 to February 20

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Leading Question: What is it that inspires us and enables us to be faithful to people, to God? “Saving” faith is a gift of God. But the result of God’s gifts in our life is...

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The Fruit of the Spirit Is Goodness

• Lesson 7 for the week of February 6 to February 13

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Leading Question: How can God expect good things from people who are bad? When we talk about “goodness” under the heading of “fruit of the Spirit,” several tantalizing paradoxes emerge. We can address these under...

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John’s Letter to the Chosen Lady

• Lesson 12 for the week of September 11 to September 19

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Observations for discussion and questions: The text of 2 John has been translated directly from the Greek in order to get a more literal rendition. Notice that the same sort of style regarding densities of...

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Important Themes in First John

• Lesson 11 for the week of September 5 to September 12

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Observations for discussion and questions: The Godhead: The clearest examples of triadic formulation of the Godhead are found in Matt 28:19 and 2 Cor 3:14, but even there we do not have any attempt to...

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Confidence

• Lesson 10 for the week of August 29 to September 5

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Observations for discussion and questions: The overall unity of this passage may be seen in the density of recurrences of the clause we know that. The subunit of 5:14-17 defined by the recurrences of the...

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Believing in the Son of God

• Lesson 9 for the week of August 22 to August 29

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Observations for discussion and questions: The following passage as a whole is delimited by three recurrences of belief in relation to Jesus: who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (5:5), who believes in...

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Walking in the Light: Keeping His Commandments

• Lesson 4 for the week of August 18 to July 25

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Observations for discussion and questions: Here again we see John ministering to a community that are suffering from the impact of the schism he mentions later in this chapter. He gives them tests both as...

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Loving Brothers and Sisters

• Lesson 8 for the week of August 15 to August 22

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Observations for discussion and questions: The topic of this lesson focuses on two major passages, 1 John 3:11-24 and 1 John 4:7-5:4. 1 John 3:11-24 is carefully structured by the overall recurrences of we should...

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Living as Children of God

• Lesson 7 for the week of August 8 to August 15

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Observations for discussion and questions: The overall unity of 1 John 2:28-3:10 is supported by the recurrences of manifested, everyone, who does/does not do right, children of God, born of him/God. The subsections are demarcated...

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Walking in the Light: Rejecting Antichrists

• Lesson 6 for the week of August 1 to August 8

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Observations for discussion and questions: The principle occasion for the writing of 1 John was most likely a serious schism of the Johannine community over teaching about Christ. There are two well defined passages that...

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