Sunday Scripture

 

 Again this Sunday, I'm sharing from the Made for Community reading plan from Love God Greatly that I worked on back in 2015.  With this study, as I have often done, I used the SOAP method of Bible study.  Just a quick reminder that the S is for Scripture, O is for Observation, A is for Application and P is for Prayer.  The seventh section is Living in Community in Our World.  So here we go with the Scripture for the first day of that section.

S= "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  (John 3:16-17)

O= These verses are part of a conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to him by night with questions.  After explaining that a man will not see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, Jesus goes on to tell why He came to earth -- that God loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for their sins.  Whoever truly believes in Jesus will not perish, but will have eternal life.  

C.I. Scofield notes that "belief, in the New Testament, denotes more than intellectual assent to a fact.  The Greek word [pisteuo] means adherence to, committal to, faith in, reliance upon, trust in, a person or an object, and this involves not only the consent of the mind, but an act of the heart and will of the subject ... 'whosoever trusts in or commits himself to Him'."

Verse 17 tells us that:
* God didn't send Jesus into the world to condemn the world;
* God sent Jesus so that through Him, the world might be saved.

A= Verse 16 is an oft-quoted Bible verse that many people have memorized.  Yet many of those who recite it so glibly haven't personally applied it.  Intellectually, they believe in Jesus, but they are not truly saved.  

I need to be sure I am telling others of God's love for the world, and just why He sent Jesus.  I also need to make sure they go beyond intellectual assent to true belief.

P= "Lord, I am so thankful that You sent Your Son Jesus into the world so that we might be saved from sin and have everlasting life.  I thank You for drawing me to You.  I pray that You will help me to be faithfully sharing that Good News with others so that they also may trust Jesus as Savior.  I praise You for the opportunities You will give.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

There is the simple study for this week.  I would love it if, one of these weeks, someone else studies out the Scripture with the SOAP methods and shares their thoughts.  It would be interesting to compare notes!