Sabbath School From Home

What is an apostle, and what does it mean to be called? We open a new season in 1 and 2 Corinthians by sitting with Paul's own answer — which turns out to be surprisingly counterintuitive. His calling isn't grounded in competence or confidence; in 1 Corinthians 2:3 he identifies it with weakness. We explore what it means for Jesus to be not just something Paul thought about often, but the presence...

A season about growing in relationship with God ends not with a method or a programme, but with a recurring cry. Psalm 80 turns out to thread through almost everything we've discussed this season — community vs individual, unanswered prayer, setbacks that arrive despite clear promises, and what honest faith actually sounds like from the inside. The lesson guide even suggests replacing the Psalm's...

"Friendship evangelism" can sound like ulterior-motive friendship, and that discomfort is worth taking seriously. We explore what separates genuine friendly witness from something more cynical, and find an unexpected parallel in international aid: the same sensitivity to context, the same need to avoid condescension, the same openness to learning from the people you're supposedly serving. The diff...

Setbacks don't only happen when you can't see the big picture. Job is a famous example of hardship accompanied by confusion about what God is doing, but we focus a bit on another kind of setback. The stories of Abram and Joseph begin with unusually clear divine promises, and still go sideways for years. God's promises can perhaps be as hard to live with as the setbacks themselves. We explore a thi...

In this episode we look at the themes of repentence and forgiveness.  God tells us in Exodus 20 that he shows love to a thousand generations to those who love him, but also that he does not overlook sin.  In Hosea 6 he describes his justice-inducing words as slaughtering the listener!  Is there a way to see God's grace as the force behind, and present throughout, and the end goal of his calls for...

Romans 7 names the experience precisely: the things I want to do, I don't; the things I don't want to do, I end up doing. We explore how sin, gospel, and law fit together in the practical lived Christian life — and push back on the idea that sin is just human nature indulging in pleasure. A thing isn't sinful because of the magnitude of its consequences; it's sinful because it takes us further fro...

Faith has two sides: the kind that moves mountains, and the kind that endures when the mountain stays put. We explore the idea that faith is a belief held strongly enough to change your actions — and sit with the tension between those two postures. We also push back on the wistful assumption that faith would have come easier in biblical times. The Old Testament can sound like God was vivid and ine...

Unanswered prayer is a genuine part of Christian experience — not a failure of faith. Many of the tidy explanations we reach for turn out to be exactly the arguments Job's friends made, and God doesn't vindicate them. What the lesson largely misses is lament — a legitimate, biblical response to things going badly. Elijah after Mount Carmel is a fascinating case: he prays to die, and God's response...

Prayer is a bit like calling emergency services — in the moment you need it most, technique and philosophy are the last things on your mind. We explore a tension that sits at the heart of how we're taught to pray: 1 John 5:14 seems to say pray according to God's will, yet the persistent widow of Luke 18 is celebrated precisely for refusing to take no for an answer. We land on the Psalms as a model...

Sometimes personal study isn't enough. We explore three stories where genuine biblical insight only emerged in community — the road to Emmaus, Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Jerusalem council with its remarkable conclusion that "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." The lesson has plenty to say about studying and then teaching others, but is quieter about the moments we need to a...

The Bible speaks to each of us today — but how does that actually work?  We land on 2 Timothy 3:15-17 as a solid summary of Scripture's purpose, but spend most of our time exploring the remarkable range of genres the Bible contains (and what that variety itself tells us). Along the way, we push back on the idea that questioning absolute truth means anything goes: a cloud can be rain, shade, a ther...

Pride has a support network.  Luke 18 gives us two characters whose postures before God could hardly be more different, but we explore the broader ecosystem that pride creates — the enablers who gather around it and benefit from it. Seeing that dynamic from a heavenly perspective changes everything.

No one person — or tradition — can fully represent God.  The lesson this week raises the idea that the Bible is the "truest, clearest, and most consistent" revelation of God, but we explore the more subtle ways we construct images of Him that aren't golden calves, yet still fall short. The roles of prophet, priest, and king suggest that even Scripture uses multiple lenses to reveal God's character...

We're starting a new season on the topic of growing in a relationship with God.  There's a lot of great questions in the lesson this week, but we notice an interesting emphasis on us as "Christian  individuals ". The lesson takes Revelation 3 as a context, which is a passage full of messages to churches - so we look for any additional value in asking these questions more broadly.

We revisit the verses about mutuality in relationships that straddle chapter 3 and 4.  Although these were the topic last week, various ensuing conversations have generated a number of comments and new insights worth sharing. We notice in particular that all of the "submission" verses apply universally to followers of Christ! The book of Colossians wraps up with some personal greetings that help r...

It's not easy for us in the 21st century to read Paul asking slaves to submit to their masters.  It is fascinating to realise that his matching remark to slave-owners is that they also have a master. All of the "instructions to submit" that are in the second half of Colossians 3 are more balanced than they first appear, and we are intrigued by the search for modern equivalents to the slave owner s...

The main metaphor framework in this chapter seems perhaps surprisingly violent.  There are passages about "putting to death our bodies", and we notice that some translations are especially hard to understand here. What does it mean to be "dead to this life", and to have a "real life hidden with Christ"? Strikingly, the answer cannot be merely about actions because a number of the sins called out i...

This chapter is beautifully passionate about the way that our completeness is in Christ. Everything that really  matters about us is best expressed in relation to Jesus. A number of contrasts are made, and we identify a rejection of Performative Christianity. There is a lot to ponder in the idea that we have "died with Christ", and the resulting freedom.

This week, we wrap up our look into Colossians 1. From Eugene Peterson’s poetic rendering of scripture to the core idea that "Christ is enough," we explore the life-changing truth that Christ’s presence in us is the foundation of our faith. We discuss the tension between conviction and complacency, and why Paul’s words remind us that our commitment to God isn’t a one-time decision but an ongoing t...

After introductory greetings, the book of Colossians launches into a glorious passages of praise to Christ.  It is widely considered to be a poem or perhaps even early Christian hymn, and we are intrigued by the variety of ways this is typeset in different translations. The most cryptic phrase to our ears is the part about Jesus being "firstborn from the dead", and we discuss the idea of His preem...

The closing chapter of Philippians seems to oscillate between extremely specific remarks and some thoughts that are truly general.  Being separated in time and culture from the first audience, we naturally gravitate towards the grand sweeping statements. Interestingly, the very fact these are abstracted from specific circumstances makes them more (not less) practical. We dwell on the idea of "fixi...

Paul highlights that Christ is our confidence, and makes a vivid contrast with the attitude of confidence in our own human effort.  It is remarkable that the contrast is illustrated not by "worldly" aspirations or desires, but rather by religious adherence. Despite "obeying the law without fault", Paul considers his religious accomplishments to be worthless compared to  knowing Jesus . We explore...

Avoiding "worldly" demands and customs is a long-standing passtime for Adventists and other protestant denominations.  The lesson this week assumes this is the same as Paul's emphasis in Philippians 2 that we should "shine like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people." We explore these verses, and they way they relate to living as agents of God's kingdom. Perhaps the focus on...

The lesson this week explores Unity through Humility.  Philippians 2 builds on the themes of chapter 1 (love, joy, patience) and draws attention to attitudes that can build community. Paul's seems to quote a poem or hymn, outlining Jesus as our example. It is interesting to think of these words in relation to the 12 disciples, as well as directly to the church in Philippi. 

Paul's evaluation of life and death is famous but still surprising.  We explore only a few verses in Philippians 1, but they are enough to stimulate an exploration of how a Christian might "understand" death. The lesson succumbs to a strong temptation to highlight the Adventist understanding of death as an unconscious sleep, although this seems not to be Paul's focus in these verses. We are struck...