Lesson 1 For Sabbath April 3, 1999
Created in the image of God
Deeper study tip: If you find a question too deep,
skip it — but come back to it later.
You may have greater understanding
when you come back to it.
    THIS WEEK'S MEMORY VERSE:
    Try to memorise Gen 1:27 in your favorite translation     Bible Search    Lesson Index   

  1. Write down what the memory verse means to you now. Then after you complete the week's lesson, come back to this question and write down how your understanding of the verse has grown.

  2. How many different ways are we created in God's image? What are they?

  3. Do we as humans really know what it means to be "created in God's image"? Why/why not?

  4. It is not generally realised that this memory text was originally written in Hebrew poetry (where the lines repeat the thoughts). Write write out the verse and try to break it into its poetic lines of repeating thoughts.

    CREATED TO LOOK LIKE GOD — Sunday

  5. What did Jesus actually mean when he said, "Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father?" (John 14:9) Write down as many different alternative meanings as possible, then select the meaning or meanings you think are most likely.

    CREATED TO THINK LIKE GOD — Monday

  6. The lesson quotes Education pages 17-18: "Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator -- individuality, power to think and to do." What is this individuality? Does it conflict with calls for unity in the church? Are individuality and unity opposites, or the same thing? Does true individuality create unity? Explain your answer.

    CREATED TO REFLECT GOD — Tuesday

  7. 1 Peter 1:16 and Leviticus 11:44 say, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Is what this verse tells us to do possible? If so, how? If not, why did God give us a command we cannot obey? How do other translations render this passage? Do these different translations change what you think of this statement? How?

    CREATED TO BE LIKE GOD — Wednesday

  8. The KJV of Matthew 5:48 says, "Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." When that was translated almost 400 years ago, the word "perfect" meant "complete." What meaning, then, were the KJV translators trying to give this verse? How does the word "therefore" help us interpret the verse? How does the Luke 6:36 wording of this verse (at the end of the same story) shed light on the meaning of this verse? Consider this translation of the verse: "So include everyone, as your heavenly Father includes everyone." Does it clarify the meaning, or obscure it?

    THE IMAGE BROKEN — Thursday

  9. What do you see are three of the worst ways that the entrance of sin changed humanity? Why do you select these three?

  10. What do you think of the verse, "No one shall pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28)?

    Don't forget to return to question 1.


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