Grace, Love, and Fellowship

19/09/2026

Week 13 study guide (PDF)

Read for This Week’s Study

2 Cor. 8:9; Rom. 16:20; 1 John 4:8–11; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 2:1, 2; Gal. 4:4–6.

Memory Text:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV).

Paul closes 2 Corinthians by re-emphasizing essential elements addressed in his letters. He does this through five imperatives (2 Cor. 13:11).

The first imperative, “Rejoice” (ESV), recalls earlier texts in the letters.

The second imperative, “Strive for full restoration” (NIV), translates a single word in Greek (katartizō), which appears here and in 1 Corinthians 1:10.

The third, “Encourage one another” (NIV), resumes 2 Corinthians 1:3–7. Paul begins and closes his second letter with encouragement. We receive God’s encouragement in order to encourage others (2 Cor. 1:4, 6).

The fourth and fifth imperatives, “Be of one mind, live in peace” (2 Cor. 13:11, NKJV), are a call to unity. This atmosphere of joy, restoration, encouragement, unity, and peace is the condition for the presence of God, “the God of love and peace” (2 Cor. 13:11, ESV). It results from our triune God’s work in the human heart (2 Cor. 13:14).

Grace, love, and fellowship result from the work of the triune God for us. These three Christian features promote an atmosphere characterized by God’s presence.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 26.

Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

The sum and substance of the whole matter of Christian grace and experience is contained in believing on Christ, in knowing God and His Son whom He hath sent. But here is where many fail, for they lack faith in God. Instead of desiring to be brought into fellowship with Christ in His self-denial and humiliation, they are ever seeking for the supremacy of self. . . . O if we did but appreciate the love of God, how our hearts would be expanded, our limited sympathies would be enlarged, and break away from the icy barriers of selfishness, and our comprehension would be deeper than it now is. . . .
It is because we do not know God, we do not have faith in Christ, that we are not deeply impressed with the humiliation He endured in our behalf, that His abasement does not lead us to the humbling of self, to the exalting of Jesus. . . . O if you loved Him as He has loved you, you would not shun an experience in the dark chapters of the suffering of the Son of God!
In order to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings, we must behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. When we contemplate the humiliation of Christ, beholding His self-denial and self-sacrifice, we are filled with amazement at the manifestation of divine love for guilty man. When for Christ’s sake we are called to pass through trials that are of a humiliating nature, if we have the mind of Christ we shall suffer them with meekness, not resenting injury, or resisting evil. We shall manifest the spirit that dwelt in Christ. . . . We are to understand what the sacrifice, the labors, and the sufferings of Christ are, in order that we may cooperate with Him in working out the great scheme of redemption.—That I May Know Him, p. 104.

The church is a Christian society formed for the members composing it, that each member may enjoy the assistance of all the graces and talents of the other members, and the working of God upon them, according to their several gifts and abilities. The church is united in the holy bonds of fellowship in order that each member may be benefited by the influence of the other. All are to bind themselves to the covenant of love and harmony. The Christian principles and graces of the whole society of believers are to gather strength and force in harmonious action. Each believer is to be benefited and improved by the refining and transforming influence of the varied capabilities of the other members, that the things lacking in one may be more abundantly displayed in another. All the members are to draw together, that the church may become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
The covenant of agreement in church membership is that each member would walk in the footsteps of Christ, that all will take His yoke upon them, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart. Doing this, “Ye shall,” saith the dear Saviour, “find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29, 30).
Those who wear Christ’s yoke will draw together. They will cultivate sympathy and forbearance, and in holy emulation will strive to show to others the tender sympathy and love of which they feel such great need themselves. He who is weak and inexperienced, although he is weak, may be strengthened by the more hopeful and by those of mature experience. Although the least of all, he is a stone that must shine in the building. He is a vital member of the organized body, united to Christ, the living head, and through Christ identified with all the excellencies of Christ’s character so that the Saviour is not ashamed to call him brother. . . . A church, separate and distinct from the world, is in the estimation of heaven the greatest object in all the earth. . . . The church is to be as God designed it should be, a representative of God’s family in another world.—Lift Him Up, p. 295.