Icebreaker

What is the best pizza topping combination ever?

Recap

This week we are finishing up our series explaining the reality that we can love because God first loved us. Week 1 we learned that if we want to love well we first have to experience God’s love for us. In Week 2 we learned what it looks like to love the Lord with all our heart, our soul, and our mind. Last week, we explored how to love our neighbor as ourselves. To wrap up this series, we are exploring the final commandment Jesus gave during the Last Supper: to love each other within the Kingdom Family, to love other Christians, and why it is so important to the faith of the world. 

Scripture Reference

John 13-17; John 13:33-34; John 15:12-13, 17; John 17:11, 20-23; Luke 9:51-56

Focus Questions

Read each of the Scripture passages referenced above out loud, one at a time. What did each passage say? What did you hear? Try to repeat what you heard. (Others in your group can help you along the way.) 

1. What does this passage tell us about God, Jesus, or his plan?

1. What does this passage tell me about people?

1. What does this passage tell me about myself? What am I doing well? What do I need to change? If this is God’s word for my life, how will I obey it?

1. Who needs to hear this story, and how can I tell them? Who am I going to tell?

Send Out 

Read John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

1. If Jesus is talking to His disciples, how does this pertain to you?
2. If you were to describe what this verse says about love in one word, what would it be?
3. Notice Christ says this is a “New Commandment.” How is it different from the commandment in Leviticus 19:18?

Why is loving other Christians sometimes harder than loving nonbelievers?

How does the Bible tell us to love other Christians? 

1. James 1:19 
2. Acts 10:28, 34-36

If the world’s future faith rests on how we love each other within the larger Church Body, how well are you doing your part?

1. What are some opinions you have about other denominations or churches that get in your way of loving them? Are these opinions you came to on your own, or were they learned from others?
2. Is it okay to love believers that make big mistakes? What about loving a denomination that doesn’t believe everything you do?

Five “Majors” were identified during this sermon that Christians should be focused on to help us love other Christians well. These are:

1. What is the Word of God?
2. Who is God?
3. Who is Jesus?
4. Who is the Holy Spirit?
5. How does one experience salvation?

The “minors” – those things salvation does not rest on – are the things that tend to divide the Kingdom Family. What are some of these minors? 

As humans, we tend to look at others and judge the things they say and do. Perhaps it is time to seriously consider if we as Christians have spent enough time with Jesus to know how we should treat each other. This week, what will you be doing about loving other believers?