These pages are designed for use to aid discipleship among Christians through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or for meeting one to one.  If you wish, you could use the questions, while leaving the group to choose their own translation of the Bible.

Live God’s Love

Those who are loved have something in them to give.  We pass on to others the love of God  we have received from Him.  This passing on of love puts us at risk and our faith is stretched in doing it, however by it we receive more of His love.

The expression of love for others is usually not that complicated in general terms, the challenge comes when we move to the specific.  There we meet people who are unlovely.  It costs to express love to respond with anger and hate.  It can be a challenge to hold back from taking the easy way, when no one will notice and we gain some advantage.  Yet this is the kind of love the Lord calls us to.  Love Expressed

When we look upon the Lord, He is not just some spiritual person in heaven, He is also Lord of all on earth.  He gives and He takes away.  If I really believe this, then I can be content with what He has given to me and not covet what He has given to others.  Having such peace in our hearts makes us trustworthy to be around.  So, do not covet.

How we handle possessions and especially money are really good indicators of how we are with God.  Do we trust Him that everything that we have is from Him, for Him to pass on to others, or to give us more.  Are we able to be generous with what He has entrusted to us, are we able to keep our fingers off what He has entrusted to others?  Do not steel.

An indicator of where we stand with God is how we handle people.  Do our actions hurt people and pull them down, or do they build people up and encourage them?  When we hurt others we can push them down a road that leads to spiritual death.  Love is key and how we express it can help people to really live.  Don’t hurt others.

We tell the truth, even though it is might hurt us in the short term.  We need to learn to trust God for the consequences.  We will discover that in the long term it is actually better.  Even with the difficulties that we face, He is able to bring us through the anger we fear, or the judgement we feel from others.  Honesty.

One subject that can test our honesty is when people ask us questions that are going to lead into a discussion about our faith.  This is an important place to learn to speak freely.  We will discover the great joy of seeing others ponder the great things that the Lord has brought into our lives.  We need to trust our Lord that He can carry the consequences I our relationships with others.  Witness.

Other people may not live up to the way God intends.  Their failure may hurt us.  When we are hurt we have a way of inflicting pain on others.  For this reason, as the Lord has forgiven us, so we need to learn to forgive others.

The Lord puts people in places of relationship with others.  Many of  these places are places of authority.  We might be in authority in some relationships and under authority in others.  This authority is not a human concept, but something that the Lord created from the beginning.  We need therefore to respect authority.

An area where relationships are explored is how we relate to the opposite sex.  Marriage is another relationship that was initiated from the beginning.  The Lord took something from the man to make the woman, and so there is a drive to be together.  The appropriate end of this drive is marriage.  Marriage.

Since the drive to be together exists, there is a constant temptation to handle the drive in an inappropriate way, leading to sex outside marriage.