What person, or type of person, do you find it difficult to like or love?
1 Corinthians 13 says If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love
What Paul is saying here is that without love our Christian lives amount to nothing. Jesus said “Love one another . As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35)
It is difficult to love those who have hurt us deeply. Going back to Saul and David, Saul slandered and falsely accused David. He hated and feared him because God had anointed David to become king in his place. Trying to protect his power and position Saul would keep on trying to kill David. Look at 1 Samuel 24 and let us see what David’s response was.
If you were in David’s position might you have been tempted to kill Saul?
Why do you think David was “conscience-stricken” after cutting Saul’s robe?
How can viewing our enemy from god’s perspective enable us to have a change of heart like David’s?
How can this situation help us to understand to love more freely? How is David’s understanding help set him free to love his enemy?
What kind of effect did David’s actions have on Saul?
The person we identified in the beginning, why is it hard to act lovingly toward them?
What practical steps can we take to serve God’s love to the person identified?
Read Luke 10:25-37
What instructions does Jesus give about loving our neighbors through the parable of the Good Samaritan?
i really needed this today thank you
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