WEEK THREE – FINAL THOUGHTS
Insights on Practicing Love: Matthew 22: 34-40 (NIV)
(As a reference, this passage is repeated at the end of this section.)
NOTE TO GROUP LEADER: This is the final week on Insights on Practicing Love. It is a time for personal reflection and to share our overall sense of the experience with the Good Samaritan… to allow the group to consider if this event and this discussion have affected our lives and how we live from day to day. Allow the discussion to flow freely so that the individuals in the group feel that they have been heard. Try to ensure that all members of the group have had an opportunity to share their thoughts. Do not insist that a person share but offer him or her the opportunity. The closing reflection and prayer may be read by the Group Leader, or one or two members of the group may be asked to read aloud. (Items needed: Closing Reflection, Discussion Questions, Closing song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2rpVd5Lwo
You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor
Closing Reflection and Prayer:
Corinthians 13 says that I could be the greatest, the best, the most talented and gifted person in the world that can move mountains, but, if I “have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal… I am nothing.” If I give all to the poor and surrender myself totally and if I don’t have love, “I gain nothing.” Love is the foundation of who we are and how we live our lives. It is the greatest gift we can give and the greatest gift we can receive.
But, what is love?
Corinthians 13 explains it this way: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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.”
I have to reflect on each of these characteristics. Does God really expect me to love like that?! Doesn’t he know that I’m a sinner. I’m weak and selfish. And, right now, I’m focusing on my pain, my problems, my losses. How could I possibly even begin to love like that?!”
Admittedly, it’s challenging. How can I be patient when I feel deserted and alone? How can I be kind when I feel others disregard my pain and my needs? How can I remain calm when the whole world seems to be turning away from all that I believed was good. How can I rejoice in truth when it seems that truth is lost in the confusion of defining who we are as a human beings? How can I persevere when I am tired and weak?
Love is at the center of who we are and what we do, but, in practice, it is one simple act, one simple genuine gesture, at a time. When we wake up, let us begin with taking a deep, cleansing breath and thanking the Lord for the gift of breath and life. We are here today because God has a purpose for us. It may be simply to allow others to care for us, to allow them to grow in their humanity and to give love. Or, God has another purpose. Perhaps, we should take the time to show our appreciation of others who surround us. To smile. To celebrate their presence rather than gossip about them or reject them. To forgive. To provide a word of encouragement or wisdom based on our own experiences. To enrich the other with our joy, our experiences, our insights. These things we can do. This is love.
As we share our love through our actions with someone around us, we uplift them. No matter where we are on our life journey, no matter how we feel, no matter what suffering we are enduring, there’s always room for love, there’s always a way to show and share our love … and, when we show our love to our neighbor, we are sharing that love with God.
With practice, we will begin to build that arsenal of love within us. And, perhaps, one day, we too, when faced with challenges, can do as Christ did. As John 15:13 says, “greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Let us pray:
Dearest Lord,
You ask me to love the Lord, my God, with my whole heart, …
You ask me to love my neighbor as myself…
It’s not always easy, you know,
Like you, I have been hurt,
Sometimes I feel abandoned and alone,
I feel that no one cares, no one remembers me.
I am bitter. I am hurt.
But you say to love – to be patient, to be kind, not to judge
To be gentle, to persevere,
to open my heart to others… and to you.
Help me. I want to celebrate the joy of love.
I want to learn to accept the love that is given to me.
I want to give that love. I want to see smiles of love around me.
I want to share those same smiles.
Give me the courage to try, to open myself to love,
to embrace the other with love in my heart.
You are my teacher, my mentor,
You laid down your life because you loved us.
Help me to lay down my life for others as you did for us.
Help me to see you in those around me – whether I feel they accept me or not.
Help me realize that sometimes I feel rejection when none is there.
Help me to realize that sometimes that feeling of rejection
comes from my own feelings of insecurity.
Help me put those feelings aside and focus on my love for others.
I know that if I do that,
I will experience a greater feeling of being loved.
I’m ready, Lord. Start working within me.
Teach me to accept love.Teach me to love.
Amen.
Closing song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2rpVd5Lwo
You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor
There are many people, who will say they’re Christians
And they live like Christians on the Sabbath day
But come Monday morning, till the coming Sunday
They will fight their neighbor all along the way
Oh you don’t love God
If you don’t love your neighbor
If you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
If he gets into trouble, and you don’t try to help him
Then you don’t love your neighbor
And you don’t love God
In the holy Bible, in the book of Matthew
Read the 18th chapter in the 21st verse
Jesus plainly tells us that we must have mercy
There’s a special warning in the 35th verse
Oh you don’t love God
If you don’t love your neighbor
If you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
If he gets into trouble, and you don’t try to help him
Then you don’t love your neighbor
And you don’t love God
There’s a God Almighty, and you’ve got to love him
If you want salvation and a home on high
If you say you love him while you hate your neighbor
Then you don’t have religion, you just told a lie
Oh you don’t love God
If you don’t love your neighbor
If you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
If he gets into trouble, and you don’t try to help him
Then you don’t love your neighbor
And you don’t love God
Oh you don’t love God
If you don’t love your neighbor
If you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
If he gets into trouble, and you don’t try to help him
Then you don’t love your neighbor
And you don’t love god
Then you don’t love your neighbor
And you don’t love god
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Shorty Sullivan / Thomas Coley
You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Closing discussion questions:
- What thoughts did you have as you read the final reflection? Can you identify with some of these thoughts and explain why?
- What thoughts did you have as you heard the closing song?
- What does “love” mean for you?
- What are some ways we can show love of God?
- What are some ways we can show love of neighbor?
- For personal contemplation: What are some things that I have done recently which reject God and/or reject my neighbor?
- Without necessarily sharing the action from question six, when I rejected God or my neighbor, how did it make me feel? How do you think it made the other person/s feel? What was the result of your actions?
- What could you have done differently to change the results?
- What is the overall message that Jesus is giving to us today?
- Reflect on the last three weeks of bible study. Share your spiritual and emotional journey. What questions did you have? What concerns did you address? Did you gain any insights or have questions answered?
- Closing Question for “Insights on Practicing Love”: Have these three weeks of Bible Study given you any sense of wellness, a sense of hope? If so, how? If not, why not?
NOTE TO GROUP LEADER: At the end of the session, you may want to allow the group to have a few moments for open commentary and thoughts about the session and what it may have meant for them.
Matthew 22: 34-40 (NIV)
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”