November 1, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Complete Love

Complete Love

Deuteronomy 6:4-12 – New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰ When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Who “is one” (verse 4)?

How is Israel to “love the Lord” (verse 5)?

Where are the commandments to be (verse 6)?

How are they to be impressed on the children (verse 7)?

Where are they to be tied (verse 8)?

In your opinion, why would they be written on the doorframes and gates (verse 9)?

Who had the Lord sworn to that He’d bring the Israelites to “the land” (verse 10)?

What had the Israelites not done in the land (verse 11)?

What were the Israelites not to do (verse 12)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about love?

Matthew 22:34-40 - New International Version (NIV)

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.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Who had Jesus silenced (verse 34)?

What did the Pharisees do (verse 34)?

What was the one who tested Jesus an expert in (verse 35)?

How did Jesus answer the question, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law” (verses 36 and 37)?

How does Jesus describe that commandment (verse 38)?

What is the second commandment (verse 39)?

How do the Law and the Prophets relate to these two commandments (verse 40)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about love?

In your opinion, how does Deuteronomy 6:4-12 help us understand what it means to follow what is the “greatest commandment” in Matthew 22:34-40?

Romans 13:8-10 - New International Version (NIV)

⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

What debt should continue to be outstanding (verse 8)?

Which commandments are “summed up” in the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (verse 9)?

Why is love “the fulfillment of the law” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about love?

In your opinion, how is the instruction to love expanded when Deuteronomy 6:4-12 and Romans 13:8-10 are read together?

In your opinion, how does Romans 13:8-10 help us understand why Jesus said in Matthew 22:34-40 that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”?

1 John 4:7-16 - New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

Where does love come from (verse 7)?

Who does not know God (verse 8)?

How did God show “his love among us” (verse 9)?

What is love (verse 10)?

Why should we “love one another” (verse 11)?

What happens “if we love one another” (verse 12)?

How do we know “that we live in him and he in us” (verse 13)?

What had John seen that he testified to (verse 14)?

Who lives in God (verse 15)?

What do we “know and rely on” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about love?

In your opinion, how does 1 John 4:7-16 help us understand how it is possible for us to be obedient to the command in Deuteronomy 6:4-12 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”?

In your opinion, what does it change when you realize that the One who commands us to love in Matthew 22:34-40 is also the One that “love comes from” in 1 John 4:7-16?

In your opinion, how does the concept that we have a “continuing debt to love one another” in Romans 13:8-10 become more understandable when we consider the description of love in 1 John 4:7-16?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Matthew, Romans, and 1 John teach us about God’s love for us?

In your opinion, how can we respond to God’s love for us today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

October 25, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Our Resurrection

Our Resurrection

Daniel 12:1-4 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. ² Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. ⁴ But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

Who will arise “at that time” (verse 1)?

What will the “multitudes who sleep” awaken to (verse 2)?

Who will “shine like the brightness of the heavens” (verse 3)?

How will “those who lead many to righteousness” shine (verse 3)?

What will people “go here and there” to do (verse 4)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about our resurrection?

Matthew 22:23-33 - New International Version (NIV)

²³ That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. ²⁷ Finally, the woman died. ²⁸ Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

What do the Sadducees “say” (verse 23)?

Who was supposed to marry the widow of a man with no children (verse 24)?

How many brothers married the woman and did not have any children (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, why would the Sadducees ask who would be the widow’s husband “at the resurrection” (verse 28)?

Why were the Sadducees “in error” (verse 29)?

Who will people be like “at the resurrection” (verse 30)?

What had God said “about the resurrection of the dead” (verses 31 and 32)?

Who is God the God of (verse 32)?

What “astonished” the crowds (verse 33)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about our resurrection?

In your opinion, what does Matthew 22:23-33 help us understand about where the knowledge that Daniel 12:1-4 says many will seek can be found?

1 Corinthians 15:35-44 - New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. ³⁹ Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

What will “someone” ask (verse 35)?

When does what is sowed come “to life” (verse 36)?

What is not planted “when you sow” (verse 37)?

Who determines the body that a seed will have (verse 38)?

What is not the same (verse 39)?

How do heavenly bodies and earthly bodies differ (verse 40)?

How is the body that is sown perishable raised (verse 42)?

How is the body that is sown in weakness raised (verse 43)?

How is the body that is sown as a natural body raised (verse 44)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about our resurrection?

In your opinion, what does 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 help us understand about the awakening of those that Daniel 12:1-4 says “sleep in the dust”?

In your opinion, how does 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 help us understand the resurrection that Jesus explained in Matthew 22:23-33?

2 Timothy 2:14-21 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. ¹⁶ Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. ¹⁷ Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸ who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

²⁰ In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. ²¹ Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

What is Timothy to warn “God’s people” about (verse 14)?

What does Paul want Timothy to “correctly” handle (verse 15)?

Who becomes “more and more ungodly” (verse 16)?

What lie are Hymenaeus and Philetus spreading that is destroying “the faith of some” (verse 18?

How does “God’s solid foundation” stand (verse 19)?

What must “everyone who confesses the name of the Lord” do (verse 19)?

How can the uses of articles in a large house be divided (verse 20)?

Who will be “instruments for special purposes” (verse 21)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about our resurrection?

In your opinion, how does 2 Timothy 2:14-21 explain what we need to do to avoid being those who Daniel 12:1-4 says are awakened to “shame and everlasting contempt”?

In your opinion, how is the importance of “God’s solid foundation” demonstrated by the different lies about the resurrection told by the Sadducees in Matthew 22:23-33 and by Hymenaeus and Philetus in 2 Timothy 2:14-2?

In your opinion, does the cleansing to be “instruments for special purposes” that 2 Timothy 2:14-21 talks about only apply to the resurrection body that 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 talks about, or does it also apply to the perishable natural body we have prior to resurrection?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Daniel, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Timothy teach us about the ways that resurrection can be attacked by the world?

In your opinion, how do we present ourselves to God as one approved today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

October 18, 2026 – A Study of Matthew – Living In His Image

Living In His Image

Genesis 1:26-28 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Whose image is mankind made in (verse 26)?

What is mankind to rule over (verse 26)?

Who created mankind, “male and female” (verse 27)?

What did God say to them (verse 28)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living as the image of God?

Matthew 22:15-22 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. ¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Who planned to trap Jesus “in his words” (verse 15)?

How did they say that Jesus “taught the way of God” (verse 16)?

Why did they say that Jesus was not “swayed by others” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, how is the question “is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not” a trap (verse 17)?

What did Jesus know (verse 18)?

What did Jesus want them to show Him (verse 19)?

Whose image was on the coin (verses 20 and 21)?

What were they to give to Caesar (verse 21)?

What were they to give to God (verse 21)?

How did the Pharisees feel about Jesus’s answer (verse 22)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living as the image of God?

In your opinion, what does Genesis 1:26-28 help us understand about what Jesus said should be given to God in Matthew 22:15-22?

Romans 1:18-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

What is “the wrath of God” being revealed against (verse 18)?

How is “the truth” suppressed (verse 18)?

What has been “clearly seen” since the creation of the world (verse 20)?

What happened to people who didn’t glorify God on give Him thanks (verse 21)?

Who “became fools” (verse 22)?

What was the “glory of the immortal God” exchanged for (verse 23)?

What did God give them over to (verse 24)?

What did they worship “rather than the Creator” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living as the image of God?

In your opinion, what do the actions of people in Romans 1:18-25 reveal about their corruption of the instructions in Genesis 1:26-28 “rule over” the living creatures?

In your opinion, what does Romans 1:18-25 help us understand about the Pharisees and Herodians in Matthew 22:15-22?

Revelation 22:11-17 - New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”

¹² “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

¹⁴ “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Who should “continue to do wrong” (verse 11)?

What should the holy person do (verse 11)?

What will Jesus give to “each person” (verse 12)?

What do those who “wash their robes” have the right to (verse 14?

Who is “outside” (verse 15)?

Who is “this testimony” for (verse 16)?

Who is to “take the free gift of the water of life” (verse 17)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living as the image of God?

In your opinion, what does the difference between those who are rewarded and those who are left outside in Revelation 22:11-17 teach us about the “image of God” that people were created in in Genesis 1:26-28?

In your opinion, what does Revelation 22:1-17 help us understand about Jesus’s instruction in Matthew 22:15-22 to give back to “God what is God’s”?

In your opinion, what does Romans 1:18-25 help us understand about the people who Revelation 22:11-17 says are the “dogs” that are outside?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Genesis, Matthew, Romans, and Revelation teach us about the difference between those who give to the world and those who give to God?

In your opinion, how can we be the image of God today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)