Love in a Perverse World
Deuteronomy 32:15-21 – New International Version (NIV)
15 Jeshurun grew fat and
kicked;
filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned the God who made them
and rejected the Rock their Savior.
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God—
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your ancestors did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said,
“and see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,
children who are unfaithful.
21 They made me jealous by what is no god
and angered me with their worthless idols.
I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
I will make them angry by a nation that has no
understanding.
Who “abandoned the God who made them” (verse 15)?
How did they make God jealous (verse 16)?
Who did they sacrifice to (verse 17)?
What did they do to “the God who gave” them birth (verse 18)?
What did the Lord do when He “saw this” (verse 19)?
How is the generation described (verse 20)?
What will the Lord do “by those who are not a people” (verse
21)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your
opinion, what does this passage teach us about following God in a perverse
world?
Matthew 17:14-20 - New International
Version (NIV)
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt
before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my
son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls
into the fire or into the water. 16 I
brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long
shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to
me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon,
and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why
couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because
you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as
a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’
and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
What did the man who
approached Jesus do (verse 14)?
Who did the man want Jesus to “have
mercy on” (verse 15)?
What could
the disciples not do (verse 16)?
How does
Jesus describe the generation (verse 17)?
What happened
when “Jesus rebuked the demon” (verse 18)?
Where did the disciples ask Jesus why couldn’t we drive it out” (verse
19)?
How much faith does it take to move a mountain (verse 20)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your
opinion, what does this passage teach us about following God in a perverse
world?
In your
opinion, what does Jesus in Matthew 17:14-20 help us understand about what it
takes to remove ourselves from the perverse generation described in Deuteronomy
32:15-21, the one that He was talking to, and the one that we live in?
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
- New International
Version (NIV)
1 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. 2 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. 3 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.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It
does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does
not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 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. 9 For
we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when
completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 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. 12 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith,
hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
What makes a person who can “speak in the tongues of men or of
angels” into a resounding gong (verse 1)?
What is someone who has “a faith that can move mountains”
but not love (verse 2)?
How much does someone gain if they give everything but “do
not have love” (verse 3)?
What is patient and kind (verse 4)?
In your opinion, how can love not keep a record of wrongs (verse
5)?
What does love rejoice with (verse 6)?
How long does love persevere (verse 7)?
How is love different from prophecies, tongues and
knowledge (verse 8)?
What do we do “in part” (verse 9)?
When are the ways of childhood put behind (verse 11)?
How are we known (by God) (verse 12)?
What is the greatest of “faith, hope and love”
(verse 13)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about
following God in a perverse world?
In your opinion, what does 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 help us
understand about how the relationship with God of the descendants of those
listening to Moses’s song in Deuteronomy 32:15-21 could and abandon God?
In your opinion, how does our understanding of what the
disciples lacked change when we read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 after reading Jesus’s
accurate emphasis on the lack of their faith in Matthew 17:14-20?
Philippians 2:12-18
- New International Version (NIV)
12 Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and :trembling, 13 for
it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good
-purpose.
14 Do
everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that
you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in
a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like
stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of
life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not
run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being
poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming
from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So
you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
What does Paul want
the Philippian Christians to “work out” (verse 12)?
Who works in
Christians “to fulfill his good purpose” (verse 13)?
How does Paul
instruct the Philippians Christians to do “everything” (verse 14)?
What does
Paul recognize about the generation they are living in (verse 15)?
What should
they “hold firmly to” as they shine in that generation (verses 15 and
16)?
How does Paul
feel, even as he is “being poured out like a drink offering” (verse 17)?
How should
the Philippian Christians respond to Paul (verse 18)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about
following God in a perverse world?
In your opinion, what does Moses anticipating the Israelite
people abandoning God in Deuteronomy 32:15-21 help us understand why Paul would
instruct in Philippians 2:12-18 to “continue to work out your salvation”?
In your opinion, how are the generation that Jesus is
talking to in Matthew 17:14-20 and the generation that Christians are living
among in Philippians 2:12-18 connected?
In your opinion, what
does 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 help us understand about what we need to work on to
follow the instructions of Philippians 2:12-18 to “work out your salvation”?
In your
opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Philippians
teach us about not being people of the world?
In
your opinion, how do we grow our faith among a people who have abandoned God today?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
