August 6, 2023 – John’s Writings – Responding to God’s Love

Responding to God’s Love

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 - New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

What is “not too difficult for you or beyond your reach” (verse 11)?

Why do we not have to ask “who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey it” (verse 12)?

Why do we not have to ask “who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it” (verse 13)?

Where is the word “so that you may obey it” (verse 14)?

What has Moses set before the Hebrew people (verse 15)?

What three things do the Israelites need to do: (verse 16)?

            1)

            2)

            3)

When will the Israelite people “certainly be destroyed” (verses 17 and 18)?

What does Moses instruct the people to choose (verse 19)?

What is the Lord (verse 20)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the most important choice that we make?

John 21:15-19 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

When did Jesus ask Simon Peter “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these” (verse 15)?

How did Peter answer (verse 15)?

What instruction did Jesus give Peter (verse 15)?

How did the question that Jesus ask Peter change (verse 16)?

How did Peter answer (verse 16)?

What instruction did Jesus give Peter (verse 16)?

In your opinion, how did the question that Jesus ask Peter change, even though in English all say “Simon son of John, do you love me” (agapaō and philō in verses 15, 16 and 17)?

How did Peter, who was hurt by the question, respond (verse 17)?

How will Peter’s life change when he is old (verse 18)?

What did Jesus say to Peter (verse 19)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the most important choice that we make?

In your opinion, how does God’s commandment through Moses in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 that the Israelites “love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws” add depth to Jesus’s repeated question to Peter in John 21:15-19?

2 John 3-9 – New International Version (NIV)

³ Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

⁴ It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. ⁶ And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

⁷ I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. ⁹ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 

How will “grace, mercy and peace from God and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son” be with us (verse 3)?

What has given John “great joy” (verse 4)?

What is John “not writing” (verse 5)?

When did we get the command “that we love one another” (verse 5)?

What is love (verse 6)?

How does John describe the “deceivers” (verse 7)?

Where had the “many deceivers” gone (verse 7)?

How can the readers “be rewarded fully” (verse 8)?

Who does not have God (verse 9)?

Who has “both the Father and the Son” (verse 9)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the most important choice that we make?

In your opinion, how is the request in 2 John 3-9 that “we love one another” different from the command in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 that we love the Lord?  Do you think that difference makes it easier or harder to obey?

In your opinion, how would the deceivers that 2 John 3-9 warns of be unable to comprehend the full impact of the question Jesus repeated to Peter in John 21:15-19?

Revelation 22:8-15 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. ⁹ But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”

¹⁰ Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 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.

Who is John (verse 8)?

When did John fall “down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me” (verse 8)?

What did the angel tell John (verse 9)?

How did the angel describe himself (verse 9)?

What instruction did the angel give John (verse 9)?

Why was John told “do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll” (verse 10)?

What is the person who does wrong to “continue to do” (verse 11)?

What will be given to each person (verse 12)?

Who is blessed (verse 14)?

What will the blessed “have the right to” (verse 14)?

Who is outside (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the most important choice that we make?

In your opinion, how does Revelation 22:8-15 help us understand what it means to follow Moses’s instruction from Deuteronomy 30:11-20 to “choose life”?

In your opinion, how does the three times that Jesus ask Peter “do you love me” in John 21:15-19 help us understand the difference between those that Revelation 22:8-15 describes as “blessed” and those described as “dogs”?

In your opinion, how does Revelation 22:8-15 help us understand the reward for those that 2 John 3-9 describes as continuing “in the teaching”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Deuteronomy, John, 2 John and Revelation teach us about the consequence of not choosing God?

In your opinion, how would you answer if Jesus ask you “do you love me”?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

July 10, 2016 – Teachings from the Rock – Loving Deeply

Loving Deeply

1 Kings 17:15-24 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

¹⁷ Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

¹⁹ “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

²² The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. ²³ Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

What was there every day for Elijah, the woman and her family (verse 15)?

Who gave Elijah the word to speak about the jar of flour and the jug of oil (verse 16)?

What happened to the son of the woman who owned the house (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why did the woman think that Elijah had something against her (verse 18)?

Where did Elijah take the woman’s son (verse 19)?

What did Elijah ask the Lord (verse 20)?

Where was Elijah when he cried out “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him” (verse 21)?

In your opinion, why does 1 Kings say “the Lord heard Elijah’s cry” (verse 22)?

What returned to the boy (verse 22)?

How did Elijah respond to the miracle (verse 23)?

In your opinion, why, after the miracle of the jar of flour and jug of oil not emptying, does the woman say to Elijah “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth” (verse 24)?

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

John 21:15-19 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

When did Jesus ask Simon Peter “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these” (verse 15)?

How did Peter respond (verse 15)?

What instruction did Jesus give Peter (verse 15)?

What did Jesus then ask Peter (verse 16)?

How was this answer different from his first answer (verse 16)?

What did Jesus then ask Peter (verse 17)?

How did this make Peter feel (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why does Peter say “Lord, you know all things” (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why does Jesus respond to each of Peter’s assertions that he loves Jesus with a command to “Feed” or “take care of” His lambs or sheep (verses 15, 16 and 17)?

What will happen to Peter when he is old (verse 18)?

What was Peter going to do that “would glorify God” (verse 19)?

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

In your opinion, how is Elijah stretching out on the boy three times and crying out “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him” in 1 Kings 17:15-24 similar to Jesus asking Peter three times if he loves Him in John 21:15-19?

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 speaking “in the tongues of men or of angels” only “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (verse 1)?

In your opinion, what should we learn about love if Paul considers someone who had the “gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” along with a “faith that can move mountains” to be nothing if they do not have love (verse 2)?

What, instead of love, motivated the giver of everything to the poor and the body to hardship in verse 3?

What is love (verse 4)?

What does love not do (verse 5)?

What does love rejoice with (verse 6)?

What does love “always” do (verse 7)?

In your opinion, why does Paul say that prophecies, tongues and knowledge will end but that “love never fails” (verse 8, 9 and 10)?

When did Paul talk, think and reason like a child (verse 11)?

What do we see now (verse 12)?

In your opinion, why is love greater than faith or hope (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, how is Jesus indicating to Peter that he should show his love of Jesus by feeding the lambs, taking care of the sheep and feeding the sheep in John 21:15-19 enriched by Paul’s statements that doing things without love has no value in 1 Corinthians 13?

In your opinion, how does Elijah’s response to the accusation in 1 Kings 17:15-24 that the son was killed because Elijah had something against his mother a demonstration of the power of love that Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 13?

1 Peter 4:7-11 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

What is near (verse 7)?

Why should we “be alert and of sober mind” (verse 7)?

In your opinion, how does love cover “a multitude of sins” (verse 8)?

How should hospitality be offered (verse 9)?

What should each of us use the gift we have received for (verse 10)?

How should the one who speaks speak (verse 11)?

What should we do “with the strength God provides" (verse 11)?

How should God be praised (verses 11)?

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

In your opinion, what are the similarities of the commands of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Peter in 1 Peter 4:7-11?

In your opinion, how do Peter’s comments in 1 Peter 4:7-11 show that he has embraced the requests he received from Jesus in John 21:15-19 when he assured Jesus that he loved Him?

In your opinion, how does Elijah in 1 Kings 17:15-24 demonstrate obedience to what Peter commands in 1 Peter 4:7-11 to be alert and of sober mind so that we can pray and loving each other deeply?

In your opinion, what do these passages, from 1 Kings, John, 1 Corinthians and 1 Peter show us about ourselves today?

Next, back to Peter 4:12 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)