Spiritual Health Check: Is My Love Expanding?
Brian Jennings
Part of Spiritual Health Check
September 12, 2021

September 12, 2021

Communion meditation notes:

Sermon Notes

Mark 12:29-31

“The only thing that matters is faith expressed through love.”

(Galatians 5:6)

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more…”

(Philippians 1:8)

I. Is my love of God expanding?

Love is an action word, not an

Reveal Answer
.

We can’t love God with only

Reveal Answer
of us – we must love God with all of us: our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength!

II. Is my love of those

Reveal Answer
to me expanding?

“Your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” (2 Thessalonians 1:2-4)

III. Is my love of stranger expanding?

Hospitality =

Reveal Answer
of stranger/foreigner

  • Parable of The Good Samaritan

  • Teacher of Law: “Who is my neighbor?”

  • Jesus reframes question: “Who is the good neighbor?”

IV. Is my love of enemy expanding?

  • Sermon on the Mount

We will

Reveal Answer
at having an increasing love until we know that God loves us.

“37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” —Romans 8:37-39

Discussion

  • What are some bad definitions of love?

  • What’s a good definition of love?

  • What’s the difference between loving and pleasing?

  • Why do we sometimes treat the people closest to us the worst?

  • Did you know that “hospitality” means “love of stranger/foreigner?” How does this change how you view the Biblical command?

  • How does Jesus reframe the question asked by the teacher (see the Good Samaritan)? Why is it significant?

  • Why is the loving our enemies so Christlike? So radical? So world-changing?

  • Why does knowing God’s love allow us to love others?

Quotes

Love is doing what is in the best interest of others (in God’s eyes).

Hospitality = Love of stranger/foreigner

Jesus rejected and reframed the Teacher’s question: “Who is my neighbor?”
Instead, he asked: “Who is the good neighbor?”

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