Print

Study Guide: It’s All About Love

Sunday April 14, 2002 | Greg Boyd


Brief Summary:

Greg has been preaching on passion for the past month as a way of preparing us for the release of this passion of faith through spiritual disciplines and obedience to God in our lives. Today we were reminded that love is the power that validates any act of obedience or discipline that a Christian does. If we don’t have love, nothing else we do can have the impact God wants it to have.


Extended Summary:

Greg has been preaching on passion for the past month as a way of preparing us for the release of this passion of faith through spiritual disciplines and obedience to God in our lives. Today we were reminded that love is the power that validates any act of obedience or discipline that a Christian does. If we don’t have love, nothing else we do can have the impact God wants it to have. In establishing this truth, Greg discussed the goal of creation as the context through which God is able to express perfect love to us. We then acknowledge that love for us, reflect that love back to God and extend it to others. All three of these movements are interrelated and necessarily entail each other. God ascribes infinite worth to us, we ascribe infinite worth back to God and we ascribe infinite worth to each other. The Church is set apart for this task in the world so that the world will see, by the radical contrast the Church should have with the culture, that Christ is the true expression of God’s love for the world. Ultimately this will result in the uniting of all things in Christ. Just as Christ is united with the Father, so we too are united with God in Christ and it is this unity that we invite the world to participate in as we bring the Good News to all people.


Reflection Questions:

  1. Using John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16, write a definition of what “Love” is. What do these two passages have in common in their description of God’s love?
  2. Are we really able to love in the way that God loves? Isn’t that asking too much? Refer to the two “1:4’s” for your answer: Ephesians 1:4 and 2 Peter 1:4.
  3. What are the three movements that God’s love makes with regard to the Christian? (Recall the diagram with the triangles that Greg used during the sermon if you were present at WHC the weekend of 4/13-14/02.)
  4. What did Greg mean when he said: “love is the deal breaker”? Reflect on 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 for the answer.

Print