On Mission with Jesus: Loving Your Neighbour

Icebreaker:  How do you get on with your neighbours (the people you live next door to or in close proximity with).  Do you have a good relationship with them, or has there been conflict?  What about in the past?

Worship:  Spend some time praising God for his incredible love, recognising that he deeply loves those around you that you find it hard to even like!  Thank him for the goodness, grace and forgiveness that he has shown to you. 

Bible Study: Read Luke 10:25-37

1.     How did the expert in the law want Jesus to answer him when he asked him ‘Who is my neighbour?’  How did Jesus answer him?

2.     How was the man’s heart revealed to him through the parable Jesus  told?

3.     What is mercy?  How did the Samaritan display mercy?

4.     What groups today have this kind of tension between them?  Do you have a group of people with whom you have difficulties?

5.     Can you give an example of a ‘neighbour’ that God has put in your path that you would rather have avoided?

6.     Have you shown mercy to the poor, the marginalised or the excluded in society, or in church recently?

7.     Who do you find it easier to identify with, the samaritan or the injured man? 

8.     How has Jesus met you in your most vulnerable times?

End your session in prayer.  

Pray for each other.  Thank God for his goodness, and ask the Holy Spirit to stir in us as a church the knowledge of His abundant love for us, so that we might overcome the conscious and unconscious biases that stop us from showing love to all our neighbours.