Love

1 · Icebreaker · 7 min

Open the room

What is a small, specific way someone loved you this month that you did not have to earn?

Leader. Concrete and recent. If answers stay abstract (“my family loves me”), ask: “What did they actually do?” Say that passing is allowed, especially the first few weeks.

2 · The word · 8 min

See it, then say it

Definition, from the book

Love is God choosing to give of Himself for our good. It is God’s faithful commitment to rescue and restore. It is seen most clearly in God sending His Son, Jesus, to save sinners.

In the original language

Greek agapē — to love, to delight in, to be well-pleased with.

Memory verse · John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Together, open the flashcard for Love. Say the word, the definition, and the verse once. Then put the phone away.

3 · Open the Bible · 15 min

Hosea 11:1–4, 8–9

The devotion already walked the lost son and John 15:13. Hosea shows the same love from God’s side of a badly failed relationship: a parent who will not hand the child over.

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away… Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms… I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger… for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.

Have two readers if you can. Bibles open. The excerpt is only here so a forgotten Bible does not stop the night.

From the passage

1. 1.What has the child done in this passage, and what does the Father refuse to do?Core

   Leader. The child ran. The Father will not give him up. Love is action against a real offense, not a compliment.

2. 2.Verse 9 says, “I am God and not a man.” How is His love different from the way people usually love when they are hurt?

   Leader. Human love often withdraws or pays back. His love stays holy and stays near.

4 · Around the room · 20 min

A conversation this chapter did not assign

1. 3.Romans 5:8 says God shows His love “while we were still sinners,” not after we improved. How is that a different order from almost every relationship we know?Core

   Leader. We love the responsive. He loves the hostile. Let the room feel the reversal.

2. 4.John 13:1 says Jesus loved His own “to the end,” in the hour they were about to fail Him. What does love look like when you already know the other person will let you down?

   Leader. This is not romance. It is covenant stickiness. Connect it to parents, friends, and the church.

3. 5.If God’s love is a commitment to rescue and not a mood, where are we tempted to measure it by how this month feels?

   Leader. Suffering, silence, unanswered prayer. Do not explain their pain away. Point them back to the cross as the proof, not to their week.

5 · Say it · 5 min

In one sentence

God’s love is God giving Himself for our good, and the clearest place we see it is Jesus on the cross.

Ask for two volunteers, not the whole circle. They may look at the sentence, then try it without looking. Clumsy and true is the goal.

6 · Pray · 8 min

Leave silence between these

1. Praise God for a love that does not wait for us to be worth it.
2. Name, silently, someone you have loved only when they were easy.
3. Ask for that person to meet the Father Hosea describes, and for this group to love more like Him.