Northfield YA

Romans 13 vs 9 and 10 “…’love your neighbour as yourself’. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is fulfillment of the law”.

1 Corinthians 8 vs 1 “…knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”.

Romans 12 vs 9 to 10 “Love must be sincere…be devoted to one another in brotherly love”.

Genesis 9 vs 20 to 23 “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness”. Love covers all.

1 John 4 vs 7 to 9 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love”.

John 15 vs 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do as I command”.

Are you getting the picture?

If you want to know more read 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 14 : 1 as well.

1 Corinthians 12 vs 22 to 26 “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”

If we are the body of Christ we need to unite and treat each other with equal care and concern functioning as a whole. We need to recognise that each function and contribution of the members of the body is important and valuable. What am I contributing to the body? In what areas am I not honouring members of the body?

Romans 14 vs 19 “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification”.

Luke 6 vs 31 to 36 “Do to others as you would have them do to you… But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful”.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that we don’t get to pick and choose who to love but are expected to treat everyone with mercy.

Matthew 25 vs 40 “The king will reply ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’”.

Romans 15 vs 7 “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God”.

Who do you struggle to accept? Jesus never hesitated to accept you.

Read Luke 10 vs 29 to 37. As a background, Northern Israel had been conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BC. The Samaritans were a half-breed nation descended from Assyrians that had the conquered Jewish territories and intermarried with the remaining Jews. Pure bred Jews considered them as unclean and social outcasts. Who in our society are the Samaritans?

The Early Church of Believers in Jerusalem

Acts 2 vs 42 to 47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”.

Study this passage closely and identify how your church or cell group is getting community living right and where they could improve.

John 15 vs 4 and 5 “Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”.

Jesus calls us to all things “in Him”. By this He means that every thing we do should be influenced by our relationship with Him. We can do this by bringing all our relationships into His presence and considering Him as the third person in all our relationships. Jesus suggests that outside of His kingdom we can do nothing. Attempting any relationship without His guidance is bound to be unfruitful.

What steps could you take to make Christ a part of your relationships?

Matthew 7 vs 21 “’Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’”.

Are you just a “pew warmer” or do you really know Jesus? Is He going to recognise you on Judgment Day?

Galations 5 vs 22 to 25 suggests that knowledge of Jesus is evidenced through fruit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Have you put aside your old sinful nature with its passions and desires along with being conceited, provoking and envious of each other.

Micah 6 vs 8 “He has shown you, O man,
what is good.
And what does the Lord
Require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
And to walk humbly
with your God”.

Reflect on your relationship with God. Does your relationship with Him inspire justice, mercy and humble submission to His will? Why not recommit your relationship now.

1 Corinthians 8 vs 3 “But the man who loves God is known by God”.

We are created to be in relationship and we have a longing to be intimately known by those we do life deeply with. What an awesome privilege to know that God knows us more deeply than anyone. He delights in our love that is shown when we seek His kingdom first.

If you want to know more read Psalm 139.

Matthew 6 vs 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you”.

What are your priorities? What do you spend most of your time doing? When faced with a decision or situation do we first consider what God would have us do or do we seek our own purpose?

Paul suggests to the church in Corinth to attempt to “live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord”.

Matthew 22 vs 37 “Jesus replied:’ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’”.