Shine

Study Guide

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is the point. Some of us are so busy working for the Kingdom that we forget to sit down with our Creator, to remember how small we are, how big He is, and just how much He loves us. God’s love is a personal love; it is for you.

When we experience this type of unconditional love, we will shine. That is the Church: a light in a dark world.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sit down in God’s love. Jesus will give us His light yoke in exchange for our heavy yokes filled with shame, regret, and guilt. God is with you through every mountaintop and every valley. We need Him! It is very much worth it to take a few minutes to sit down with God every day.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

We, the Church, are a people who were saved by Jesus while we were still sinners so that we could be a shining light, a city on a hill. We don’t always act like it and end up dividing ourselves, but we are all the Church. What unites us is that we have been touched by the love of God.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

The cross Jesus died on was each of ours. We deserved it, not Him. Jesus gives us the opportunity to experience true love and grace. Together we are a shining beacon of hope in our dark world.

Group Questions

• Read the rest of 1 Corinthians 13 together. What stands out to you in this chapter about God’s love?
• As the Church, we are to shine to the world with the love of God. What does that actually look like?
• What does it mean to “sit down” in God’s love?
• How can you know that God’s love is personal?

Prayer

Thank you for your amazing, unconditional love. Let us shine your love to the world, and love people the way you love them.