Description:
This five-lesson study guide examines the five commands given by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, and how we can learn to enact them in our lives on a daily basis.
Message from Marsh: “May your personal walk with the Lord lead you to be transformed, renewed, and blessed.”
Marsh
Founder/President
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Five Challenges for Men
Lesson 5 – Do Everything In Love
(www.mensgroup.org – “Original Study”)
Lesson Focus: Help us to understand that agape love is key and baseline for all believers. Although there are four commands by Paul previous to this command to love, we are to operate always out of love in all we do.
“Blessings on each one of you who have studied with us through this series. Integrate these five statements into your memory then out through your heart and hands and you will be blessed.” –C. Marsh Bull
Starting Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to dive deep into our hearts to see your love for us and help us to spread it within our church, neighborhood, and out to unbelievers in our world. Fill us with your love every day.
Opening Questions:
1. “Agape” love is the highest form of love, which is pure, holy, and totally dedicated to the object of the love. Who would you say “agape” loves you?
2. When was the last time, outside of your family, that you told someone else you “agape” loved them?
Scripture Passage: “Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14)
Story: Jesus will be crucified on a cross the next day, and yet he spent the evening with his disciples. He promised them the Holy Spirit would be with them soon. He confirmed himself as the vine with all of them being the branches. He helped them see how great his love for them was when he said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” (John 15:9). That’s a powerful love.
Then, he gave them a commandment in addition to the Ten Commandments, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13)
Challenge Explanation:
The four proceeding commands of 1 Corinthians 16:13 were directed against the Corinthians’ carelessness, capriciousness, childishness, and moral weakness. From this platform, Paul presents his fifth and last command.
This challenge to “do everything in love” meant the church was to participate in the results of the action, they were to love each other. “Everything” is an all-inclusive word that leaves no permission where love does not have to be shown.
The second powerful word in this command is love. In English, we have one word for love. But in the Greek language, there are three: eros (sexual love), phileo (brotherly love), and agape (the highest form of love, which is pure, holy, and totally dedicated to the object of the love). Paul is saying let everything you do be wrapped in the highest form of love, “agape.”
Just three chapters earlier, Paul wrote defining the content of love. The last verse of that chapter captures Paul’s final point. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) Why is love the greatest of the three? Simply put, faith will one day become sight for we shall see Christ as he is. Hope is not wishful thinking but deferred waiting for the promises of God to become a reality in the future. Yet, love is the greatest because it will continue, otherwise, we would not be able to spend eternity with God. His love is the permanent cord that keeps us connected to Him.
So, what was Paul commanding in 1 Corinthians 16:14? It was that the commands of verse 13, be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be men of courage, and be strong, are good and essential to our Christian life, but keeping them as commands necessitates a heart dedicated to God’s love. It is not to be done out of duty or dread, but to be enacted through devotion to God because of the love He has bestowed upon us. Doing everything in love softens the way men respond in each of the first four commands. It is the compassion that infills the watchfulness, firmness, manliness, and strength we are challenged to do by Paul.
Discussion Questions:
1. What is the significance of Paul attaching command five to the first four?
2. What is it about “agape” love that makes it the highest form of love?
Application:
1. How do you express gratitude to God for His “agape” love given to you?
2. What are the best ways, considering the way God created you, to show “agape” love to others?
3. How can “agape” love shown to others change the way people respond to you?
Closing Prayer: Holy Spirit, teach us to be a giver of agape love to our closest friends and those farthest away from us. Help us to exhibit this love of God to those who cross our path and to those who are on the same path as us.
Suggested Additional Resources:
Read similar “do everything in love” verses for a better understanding of this phrase: Matthew 5:43-48; John 14:28-29, 31; Romans 5:5, 8; Ephesians 5:5-8; 1 John 2:15; 4:7-5:3.
Or use these links to navigate to various parts of this study:
Intro | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lesson 5 | Summary
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