Brand New (3) – Love Your Neighbor or Your Religion

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. We are in the middle of our series Brand New and we are talking about when Jesus stepped into this world He created a brand new movement called the church. It wasn’t simply a place, in fact, it’s not supposed to be a sacred place, but rather a gathering of people that are committed in following Him. Unfortunately the temple model was sprinkled into the movement: sacred places that housed sacred text that were interpreted by scared men. These sacred men used these texts to control superstitious people.

Religion is powerful—so powerful it can shape our consciences. And along with the temple model our consciences have been shaped by a version of Christianity that reflects a blend of rules-focused model and the Jesus movement. But the Jesus movement was meant to call us to love, not to love our religion but our neighbors. But because of the temple model thinking, we’re tempted to prioritize law keeping over loving others. How do we reconcile God’s law with Jesus’ call to love our neighbors? I hope you wrestle with this question for the rest of your life as we continue with our discussion in this series.

Moving Forward

Do your beliefs ever get in the way of your love? Do your views hinder you from loving someone? Most of us wrestle with that tension because we haven’t embraced the truth of gospel: if Jesus died for us, he is for us. God’s unmerited love for us and for those around us must inform our consciences and shape our behaviors.

Changing Your Mind

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6b

Discussion Questions

1. When you hear the word “religion,” what comes to mind? Why?

2. What are some of the cultural consequence of people viewing Christians as judgmental and obsessed with rules instead of as a radically loving community?

3. Read Galatians 5:6, 14. What is challenging about the idea that all of the law is fulfilled in the command to “love your neighbor as yourself”? What is freeing about that idea?

4. Who is one person you need to start being for without demanding anything in return? What stands in the way of you loving that person?

5. What is one thing you can do this week to better love the person you identified in the previous question? What can this group do to support you?