SM A LL G R O U P H AN D O U T
XXVIII
SESSION 28 – Week of May 7
ROMANS
THE SERMON SERIES
A word about the study guides:
Each weekly study guide is meant to help you engage the Scripture lesson and explore its meaning for your life. You may use
the study guide in a variety of ways. You can follow it carefully, point by point. You can skip over sections if you do not find
them helpful. If you sense the Spirit leading you to ask other questions or highlight points not mentioned in the study guide,
follow that path. Bottom line – the study guide is intended to facilitate discussion and deeper reflection, use it in ways that best
suits your group.
Check In
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Begin with prayer.
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Check in – review the time since you last met. Spring plans, gardens, fishing trips, etc.?
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Segue to this week’s texts: Reflect on your relationship to clothes. Do you have certain clothes
that give you confidence? How do you uniforms or outfits shape people?
Bible Study – Romans 13: 8 – 14 and Zechariah 8: 20 – 23
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Read the texts.
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Verses 11 and 12 form the core or center of Paul’s point in this passage, because they speak to
why we should live by the law of love. The discuss the motive or reason for love.
❖ Verses 11 speaks of the “present time.” (NIV) The word in Greek for this phrase is “Kairos”.
Kairos is God’s divine time; God breaking into ordinary, chronological time (“chronos” in
Greek), and doing something profound, decisive, extraordinary. How is the passage in
Zechariah 8 Kairos time? Share some examples of Kairos time – our time, your life, etc.
❖ How is Easter the ultimate Kairos event? When the sermon said that Easter brought
heaven to earth, what does this mean?
❖ The sermon said Kairos creates urgency, Kairos insists we live differently. (“The hour has
already arrived”, “The night is nearly over” – vs 11 and 12) Discuss why and how the
Kairos of Easter creates the need for decisive action.
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Verses 8 – 10 describe what God’s law of love looks like.
❖ How does the discussion of “debt” in verse 8, connect this week’s passage (verses 8 – 14)
to last week’s passage (verses 1 – 7)?
❖ Verse 9 reviews some of the 10 commandments, and then asserts that love is the
fulfillment of the law, in verse 10. Discuss how love fulfills the law. How does Paul’s
reference to the OT laws demonstrate the practical, down-to-earth, service focus of love?
❖ Agape is the word Paul uses for love in this passage. Agape is selfless, it denies its own
desires and always seeks to serve and help others. The sermon quoted from I Corinthians
13, “The Message” translation to illustrate the essence of agape. Read I Corinthians 13
from “The Message”, if you have a copy of it, and discuss in very practical ways what
agape looks like in the everyday lives of your group.
Continued …
SM A LL G R O U P H AN D O U T
XXVIII
SESSION 28 – Week of May 7
ROMANS
THE SERMON SERIES
Continued …
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Verses 13 and 14 serve as a “call to arms” regarding the need to live by the law of love and
walking in the light of God’s new world of agape.
❖ In the NIV verse 13 reads, “Let us behave decently as in the daytime …” The Greek word
for “behave” literally means “walking” or “treading”, suggesting that we need to daily and
intentionally walk in God’s agape love. Reflect on how we can do this, that is, be
intentional, every day, about living out God’s love.
❖ Paul compiles a blunt list of the dark ways that followers of Jesus are to reject. Again, “The
Message” does a good job helping us understand Paul’s words. Read “The Message”
translation of verses 13. How does this list pull at us?
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In this passage, Paul tells us to wake up, get dressed, and live by the law of love because
God’s new day of love arrived with the resurrection of Jesus. Paul’s tone and words
communicate urgency and force.
❖ How can we, and how can we encourage one another, to put into practice Paul’s urgent
call? (Explore Paul’s metaphor of “putting on the armor of light” and “clothing yourselves
with Christ” – verses 12, 14)
Prayer
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Pray for one another and the special concerns you have.
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Use the prayer guide from the Sunday bulletin (May 7) to direct your prayers.
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Pray for a refreshed sense of urgency and wisdom for living by the law of agape in our daily lives.