What keeps us from living a simple faith in Jesus?  It’s often a natural but unhealthy focus on ourselves. Sometimes we are scared that we are measuring up to expectations set by us, others, or what we think God’s expects from us. Other times, we are tempted to sit in judgment of others rather than moving toward the very people God is wanting us to befriend.  This week, we’ll see how Paul’s letter to the Galatians challenges us to move from fear to faith.

Group Discussion Guide

To see the leader guide for this week, click here.

To see a .pdf version of this week’s guide, click here.

Introduction

Last week we discussed how Christians can tend to create add-ons to our faith instead of remembering the simple faith that Jesus calls his disciples to and how we can live out our faith like this.

Spend a few minutes discussing how your group put their personal action steps from last week into practice.

After connecting with each other, begin your meeting with prayer.

Key Verse for the Week

*Read this verse, then encourage the practice of memorization through the week.

Romans 14:8

“If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

**When practiced consistently, memorizing Bible verses can be an important spiritual practice that centers your mind around the truth that God has given us.

Opening Thought

The urge to protect ourselves and our faith can be strong sometimes. We get caught up in trying to pursue Jesus to the point where people who disagree with what we know to be true can seem harmful to the mission that we know we have from Jesus. The problem happens when we start to forget that Jesus taught mercy, harmony, peace, and inclusion into his people. We are made to be a loving, kind, and warm presence, not people that separate ourselves based on what we think is the most important. Jesus made it clear that no matter our differences, our identity is in him and we should bring others to be a part of that.

This leads us to our big idea for this week:

Big idea for the week
Through Jesus, we can share space with people who are different than us.

Connect 

• Would others consider you an accepting or agreeable person?
• What kind of topics do you normally find yourself disagreeing with people on? How do you normally go about discussing these disagreements?
• What is your relationship like with people you find yourself at odds with the most? How often do you find yourself pursuing intentional time with them?

Unpack

Go around your group and have someone read each of the following verses, then discuss the connected questions.

Read

Galatians 2:11-21

Discuss

• Verse 14 of this section says “when I saw they were not following the truth of the gospel message”. What do you think the author (the Apostle Paul) means by this? Why does it matter if Peter didn’t eat with Gentiles (or non-Jews)?
• What do you think this section means when it says, ”It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”?
• If you are comfortable sharing, who are your “gentiles” or the ones you have a challenging time spending time with? What makes them challenging to spend time with?
• When can it be better to not actively pursue interaction with someone we disagree with? How can we still represent Jesus well with these people?

The next section of verses we are going to read comes from a letter written to the church in Rome by the same author of the verses before, the Apostle Paul, who was addressing a similar situation as in Galatians: What Jewish practices should non-Jewish Christians follow? Paul tells them what matters now is following Jesus. Notice how he calls them to practice unity, not judgment. 

Read

Romans 15:1-7

Discuss

• What does it mean to live in harmony with others? Why can this be difficult to pursue in our lives?
• How can pursuing peace and harmony with everyone help us and other know that we find our identity in Jesus?

Apply

On Sunday, Pastor Jason described how to evaluate yourself for  ‘Pharisee-ism’, meaning “when you take your faith to the extreme and become legalistic, prideful, judgmental, and/or unhealthily politically “. These (paraphrased) points can help us know if we are becoming unhealthy in our faith and how we relate to others. The six points are:  

1. Disdain for those who are not where we are spiritually.  

2. A spirit of exclusivity towards others spiritually, culturally, or socially. 

3. Adding extra-Biblical rules/expectations those new to faith have trouble following. 

4. A pattern of idolizing the “old way”/past leaders criticizing current leaders. 

5. A quest for clone-like uniformity of people in our live that only look like us. 

6. Gift projection– The belief that your calling is everyone else’s calling.  

Now, take a moment to discuss these questions as a group to decide what your personal action steps for the week will be: 

• Which of these six points have you experienced firsthand from someone?
  • Which of these points have you found yourself falling into?
• How are you going to practically pursue peace and harmony with someone you disagree with this week?
• How will we be a good representative of who Jesus is this week?
• How will we keep each other accountable to apply this throughout the week?

Closing

Read this to your group and then move to the Prayer and Verses section:

How we treat others matters. It says a lot about ourselves and our relationships with others, but most importantly, how we treat and interact with others says a lot about Jesus. We should remove our fear of others and pursue the simple faith that Jesus taught, remembering that our identity is in him. Let’s work together to let those around us know that by how we treat them and invite them to know Jesus as well.

Prayer and Verses

Ask for prayer requests and conclude your time with prayer then share the Key Verse for the Week and Daily Devotional Verses with the group.

Daily Devotional Verses

Use the S.O.A.K. method to reflect on the verses below.

Scripture: Read the verses several times. Reading out loud can be helpful as well.
Observation: What can you see about the scripture you read?
Application: What is God wanting you to believe, do, or feel, based on what you have read?
Kneel in Prayer: This is a chance to talk to God about what you have read and ask him for help in living out what you’ve learned.

Day 1: Galatians 2:11-21

Day 2: Matthew 7:1-2

Day 3: Ephesians 4:21-24

Day 4: Mark 12:29-31

Day 5: 2 Timothy 1:7

Day 6: John 13:34

Key Verse for the Week

Romans 14:8

“If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”