The Biblical Theme Love
Bible Project Video
Week 1 Group Questions
The video talked about Yahweh’s love being both a feeling and an action. How do you feel when you think about the fact that God feels love toward you?
Week 2 Group Question
The video talked about Yahweh’s love being both a feeling and an action. Name a few specific ways God has acted out his love for you.
Week 1: God’s Affection
Read: Deuteronomy 4:32-40
32 “Indeed, ask about the earlier days that preceded you, from the day God created mankind on the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other: Has anything like this great event ever happened, or has anything like it been heard of? 33 Has a people heard God’s voice speaking from the fire as you have, and lived? 34 Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire. 37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by his presence and great power, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is now taking place. 39 Today, recognize and keep in mind that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. 40 Keep his statutes and commands, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Question 1:
No other power can rescue like Yahweh, but we can sometimes forget this. We can then try to remedy painful feelings or hard situations apart from Yahweh. Do you find yourself doing this? What are some practical ways you can commit to rely on Yahweh instead?
Question 2:
God loves us because it’s central to who he is. But we can struggle to really believe this. Why do you think that is? What would it look like to receive and respond to his love instead? Take a moment to remember that God loves you and the people around you. Pray for new strength to receive and respond to his love.
Read: Isaiah 54:10
10 Though the mountains move
and the hills shake,
my love will not be removed from you
and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,”
says your compassionate Lord.
Question 3:
What words resonate with you in this verse?
Question 4:
How would remembering these words of God daily shape your mindset each day?
Read: 1 John 4:9-11
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
Question 5:
How is Jesus the ultimate revelation of God’s love for humanity?
Question 6:
How have you embraced Jesus’ love for you displayed on the cross.
Week 2: God’s Love In Action
Read: 1 John 4:9-11
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
Question 1:
According to John how did God show his love to us?
Question 2:
From the passage why did God send Jesus? What do you think he means by what he said?
Question 3:
Why do you think our reaction to God’s action of love is to respond by loving others?
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Question 4:
How is this passage encourage you about how to love others and how does it challenge you?
Read: Deuteronomy 10:12-22
12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul? 13 Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good. 14 The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today. 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing. 19 You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. 20 You are to fear the Lord your God and worship him. Remain faithful[a] to him and take oaths in his name. 21 He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen. 22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt, seventy people in all, and now the Lord your God has made you numerous, like the stars of the sky.
Moses agrees that Israel exists because of Yahweh’s love for Israel’s ancestors. But this time he concludes that because Israel’s rescue from Egypt was an act of Yahweh’s love, the most consistent way to return love for Yahweh would be to turn one’s affection to the orphans, widows, and immigrants in the community. Do you see the mirror effect? Yahweh’s love is Exodus-shaped in Deuteronomy. In other words, it is an active love expressed toward the oppressed and hurting. So Israel’s love for God and neighbor is also meant to reflect that same pattern.
Question 5:
Orphans, widows, and immigrants have a couple things in common. They are loved by God but are usually unloved by their neighbors. Do you know someone specific in your community who might be overlooked or unloved by those around them?
Question 6:
Take a moment to think about how much God loves them. What is a practical way you can step outside of your comfort zone to reflect God’s love to them this week?