Jul. 13, 2025

Grow Up! 

Goodness & Love 

Primary Text: 1 Corinthians 13: 8, 13           

Last Teaching:  Gentleness

1)  Pursue Gentleness

1 Timothy 6:10-12:  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of the faith.  

2)  A Gentle Tongue

Proverbs 15:4 (ESV):  A gentle [healing, wholesome, soothing] tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.  

3)  Gentle Clothing

Colossians 3:12-14:  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience….  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  

This Week’s Teaching:  

1)  Loving Goodness

Galatians 5:22-23:  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

Psalm 23:6:  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  

DQ 1) Define love from a Godly perspective.  How does it differ from the world’s definition of love?

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2)  The Problem

Romans 7:18-19:  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.  

DQ 2) Why did the Apostle Paul say nothing good lived in his sinful nature?

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3)  Seek After Goodness

2 Peter 1:3-7:  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness….  For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.  

DQ 3) How do we seek after goodness?

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4)  The Greatest Good

1 Corinthians 13: 8, 13:  Love never fails….  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love. 

John 15:12-13:  "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."  

DQ 4) Why is love the greatest virtue?

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5)  This is Love

1 John 4:7-10:  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

DQ 5) How did Christ display His perfect love for each one of us?

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