Love your neighbour
Aim: To start to develop the idea that our group needs to be a place where people can find love and
acceptance, instead of a place of selfishness and clicks.
Read this bible verse:
Background: The Jewish religious teachers thought Jesus must be wrong in what he was saying and so
were trying to catch him out and find holes in what he was teaching them about. All his answers so far
are really good, so then Mark 12:28-31 begins;
A teacher of the Law was there who heard the discussion. He saw that Jesus had given the Sadducees
a good answer, so he came to him with a question: "Which commandment is the most important of
all?" Jesus replied, "The most important one is this: 'Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength.' The second most important commandment is this: 'Love your neighbour as you love
yourself.' There is no other commandment more important than these two."
Talk Bit
In the time that Jesus was around, there were heaps of different people groups that weren’t accepted in
society. The Jews hated the Samaritans, if you were disabled you were thought to be cursed by God, if
you had leprosy, you would have to live away from everyone else, if you worked for the Roman
government, everyone hated you, the rich looked down on the poor, even men and women were
separated when it came to going to the temple. So because of all the divisions, Jesus spent a lot of his
time working towards healing these splits and he showed real love for those in society that weren’t
accepted by the majority.
Can anyone think of an example of this that they can remember from the bible?
Matthew the tax collector, the good Samaritan, the Samaritan woman at the well, healing of the leper,
demon possessed man, child with convulsions, talking with the prostitute, spending time with children,
the rich man and Lazarus.
Today in our society, there are still the same kind of splits that separate people. Whether it be because
of religion, ethnic background, sexuality, how much money they have, the way they look, dress, act or the
way they think. And I’m as guilty as anyone in sizing someone up at the first look and making an opinion
of them without even knowing them. But Jesus said it was the second most important commandment
out of two. So it’s no good saying we love God, but then forgetting the second call to love others,
because if we do love him, then we have to follow his command to love others too.
It’s early days for me in this youth ministry and I can see that exciting things are going to happen through
this group, but one thing is for certain, if this group isn’t one that people feel loved and accepted when
they come along, then they won’t come along. That’s not to say that you’ll be best mates with everyone,
but it does mean that we as a group have make a conscious decision to act in love towards each other.
For some of us that will mean being a totally different person at youth group than you might be outside,
but trust me, it will be worth it.
A friend of mine used to say that Christians were like Jesus with skin on. We can’t see Jesus here in front
of us in a physical sense, so Christians are the example of Jesus for all the world to see. Now I don’t know
if you’ve made a decision to be a Christian or not, but people will judge us by what we say and what our
actions are.
Break into small groups to discuss the scenario this week.
Small group questions
Go through the scenario first and if you have time or get bored, go to the other questions
Scenario 1
It’s Monday lunch time at school, you’ve just had a really good weekend with a challenging message
about love on Friday night at youth group and a fun time on Sunday morning at Reality Bites learning
about stuff and so far this morning you’re going really well with God. You and your mates are having
a chat and Trevor walks past, who is the guy at school that no one likes, he’s not all that bright and
people think he has a major problem with personal hygiene! The topic of conversation changes to
what a looser everyone thinks Trevor is… What do you say?
Scenario 2 – (might want to change the name to John for the lads)
Jane’s new to the youth group. Her family has just moved over to the Gold Coast from Perth and as
yet she has no friends. At the start of the night she comes through the door and everyone else is
talking to their friends or playing games. The leaders spend the first half of the night talking with her
and making her feel welcome, but when some of the games start and they become busy doing jobs,
Jane is left alone. She seems shy and your first impression is that you don’t think she would fit into
your friendship group. What do you do?
Discussion group leader to say: Having mates in youth group is all good, it’s something we want to
encourage, especially to bring friends along, but we also need to be on the lookout for those
people who don’t come along with friends, so we can show them love too.
Some extra questions for discussion
 Do you think it is impossible to love certain people?
 If you are Jesus with skin on to the people around you, how could you show it?
After Jesus discussed about loving your neighbour, the teacher of the law piped up;
Luke 10:29-37 Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbour'?" Jesus
answered by telling a story. "There was once a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he
was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead.
Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other
side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan travelling
the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first
aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and
made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper,
saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill--I'll pay you on my way back.'
"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers?" "The
one who treated him kindly," the religious scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same."
 The good Samaritan is a bible story that most people know, but why was it important that it was
the Samaritan was the one to help the guy, was it just because he was the third person along the
road?
Jews and Samaritans hated each other and usually wouldn’t lift a finger to help the other out, but Jesus wanted them to see that
national pride should be no substitute for the love that we must share and even our enemies are in fact the ones we should be
showing love to.