WORSHIP GOD, LOVE OTHERS
Week 4: Love Others (Part Two)
This includes:
1. Leader Preparation
2. Lesson Guide
1. LEADER PREPARATION
LESSON OVERVIEW
Jesus says the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors, and the parable of
the Good Samaritan clearly illustrates who our neighbors are: anyone who is hurting and
needs our help. Just as James calls Christians to put their FAITH into action, Jesus calls us
to put our LOVE into action.
PRIMARY SCRIPTURE
Luke 10:25-37
SECONDARY SCRIPTURE
James 2:8-9, 20
LESSON OBJECTIVES
1. WHAT: God calls us to put love into action by meeting our neighbors’ needs.
2. WHY: When we help the hurting, we’re loving our neighbors like Jesus demonstrated
and commanded.
3. HOW: Encourage your students to have open eyes to see the need of others.
TEACHING PREP
The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may
not want to convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you’ll definitely
want to refer to it as you lead your small group lesson.
Read Luke 10:25-37.
This is probably a familiar story for your teenagers who have been raised in church, and
even many non-Christians know the importance of being a “Good Samaritan” to people in
need. In fact, we’re so familiar with the tale that we may fail to realize how radical Jesus’
words were.
The people who heard Jesus’ parable would have expected either the priest or the Levite—a
temple assistant—to help a person in need. After all, the victim was Jewish. These two
religious leaders were Jewish. They would be considered “neighbors,” right? But the person
who offers assistance was a “despised” Samaritan. He had compassion on this Jewish man,
and he turns his compassion into action by dressing the wounds, transporting the man to an
inn, and covering all the costs for this man’s care and accommodation. Loving your neighbor
means helping people even if they may hate you.
Jesus confronted stereotypes and prejudices while also challenging his audience to turn
compassion into action. He was directly responding to the question “who is my neighbor,”
but on another level, Jesus was answering the question “what’s the evidence of a person’s
love.” Most Christians are familiar with James’ observation that faith without good deeds is
dead and useless. Can we say the same thing about love? Without good deeds, is love dead
and useless? That can be seen as an additional underlying message in this parable.
THE BEFORE & AFTER [optional]
Text Message Questions
We’ve provided a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students
prior to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest
of the curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry.

Have you been a Good Samaritan recently? Be at small group tonight to tell us about
it.

What does it really mean to be a Good Samaritan? Don’t miss tonight’s small group.
WORSHIP GOD, LOVE OTHERS
Week 4: Love Others (Part Two)
2. LESSON GUIDE
GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional]
As you begin your small group, welcome your students and invite them into your meeting
area. Open in prayer, and then jump right into the lesson.
If you came up with an opening activity, movie clip, or game that worked well with your
group, and you’d like to share it with other youth workers, please email us at
ideas@simplyyouthministry.com.
TEACHING POINTS
The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with
more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are
(1) Find a neighbor in need and (2) Put your faith into action.
Remember: All throughout these lessons, it’s up to you to choose (1) how many questions
you use, and (2) the wording of the main points—keep ours, or change the wording to make
it clearer for your audience.
Read Luke 10:25-37 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to
read the text.
SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let’s take a few minutes to explore two fundamental ideas found in
the parable Jesus told.
1. Find a neighbor in need
SAY SOMETHING LIKE: God willingly gives love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy to anyone in
need—not just people who fit a predetermined box or definition. In fact, the people you
might not categorize as your neighbors are probably the very people God wants you to see
as your neighbors.
ASK:



In this story, the priest and the temple assistant—the Levite—were Jewish religious
leaders who chose to not help an injured Jewish man. Why do you think they
responded this way?
When was the last time you “walked past” a person in need, either literally or
figuratively? Why did you make that choice?
When was the last time you were a “Good Samaritan” who “stopped” and helped
someone in need? Why did you make that decision? How did it affect you and other
people?
2. Put your faith into action
SAY SOMETHING LIKE: We don’t always succeed at being a Good Samaritan, as we see in
this clip from the movie Shanghai Noon (rated PG-13). Roy is buried up to his neck in sand.
Chon finds him but refuses to help, walking away as if he didn’t see anything. Sound
familiar?
Start the clip at 0:18:15, as Roy screams while buried in the sand. Stop the clip at 0:20:15,
as Chon leaves Roy.
ASK:



What might be a reason or two why Chon made the decision to walk away from Roy?
This clip showed someone who intentionally walked away from a neighbor in need.
All of us have likely done this at one time or another—what are some of the factors
that influence us to walk away rather than get involved?
As we read the parable in Luke 10, we all want to be the Good Samaritan, but which
character best represents the way you’ve responded to hurting people this past
week?
SAY SOMETHING LIKE: If God’s love is growing inside us, then it will be evident in our
actions. We certainly know that it’s easier to love certain people, but the Bible never
declared that love was easy. Taking steps of faith and showing love toward a neighbor may
require a sacrifice of time, energy, or resources.
ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional]
ASK:
 James 2:20 says “faith without good deeds is useless.” How does this relate to your
love for your neighbors? What connections are there between “dead faith” and “dead
love?”

The religious leader who asked “who is my neighbor” correctly identified the neighbor
in Jesus’ story as the character that showed mercy toward the man who was
attacked and beaten. That answer likely exposed the religious leader’s own
prejudices. When have you had a similar experience? How did you respond?

In Luke 10:29, we learn that the religious leader who asked Jesus the question
“wanted to justify his actions.” What actions might the Bible mean?

Jesus told this parable 2,000 years ago, so exactly how is it relevant to your life
today? Which elements feel familiar, and which elements would you change if telling
this story to a current-day audience—especially if you wanted to have the same
impact Jesus’ story had on his audience?

Read James 2:8-9. What are some ways teenagers favor certain individuals or
certain groups over others? Why does this happen?
APPLICATION
Pair up with another person in the group for these questions.
ASK:

At the end of his parable, Jesus made a simple commandment to the religious
leader: “Now go and do the same.” How can you “go and do the same” and display
mercy toward hurting people this week? Give some specific opportunities you can
pursue.

How can you encourage other people to “go and do the same?”
Bring everyone back together to talk about specific ways to “go and do the same” in your
community.
SUMMARY
End your small group lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or takehome challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place
during the lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are
facing, and (4) the big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants
accomplished with the teaching and discussion time.
FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE]
Encourage and/or challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below.
But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of
breaking the law (James 2:9).