Daily Reading Week 13
Sunday
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Discover:
You don't have to be a Christian to be familiar with 1 Corinthians 13. It's often quoted on TV and in movies, and many non-Christians even have it read at their weddings. But sometimes, when we hear something a lot, we might think we know it so well that we miss its deeper meaning and the high standard it sets for us. The love described in this chapter is based on God's own love, which is always perfect and unwavering.
God's love is always kind, truthful, patient, and good—everything that Paul says love should be in 1 Corinthians 13. But if we're honest, we know our love often falls short. We can be unkind, impatient, and even drawn to sin. There are many reasons for this, but a big one is that we don't make love a top priority. Like the early Christians in Corinth, we sometimes misuse our spiritual gifts and expect others to serve us instead of looking for ways to serve them. We put ourselves first and get jealous when others don't do the same. Instead of being humble, we can be prideful and unwilling to tolerate others.
This isn't how it should be. 1 Corinthians 13:1–3 shows us that love is far more important than our spiritual gifts. We can have many gifts and know a lot about God and His salvation, but if we don't have love for God and others, we have nothing. We're meant to be shaped into the image of our Creator, who is love (1 John 4:8). Love is essential to God's character, and it must be essential to ours too if we are His children.
Respond:
1. How does Paul describe love in this chapter, and why is it considered the greatest gift?
2. Reflect on a time when you prioritized something over love. How did it affect your relationships?
3. In what ways can you practice selfless love in your daily interactions?
Monday
Matthew 22:37-39
Discover:
After the Sadducees couldn't trip up Jesus (Matt. 22:23–33), the Pharisees decided to give it another shot. They sent one of their own, a lawyer with extensive training in Mosaic law, to test Jesus. This lawyer's question was likely an attempt to catch Jesus denying some part of the Torah and accuse Him of heresy.
During Jesus' time, rabbis often debated the lawyer's question. There are 613 individual rules in the Torah, and Jewish teachers wanted a guiding principle to help apply the Law. Jesus' answer wasn't entirely new; others had also combined the ideas of loving God and neighbor as the greatest duty. But Jesus was the first to use the specific texts in today's passage to make His point. He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5, part of the Shema that devout Jews still recite daily, and Leviticus 19:18, which commands loving one's neighbor.
Despite some interpretations of passages like Matthew 5:17, today's passage shows that Jesus didn't abolish the Law when He fulfilled it. He wouldn't highlight passages as God's greatest commandments if He intended to discard all Mosaic principles. Jesus' answer also shows that love is primarily an action, not just a feeling. The command to love means we should actively do something, serving others even when we don't feel like it. Moreover, if love for God and neighbor are the commandments on which the Law and Prophets depend, we can't separate love from these rules and define it in a way that ignores God's law. Any act the Bible forbids isn't love; the Law teaches us how to express true love. Paul says, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:10) and expects Christians to follow the basic ethical code of the Old Testament. Above all, John Calvin notes that Jesus says, "Love is the first and greatest thing that God demands from us, and therefore the first and greatest thing we should devote to Him."
Respond:
1. How do these commandments shape your understanding of what it means to follow Jesus?
2. What are practical ways you can love God with all your heart, soul, and mind?
3. How can you better love your neighbor in your community or workplace?
Tuesday
John 13:34-35
Discover:
Jesus taught that love for Him goes beyond family ties, so those who truly belong to His family are the ones who love Him and show it by doing His will. This love for Jesus should also bring His disciples together as true brothers and sisters. That's the main point of today's passage. In fact, our love for fellow Christians is what shows the world that we are followers of Jesus.
Jesus calls the command for believers to love one another a new command, but love among members of the covenant community wasn't unheard of before His time. Faithful Jews from Moses' time knew they had to avoid vengeance and grudges and love their neighbors as themselves. However, the new covenant brings two aspects that make love clearer as God's will for His people.
First, we must love other believers just as Jesus has loved us. While we can't atone for others' sins like Jesus did, we can be willing to lay down our lives for our friends, which is the greatest love of all according to Jesus’ teaching recorded in John 15:13. We can also follow Jesus' example by empathizing with others in their weaknesses. We should do everything we can to make our local churches places of refuge for repentant sinners, where they can find forgiveness, love, and encouragement. If a repentant believer who has sinned badly can't find friends in the church, we're not keeping this commandment.
Second, our love for other Christians should reflect the love between the Father and the Son. Under the new covenant, we have a clearer understanding of our Triune God, who is both diverse (three persons) and unified (one essence). Like the Father and Son, the diversity in the body of Christ shouldn't destroy our unity of purpose or divide us into factions over minor differences. True love for other believers unifies the diverse church.
Respond:
1. How does your love for others reflect your relationship with Jesus?
2. In what ways can your love be a witness to those around you?
3. What steps can you take to love others more like Jesus loves you?
Wednesday
1 John 3:11-19
Discover:
John's final appeal in this section is all about reminding his readers of their shared spiritual life and their new birth into God's family. He uses a typical negative-positive approach to make his point. On the negative side, John says, "Let's not just love with words or tongue." By including himself, he's challenging everyone to understand that love is more than just talking a good game. He's not saying kind or comforting words are bad, but without actions to back them up, they're just noise. The story of Cain illustrates this because he offered a sacrifice but it was not done in love or with real actions.
On the positive side, John insists that love should be shown through "actions and in truth." He illustrates this through Christ example. Love isn't just about what we say; it's about what we do. He adds "truth" because even actions can be fake. True love shows itself through genuine actions. John's challenge here is for his readers to be real in their love. One of the key signs of being a child of God is love—a love that comes from God, shows itself in self-sacrificial actions, and is proof of eternal life.
Respond:
How does love prove that we are Christians?
How do you love someone you don’t like?
What can you learn from the opposing examples of Cain and Jesus?
What actions can we do this week or be prepared to do when the opportunity arises?
Thursday
1 John 4:7-8
Discover:
As you read through John's first epistle, it becomes clear that assurance comes from a mix of external evidence and internal testimony. When we keep Christ's commandments, we know we abide in Him, and we also know we abide in Christ because of the Holy Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit assures us that we belong to Jesus, but He always works alongside the outward signs of faith. We recognize the Spirit's presence through both His internal testimony and our obedience to Jesus' commands given through His apostles (4:6).
John emphasizes that love is a fundamental mark of true faith. If someone loves, they've been born of God and know God. If they don't love, they haven't been born of God and don't know Him. "God is love", meaning love is essential to God's nature. According to Peter in the first chapter of his second epistle, if we've truly become partakers of this nature and increasingly reflect God's holy and loving character, we must love others, especially fellow believers. Our transformed hearts will naturally respond to God's call to love others as He loves us. We'll strive to love if we've been born of God, and we'll repent when we fall short of His command.
The biblical definition of God's love is more radical than we often think. Today, many affirm "God is love" but live as if the Bible doesn't require us to love even the most unlovable. Yet, to truly reflect God's character, we must love Christ's people with self-sacrifice and strive to show love even to those "unworthy" of it, both inside and outside the church.
Respond:
1. How does your love for others demonstrate your relationship with God?
2. What are some barriers that prevent you from loving others as God loves you?
3. How can you cultivate a deeper understanding and experience of God's love in your life?
Friday
Romans 12:9-10
Discover:
As we saw in yesterday’s passage, Scripture tells us that "God is love". In today's world, however there’s a lot of confusion about what love really means, leading to many misunderstandings about God's love both in the church and the world. To truly understand divine love, we need to consider all of God's attributes, including His holiness and justice. In His love, God doesn't overlook sin, and His love calls us to be holy as He is holy. A true understanding of God's love won't compromise His holiness for a love that makes no demands.
Since love is one of God's attributes, understanding what it means to be made in His image and to live in a way that pleases Him must include love. Even though we're fallen, we still bear the image of our Creator and are being transformed into the image of Christ, who is the perfect image of God. It's no surprise that Paul talks about love when describing the life of people being transformed by God's Spirit.
Romans 12:9 tells us that our love must "be genuine." This seems simple enough, and Dr. R.C. Sproul's comments on this verse in his commentary on Romans are spot on: "God expects from us authentic love, that which is not mixed with hypocrisy or false sentiment." Genuine love isn't about putting on a show of affection that's not real. While it's good to treat people kindly and go the extra mile for them, we haven't truly pleased the Lord if we harbor hatred in our hearts while doing so.
Respond:
1. How can you let your love be genuine and sincere in your relationships?
2. What are some ways you can honor and serve others in your community?
3. How can you cultivate a lifestyle of love that reflects the teachings of Romans 12?
Saturday
Luke 10:25-37
Discover:
In Luke 10:25, the lawyer asks a crucial question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This question assumes that eternal life is gained by keeping God's law, which is why scribes were so meticulous in interpreting it. Jesus responds with two questions: “What is written in the law?” and “How do you read it?”. In other words, how do you interpret the law's requirements? The lawyer's answer in verse 27 mirrors Jesus' summary of the law in Matthew 22:34–40 and Mark 12:28–31.
The essence of the law is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus tells the lawyer, “Do this and you will live”. It's important to note that anyone who interprets the law this way and keeps it perfectly in thought, word, and deed will earn eternal life. (Of course, no one has ever done this except Christ, which is why we must rely on His obedience, not our own.) The lawyer then asks, “Who is my neighbor?”, leading Jesus to share the famous parable of the Good Samaritan.
There are three lessons we can learn from this parable:
1. Connection Between Love for God and Neighbor: Our love for God is shown through our love for our neighbor. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Loving God and neighbor is essential for inheriting eternal life, and this parable illustrates what loving your neighbor looks like.
2. Gospel Message: The Good Samaritan's care for the man attacked by robbers is a picture of God's love rescuing us, helpless sinners, from our fallen state.
3. New Life in Christ: This parable shows the new life that comes from the gospel, enabling us to see others as neighbors, breaking down barriers imposed by our fallen nature and culture. This love and service don't save us or give us eternal life—being rescued by our Savior does that—but they are proof of our rescue and reconciliation with God.
Respond:
1. How does the Samaritan's actions redefine what it means to be a neighbor?
2. In what ways can you show love and compassion to those who are different from you or outside your usual circle?
3. Reflect on a situation where you can be a "Good Samaritan" in your community. What steps can you take to help someone in need?