Summary: God loves poor and vulnerable people and wants to use us to help them.
Read: Matthew 25:35-40
- What do you like about this passage?
- What do you find uncomfortable or difficult to understand in this passage?
- What appears to be the main idea emphasized in this passage?
Read: James 1:22-27
- How is James using the word “religion” here?
- What is true of those who know what God wants, through his Word, but doesn’t do what it says?
- What kind of religion does God accept?
- How does the religion we practice compare with what God accepts?
Read Isaiah 58:1-12
- How does God compare empty attempts to get something from him with obedience to his commands to help the vulnerable?
Read: Matthew 6:1-4
- How does God want us to give to those in need?
- Why do you think God asks us to give in this way?
More Questions to Consider
- What are the beliefs and values promoted in these passages?
- What do they reveal about our human condition and God’s response?
- How are these beliefs and values similar or different from those that have influenced you? (such as your family, culture, peers, church, etc.)
- How might our faith increase and our lives change as we embrace what is true and important?