The Love of Christ Compels Us
The Illuminate Study Guide is a packet inluding a copy of the Illuminate booklet for study participants and a four-page leaflet of supplemental material for each lesson. Study goals, discussion questions, and lesson application along with the supplemental commentary provide useful tools for the study leader.
The overall theme for this Bible study is the love of God--expressed so powerfully in the fact that "God so loved the world" that he sent his Son to die for our sins and reconcile us to God. Paul expresses his gratitude for this divine act of love and grace in the first two studies. Four passages follow from 2 Timothy, followed by a lesson from Philemon where Paul shares with his friend Philemon how the love of Christ can be expressed in the gracious forgiveness of a runaway slave. The last seven passages are from 1st and 2nd John and reveal the truth that John Baillie expressed when he wrote, "It is impossible...to meet with God and love Him without at the same time meeting with and loving one another." (Quoted by Elton Trueblood in While it is Day, Harper & Row, 1974, p. 112)
SAMPLE: The Love of Christ Compels Us SG
lessons
1. Christ's Transforming Love (1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-17)
2. The Outpouring of Love and Grace (Titus 3:1-11)
3. From Father to Son (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
4. Values to Live By (2 Timothy 2:1-13)
5. Be Equipped! (2 Timothy 3:1-5, 10-17)
6. Paul's Farewell (2 Timothy 4:1-2, 5-13, 16-18)
7. What Love Requires (Philemon 1, 7-12, 17-21)
8. The Message (1 John 1:1-10)
9. Light and Darkness (1 John 2:1-11)
10. Counsel for End Times (1 John 2:15-23, 27)
11. We're God's Children! (1 John 3:1-10)
12. The Mark of the Christian Community (1 John 3:11-18, 23)
13. Love Is Not Optional (1 John 4:7-12, 17-21)