Love Is... Bible Study Guide: 6 Lessons on What Love Looks Like

By Jenna Lucado Bishop

What is love? This six-week Bible study helps teen girls understand what true love looks like. By focusing on the life of Jesus, these girls will come to understand that Love is, first and foremost, a Someone. The more we understand Jesus, the more we understand God's original intent behind this overused, abused, and muddled word: love.

Each week girls will do an in-depth study of one of Jesus' relationships described in the Bible. By examining the way Jesus interacted with others, they will see the perfect example of love. Through four repetitive phases—read, realize, respond, and retain—teen girls will learn a method of studying the Bible that they can apply to any Scripture passage and that will motivate them to read more frequently and independently in the future. By analyzing the Bible stories, each girl will in turn be able to analyze her own relationships to see if they are based on God’s idea of love, and will walk away with a deeper understanding of the love relationship God seeks to have with her.

Features include:

• 6 sessions of study

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Mar 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781401678579

Book preview

A Note from the Author

Love.

We were made for it.

Made to love. Made to be loved. Made to say love. Made to know love.

But did you know you were made by Love?

Love thought you into existence.

Love knit you together in your mother’s womb and then breathed life into your soul.

Love gave you a purpose.

Love gave you a name.

Love knows the number of hairs on your head and number of thoughts inside it.

Love knows your every move, your every secret, your every victory, your every tear, your every chuckle, your every sigh.

Love made you.

You see . . .

Love is a Someone.

Sure, love is a word.

You’ve read the word hundreds of times on hundreds of book covers, billboards, magazines.

You’ve heard the word thousands of times in thousands of song lyrics, commercials, movies.

You’ve said the word millions of times about millions of things, places, people.

Sure, love is an action.

You love your friend, and so you spend time with her.

You love your grandparents, so you smile when they give you that green, fuzzy purse at Christmas that looks more like a pet than an accessory.

You love your mom, and so you wash the dishes. (Ahem. Hint. Hint.)

Sure, love comes with feelings.

You feel butterflies when he walks in the room.

You feel comfortable to be yourself when you are with them.

You feel compassion when she is hurting.

But, above all, love is a Someone.

First John 4:8 says, "God IS Love" (emphasis mine).

As we hang out together over the next six weeks, my hope is that you spend time getting to know Love—the capital L kind. Get to know the Love that made you. Get to know the only Love who won’t fail you.

Sit with God. Soak up God. Spend time with God. Because the more we get to know Love as a Someone, the more we understand what love really means.

Love to you, sweet friend,

Jenna

Before we begin this journey together, I thought I would tell you a little bit about what is to come and give you some suggestions that may help you along the way.

Every week of this Bible study is broken up into five days. I suggest you break up the material into these days instead of doing it all at once. That way, you are practicing the habit of setting aside time to spend with God every day. This discipline changed my life! And I know it can change yours if you have yet to experience it. So take the study a day at a time if possible.

Other than the first week, the final five weeks are all broken up into four parts:

READ – This section is for observation. You are just reading the overall story for that week and jotting down what you see. Don’t worry, I’ll provide questions to guide you through this step.

REALIZE – This section is a time when you and I look a little deeper into the story—the context, the history, the details that typically require some outside study. I’ve done the outside study for you (phew!), but if you would like to do further research, here are some of my go-to resources:

1. A Bible dictionary. I used the Thomas Nelson Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

2. A Bible encyclopedia. I typically refer to a free one online called International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

3. A Bible commentary. I love this great Web site that offers a lot of credible and insightful commentary as well as other resources. It’s www.biblos.com. Check it out!

4. A Study Bible.

RESPOND – This section is a time for you to get honest with your heart. What did you learn that day, and what do you want to apply to your own life? It’s important that you be transparent with God during this portion. I’ve noticed the more open I am with God, the more He moves in me, transforms me.

RETAIN – This section is a time to memorize a favorite verse from the story that week. It might be tempting to glaze over this part of the study. I know it would be for me, because I’m terrible at memorizing! But please don’t skip this section! Memorizing scripture is so important. It implants the Word of God deeply in our hearts. And I’ve noticed that when I do it, as I live my life and run into a dilemma, a verse that I’ve memorized never fails to pop up into my head. It brings me comfort, clarity, direction. This is one of the ways God’s Word becomes alive inside of us, transforming us to be more like Jesus.

Okay, well I’ll stop chattering so that we can dive in. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do!

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Ilf_9781401678562_INT_0011_002.jpg Day 1—Love Is: A Someone

Eric was my first love.

Yes, Eric. Just Eric.

Don’t ask me what his last name was. I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now. But were last names important as a kindergartner? Absolutely not! The only requirements I had to fall in love as a five year old were the following:

He had to be cute.

He had to be nice.

Oh, and if he gave me presents, like a cherry Ring Pop, that meant he was really "the one" for.ev.er. (Or at least until recess was over.)

Eric was cute. Check.

Eric was nice. Check.

Did he give me ring pops? No. Which leads me to the problems with this first love of mine.

You see, Eric was a prince. And though my plastic, pink, princess crown my mom bought me at Toys-R-Us qualified me as royalty in my little mind, Eric’s royal status was of a different level.

On top of the prince thing getting in the way, Eric was . . . well . . . a cartoon. That was somewhat of a hurdle in our relationship. And the icing on the cake? He was taken by my favorite Disney princess (and best friend), Ariel.

So prince, plus cartoon, plus dating my BF, equaled unrequited love.

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Definition of Unrequited

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, unrequited means not reciprocated or returned in kind.¹

¹ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unrequited

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What about you?

Take a minute and write down whom your first love was. What qualities did he have that gave you the butterflies?

Okay, maybe my love for Prince Eric wasn’t necessarily love as much as it was a five-year-old crush. So what does real love look like? In order to answer that question, we have to go to the book that defines true love. It’s not one of Shakespeare’s plays or a Jane Austen novel. No, the greatest book about love, the source on love, the definition of love is the Bible.

Read 1 John 4:16 and 1 John 4:8. What are the similarities between these two verses?

Did you catch this: both verses contain the phrase God is love?

If that were a math problem what would it look like? (You didn’t think math would ever be used in a Bible study, did ya?)

Did your answer look something like mine?

God = Love.

This equation means the more you know God, the more you will know not only what Love is but who Love is. Because God IS love.

Okay, press pause on that thought, and now read John 14:9–10. Write down what Jesus was telling His followers, the disciples.

Jesus was telling His followers that He and the Father (aka God) were one. So