Pastor Joseph
Jan 11, 20211 min
The sermon charged "we have not loved but hated our neighbor." What does it mean to hate your neighbor (use specific scripture passages to support your view)? Do you think the overall charge is true, even if there are exceptions?
Jonah had been a strong prophet of God who served in the court of the king. But when God called him to Nineveh, he disobeyed. Commenting on this, Sinclair Ferguson wrote, “No past privilege, nor all past privileges together; no past obedience, nor fruitfulness in service, can ever substitute for present obedience to the Word of God.” How do these statements effect your conscience?
Jaques Ellul wrote of the book of Jonah, “We have here, not moral ideas, but teaching about man’s relations with God and God’s dealings with man.” What does he mean? Why are we so tempted to "moralize" scripture? What's the difference between this and the gospel?
The last line of the sermon was, "God did not ask whether or not we deserved his mercy. He only asked whether we needed it." What does this say about God? How might that shape the way that we treat other people, particularly those we would consider enemies?