Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 10 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Encounter Messages  /  The Shepherd of Hermas: Hope for Repentance  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 10
Tom Kruger says the vision of the tower reminds him that if God, the giver of repentance, holds out so much hope, he cannot give up on his brothers and sisters, his neighbors, or family who have left the Lord. Who are you tempted to give up on, and what would holding out hope look like in your choices and habits?
Another way to ask: Tom Kruger says that if God holds out so much hope, he cannot give up on fellow Christians, neighbors, or family who left the Lord. Who are you tempted to give up on, and what would holding out hope look like for you?

Direct Answer

Holding out hope means refusing to treat anyone as beyond repentance, because God has not done so. The transcript does not give a list of steps, but it points to leaving room for God's work in people.

Support from the Message

- Tom Kruger connects this to the tower: God is the giver of repentance and holds out hope that we can someday repent and go back to that tower. - He names three groups he cannot give up on: his brothers and sisters, neighbors who have yet to repent and come to Christ, and family who have left the Lord. - He says there is always the chance, under our good shepherd, to repent and be chiseled into a stone that makes it into the tower. - From the passage on marriage, he draws the same lesson: we have to leave room for that work to occur.

Discussion Follow-up

Name one person you have quietly stopped hoping for. What is one thing you could do this week that shows you still hope for their repentance?

Jumpstarter 10 of 10
Back Questions Done