Jumpstarter 1 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion

Question 1

Paul commands, “Let love be without hypocrisy,” and the lesson connects this to Judas’s kiss; where do you see “Christian love” functioning as a mask today, and what would change if love included the hard work Origen describes—admonishing and correcting someone who is erring?

Another way to ask: Where do you see “Christian love” being used to look good on the outside, like a mask? How would things change if love also meant doing the hard work of warning and correcting someone who is going the wrong way?

Direct Answer Based on The Historic Faith’s teaching, “Christian love” becomes a mask whenever it stays polite on the surface but refuses the honest, costly work of helping a brother or sister turn from error. If love included Origen’s “admonishing and correcting,” it would become more truthful and less flattering, aiming at the other person’s good rather than keeping appearances.

Support from Transcript:

Paul’s command is explicit: “Let love be without hypocrisy,” contrasted with “the hypocritical kiss Judas gave Jesus.”
The lesson says genuine love is “without pretense,” and “repudiates the mask of pretense.”
Origen’s test: someone “may think he loves his neighbor,” but if he sees him erring and “neither admonishes him nor corrects him,” then “such love is a pretense.”
“Genuine love allows no flattery, nor does it have anything artificial about it.”
This is tied to Leviticus 19:17: “You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him.”

Discussion Follow-ups What fears keep us from correction—conflict, losing approval, or being called judgmental? How might correction look different if it is done as “brotherly love” rather than as irritation?

Jumpstarter 1 of 10

Add your phone number?

Thank you!

Jumpstarter 1 of 10