The Backdrop
Divide and conquer. It’s a strategy used from military and political campaigns. You’ll hear the phrase applied jokingly when parents overwhelmed with their children’s needs and sinisterly when a committee member seeks to sway the outcome of a meeting. It’s also the go-to strategy of Satan. If he can get us alone (divide), we’re easy targets (conquer).
The What
That’s why we’re given specific instructions about connecting with a group of believers and how to act in relation to that group.
Read the passage below from your Bible, or if you’re not comfortable marking in your Bible, print it on a separate sheet of paper. As you read, do these things:
1. Draw an exclamation point over anything that is a warning.
2. Draw a megaphone over anything that is an instruction.
3. Draw a rainbow over anything that is a promise.
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (
The So What
Take a minute to ponder the warnings you saw. Write down your thoughts to these questions:
1. What point do you think God is trying to get across here?
2. What connection do you see between the warnings and the promise?
3. How have you neglected these warnings?
4. What do you need in order to do to heed these warnings?
Now take a minute to ponder the instructions you saw in this passage. Write down your thoughts to these questions:
1. To whom are we to do good?
2. To who are we especially to do good?
3. Why do you think the family of believers was singled out?
Seal the Deal
One of our biggest sources of spiritual encouragement is our church. This instruction to do good especially to our family of believers is a mechanism God put in place to make sure we have a healthy family of believers to help us make it through life. He does that by prompting us especially to be sure to take care of people in our churches and youth ministries.
Brainstorm about the answers to these questions. Let’s start with your youth ministry or the people with whom you go to church:
1. As a member of a youth group, you have an opportunity to contribute good to the atmosphere surrounding your ministry by being friendly, supportive and encouraging; or you can subtract from the good by complaining and being non-supportive. Do you tend toward contributing good or toward subtracting good?
2. How can you do good to all the teens in your youth group or people in your church? This might sound as if you’re playing favorites. (Aren’t we supposed to do good to all people?) We are to do good to all people, but fellow believers were singled out in this passage for us especially to do good, so let’s take that seriously. Make a list of specific tasks you can do or actions you can take to do good to your peers or other people in your church.
3. What can your group do to encourage an atmosphere of doing good to each other?
The easiest people to love (or do good to people) should be the people with whom we go to church. If we can’t show love with these people, then the love we show to others perhaps isn’t authentic. So, start with the believers around you. As you do good to each other, enjoy the benefit of being a part of something special that the enemy cannot divide.
