Luke 10

Study Guide 104: Luke 10:25-12:3 SPIRITUAL DETOURS Overview Luke emphasized the humanity of Jesus. It is only appropriate that many of the teachings of Jesus which Luke recorded show us how to live a human life in union with God. This portion of Luke contains some of the best-known stories about Jesus’ life. Here find the story of the Good Samaritan, the conflict between the sisters Mary and Martha, and the Lord’ s Prayer. As you show how each of them is linked with Christian spirituality, you will be communicating a vital message to the members of your class or group. Here your group members can learn to recognize the false trails down which some believers are led, and to recognize spiritual reality from spiritual illusion. SPIRITUALITY. In the New Testament the adjective “ spiritual” (pneumatikos) is contrasted with “ soulish” (psychikos). The word “ spiritual” is used to describe gifts, the law, the resurrection body, understanding, and the believing community, as well as a person. Thus a “ spiritual” person or thing belongs to the realm of the Spirit. A spiritual person is, in essence, one who is not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but who also lives in obedience to the Spirit’ s promptings. Christians have historically been uncertain about the nature of the truly “ spiritual” life. Is it a life without sin? A life of prayer, or fasting? A life of withdrawal? In these paragraphs of Luke we begin to understand more of what spirituality is not — and how to live our lives in union with our God.

Commentary When I was 19, after two years of college, I joined the Navy. At Great Lakes Naval Training Station, I sat in a barber chair and became a “ skinhead,” was issued my uniforms, and was introduced to Navy life. There I received the traditional misdirection given newcomers in any special group. Left-handed wrenches and lost firing lines, and toothbrushes to scrub cracks in the barracks floor, were just some of the things I was told to fetch. And, because at first I really didn’ t know what was expected in this strange new life, I was often confused enough to follow false trails. It was all so new. And I wanted to do the right thing. In many ways it’ s the same for us as Christians. To become a believer is to launch out toward a unique destiny: to become more and more like God the Father as the new life He has planted in us grows and matures. We are to learn to think and feel and be like Him. This godly way of life we’ re to learn is distinctly different from the ways we have known. It’ s far more than mere morality; it’ s transformation. So it is easy to become confused about the road to personal spiritual renewal. It’ s easy to wander away from God’ s pathway, onto sidetracks that look promising but are really only dead ends. Luke 10:1-42 shows how Jesus began to train His followers in discipleship. He began to show them how to live a new life. His words and actions drew contrasts between the way men of the world live and the way His followers are to live. All that is reported in this section of Luke reveals both the straight and narrow path of discipleship, and the dangerous detours and illusions that keep us from our new life’ s goal. What are the false trails down which Christians wander? Perhaps members of your group have been disappointed because they have wandered down one or more of them, and missed true spirituality.

Activism: Luke 10:25-11:13 One of the most deeply ingrained human notions is that a person must do something to merit God’ s favor. We accept gifts from other people. But we seem to want to say of what we receive from God, “ I earned it!” The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The activist’ s approach to life is implicit in a question put to Jesus by an “ expert in the Law” (e.g., Scriptures). But first, it’ s instructive to note that the man who portrayed the activist attitude put an insincere question to Jesus. He asked, “ What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) But the man was not really concerned about Jesus’ answer. He was not motivated to ask his question by a personal sense of need: he was trying to trap Jesus. If he had been motivated by honest desire, the answer Jesus gave might have been more direct. As it is, the answer came all too clear. It was so clear that the questioner soon realized that he, not Jesus, was trapped! “ What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The query contains a contradiction. What does anyone do to inherit? Why, nothing! An inheritance is something someone else has earned. An inheritance comes as a gift. If your father is a millionaire and makes out a will leaving all to you, what did you do to inherit? Why, you were born into his family. The inheritance is based on relationship, not on performance. You do not do something to inherit. Jesus turned the question back on the asker. How did this expert in Scripture “ read” the Word? The man answered correctly. The heart of the Old Testament Law, and of all that God seeks to do in the human heart, is expressed in the command to love God fully and to love one’ s neighbor as oneself (Luke 10:27). All the specific commands in the Law can be summed up by “ love,” for a person who loves fully and rightly will do what God’ s Word reveals to be the right thing (see Romans 13:8-10). This, then, is at once the simplest and most profound demand in the Word of God. Love God completely. And love your neighbor as you love yourself. Phillips translates Jesus’ reply: “ Quite right. Do that and you will live” (Luke 10:27). But this of course is the problem. Do all that! Put all self behind; love God purely and perfectly. Love others as you love yourself. Do all that and you will live. These words sounded doom to the questioner. He had been convicted from his own lips. For he, as every person who has ever lived, had fallen short of doing “ all that.” We have all had selfish thoughts. We have all neglected to put God first. We have all hurt our neighbors. Rather than bring hope, Jesus’ demand that a person “ do all that” brought dismay. The expert in the Law now attempted self-justification. This is characteristic of the activist. He wants to earn what he gets. But he wants to use a balance scale to determine value. He wants to weigh his “ good” against his “ bad,” hoping there will be more on the “ good” side. Jesus’ reply said in effect, “ All right. Use your scales. But remember: your ‘ good’ acts are not weighed against your ‘ bad’ actions. Your acts are weighed against the standard of perfection! Your acts are to be weighed against all that love demands!” When the expert realized that he had condemned himself, he quickly attempted self-justification. “ Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) How quickly we tend to do this. When we feel condemned, we try to modify the standards, whittling a little off here and shifting something there in a vain attempt to better measure up. I recently visited a 21-year-old in the hospital. He had shot himself with a rifle. He went to church as a child, but left as a young teen. He said the thing that earned him an invitation to leave the church was a question he asked. “ Why, when you’ re so proud of sending money overseas for missionaries, won’ t you have anything to do with the poor people across the street?” Now, I don’ t blame the church for my young friend’ s drift to drugs at 13, or for his choice of bad company. But I do wonder. How many of the things we are proud of — our missionary budgets, our separation, our doings and duties — may at heart be expressions of an attempt to whittle God’ s standard of perfect love down to lists of things we can do, and in the attempt feel some pride? At any rate, the expert in Scripture asked Jesus, “ Who is my neighbor?” He didn’ t want to think he must love everybody! We all know the story. We know how an injured Israelite lay, beaten and robbed and in pain, along the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. We know how a priest and a Levite (both men who knew and were to teach the Law) hurried on by. And we know that a Samaritan, a foreigner and a hereditary enemy of the Jews, risked stopping to help the injured man. He carried him to an inn and there paid the full cost of his care. And we know what Jesus said to the expert who had questioned Him. “ You go, and do likewise.” The expert in the Law had come in pride, trying to trap Jesus. Now he went away, and we can hope he went away feeling a personal sense of need. For Jesus challenged this activist on his own field of honor: “ Go and do.” You go, and try. And when you realize that you cannot possibly do all things that are required by the divine law of love, then perhaps you will realize that relationship with God can never be based on human works or accomplishments!Go and do. Then, perhaps, this man would recall the message that Jesus so often taught. Life with God begins with confession and forgiveness. Life with God begins when we abandon our works, and throw ourselves on the overflowing mercies of our God. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT The story of the Good Samaritan has often been used, appropriately, to help Christians realize that the “ neighbor” Christians are called on to help is anyone we know who is in need. It is need, the human condition itself, that makes all of us neighbors. But in telling this story we too often miss the fact that this incident is intended to display the futility of trying to win eternal life through human effort. Help your group discover this emphasis by listing key phrases on the chalkboard. Have group members work in pairs to answer questions about each designed to help them understand this passage.

Phrasequestion do to inheritWhat does anyone do to inherit? Love. . . with all heart, etc.Who can achieve the standard described there? do all thatWhy did Jesus say this? who is my neighborWhy did the expert ask this? go and doWhat would the expert discover if he tried?Use the commentary to help shape your answers to these questions. LINK TO LIFE: CHILDREN Our neighbor is anyone in need. But how do children become sensitive to other’ s needs. On one level, you can help them be sensitive to those with obvious needs in many ways. Create a class “ get well” sign for a sick member. Visit and sing for an older, house-ridden individual. Collect food for the hungry, and bring it to a mission or a soup kitchen, etc. Even young children are not too young to be exposed to needs — or shown how to care. Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). The expert in the Law illustrated an activist attitude distorting the idea of salvation. But is this attitude found only in the unsaved? Tragically, we find it in those who are sincere Christians. The sisters and Lazarus were very close to Jesus. When Jesus and His disciples visited Bethany where the three lived, Martha rushed and bustled about, preparing a special meal for Jesus. Her sister Mary kept slipping away, to sit down and listen to the Lord. Martha, hot and frustrated that Mary wasn’ t helping, asked Jesus to tell Mary to help! Jesus had to rebuke Martha. Mary, who was staying close to Jesus, had “ chosen what [was] better” and that would not be taken away from her. It was not what Martha was doing for Jesus that counted: it was that Mary had paused to listen to Him. The Lord’ s Prayer (Luke 11:1-4). Activism is an attitude, an approach to life and to relationship with God. The activist wants to put his relationship with God on a “ pay-as-you-go” basis. He feels a tremendous need to do something to earn whatever he receives from the Lord. In unbelievers this attitude is focused on salvation. “ Salvation can’ t be a gift!” they argue. “ Let me do something to win God’ s approval. Let me earn my way to heaven.” Like the expert in the Law to whom Jesus spoke, such people have not realized that they truly are lost. Activism also characterizes the life of many Christians. They too want to live on a pay-as-you-go basis. They feel that they have to work to keep God’ s favor. But we believers are children of the Heavenly Father! Helpless children, infants, unable in ourselves to love or to do anything well (see John 15:5). Activism, working to earn spiritual growth and gifts — leads only to the frustration that Martha felt as she bustled and hurried — and saw that her sister was closer to Jesus than she! Then what is God’ s alternative? If we aren’ t to grow by self-effort, how do we grow? Jesus’ answer comes as we see Him help the disciples develop an attitude, not of activism, but of dependence. Consider the implications of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, and its relationship to Luke’ s present theme. Father in heaven, Holy is Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth just as it is being done in heaven. Give us our daily bread. Forgive our sins, as we also live forgiveness with others. And lead us, Father . . . not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Luke 11:1-4, author’ s paraphrase In this simple prayer, Jesus taught all disciples to come to God as Father, not employer. We are to honor Him, not repay Him. We are to make requests of Him, not to demand earnings. We are to realize our need for constant forgiveness, not to shout in pride, “ See how great I’ m doing!” We are to request deliverance, not to promise, “ I’ ll try harder.” The activist attitude is based on the idea that we can do something for God. The disciples’ attitude is based on the awareness that God can do something in us! LINK TO LIFE: CHILDREN It’ s not too early for boys and girls to memorize the Lord’ s Prayer, and think about its meaning. Just as children depend on their earthly parents, we can help them learn to depend on their Heavenly Father and express that dependence in prayer. Select a simplified version of the prayer to memorize — perhaps the NIV or Sweet Publications, International Children’ s Version. Make memorizing a game. Read the prayer with the class. Then let a child select one word to erase. Read the prayer again, and let another child erase another word. By the time all words are erased, your children will have learned this prayer by heart. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT The Lord’ s Prayer is too familiar to most adults. Like other familiar things, we tend to say or read them so quickly we miss the meaning. Help your group focus in on the meaning of the familiar prayer by listing the following words on the chalkboard: relationship, will, dependence, godliness, activism. Ask pairs to take different words, and to study Luke 11:1-4 to answer the question: What does this prayer teach about “ relationship,” etc. The prayer applied (Luke 11:5-13). The next few teachings of our Lord recorded by Luke reinforce all that the disciples’ prayer implies. *Persistence (Luke 11:5-10). The first story teaches by contrast. If you have a friend who is at first unwilling to help you, keep after him. He’ ll finally come down and help just to be rid of you! And Jesus says in application, “ Ask, and it shall be given. . . . Everyone who asks receives (Luke 11:9-10, NASB). God is not like an irritable acquaintance! You can depend on Him, because God cares. Ask Him, and He will give. *Fatherhood (Luke 11:11-13). The second illustration explains God’ s eagerness to meet our every need, and to grant our requests. God is our Father. The key to understanding our relationship with the Lord and His attitude toward us goes back to this fact. The disciple of Jesus comes to His Heavenly Father. And the Father works in his life, even as the Father worked in the life of Jesus. This short section in Luke 10:1-42 and Luke 11:1-54, then, says something basic to each of us. It shows us how we can move on in discipleship and grow to be like our Lord. We cannot grow by attempting to earn. Prayer, not performance, is at the heart of our new life. Spirituality is found in depending, not in doing! God the Father is eager to see us grow as His sons and daughters. When you and I come to Him, depending on Him to work in our lives and through our actions, asking Him for strength, forgiveness, leading, enablement — then God works His sweeping change in our personalities. Have you grasped the meaning of your relationship with God? To a doer, God is at best a Friend, whose help seems to him to depend on persistent self-effort. To the Christian who has learned to depend, God is a Father, who can be relied on completely. How important then that we be followers of God, “ as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1). Do you depend on God? Have you come to Him, listened to His Word, and simply asked, “ Father, make this real in me” ? The road of the activist is a tragic dead end. The highway to spiritual transformation is the path of total dependence. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Put in the center of a chalkboard a column of words that describe Christian behavior. You can include whatever your group members suggest: churchgoing, prayer, helping others, whatever. Leave these on the board as you give a minilecture explaining the activist approach to faith and life explored in Luke 10:25-11:13. Then place checkmarks to the left of each word that your group thinks describes something a person with an activist attitude might do. Go through the list again, and place checkmarks to the right of each word that your group thinks a dependent disciple might do. (Nearly every word will be checked twice!) Discuss: “ What is the basic difference between a spiritual activist and a disciple? How can we tell one from the other? How can we tell if we are activists in our faith, or dependent disciples? What are the key reasons that dependence is a pathway to spiritual growth, while activism is not?”

Indecision: Luke 11:14-32The people around saw all that Jesus Himself did in dependence on His Father. But they still hesitated. And they lost the opportunity for new life. Power over the demonic (Luke 11:14-23). When Jesus cast out demons, people tried to explain it. It could be by the power of God. But might there be some other explanation? Jesus’ enemies said His power over demons came from the prince of demons: it was just a trick to fool people into trusting Jesus. Christ’ s answers (Luke 11:17-18, Luke 11:20) were unable to move them. Finally Jesus confronted them: “ He who is not with Me is against Me” (Luke 11:23). The time for indecision was past. People had to choose. Indecision can spoil the Christian’ s life too. Coming to Christ as Saviour is only the beginning. One must own Him as Lord and decide for discipleship. But so many of us hold back! And only later discover that we have wandered into an empty way of life. Vulnerability (Luke 11:24-26). Jesus illustrated the vulnerability of the man who is forgiven, but will not go on to full commitment. Jesus spoke of an unclean spirit cast out of a man. The man was cleansed, freed from the old dominion. But his personality, though put in order, was not occupied! He was like an empty room. What would happen to him? Unless he filled up the emptiness, other spirits even worse than the one cast out would come in. Even the believer has no defense against evil as long as his or her life is empty. We need the positive, dynamic presence of Jesus Christ filling our lives. We must invite Him to possess us totally if our lives are going to change. Initial faith not followed by total commitment is another spiritual dead end for Christians. Filled (Luke 11:27-28). How do we go about filling our lives with Jesus? Christ explained. “ Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28). This “ doing” is not to be confused with the activist’ s self-effort. Instead it is an opening up of our lives to God, a dependence on Christ for enablement which frees us to respond to God’ s revealed will. This doing is a response, made simply because we want to follow Jesus, and depend on Him to enable us as we keep His Word. Judgment ahead (Luke 11:29-32). This section closes with a warning of judgment. The people of Jesus’ time had heard Him. Except for a small band, they had hesitated far too long. Now the time of invitation was almost past. The next great public evidence of who Jesus is would come in His resurrection (Luke 11:29-30). Then Jesus reviewed how great a sin their failure to decide was. When Jonah came to Nineveh, the people of that pagan city responded with faith. Sheba came to Solomon because she had believed the stories of his wisdom. Yet Jesus — far greater than any and all the Old Testament figures — had come to His people. Had they heard? Had they listened? No, they had hesitated, undecided. And they hesitated still, as the last opportunity of the nation to receive Jesus as King slipped away. What a lesson for us today. Have our group members hesitated too long? Or drawn back from full commitment to Christ as Lord? How important for us all to remember that Jesus, the One with all power, has said to us, “ Follow Me.” We cannot afford to hesitate. Hesitation has such a terrible cost. We might lose ourselves, and never know in this world all that it means to be transformed. How good it is to know that we need not hesitate. Discipleship is not a “ try harder” life, that we’ re afraid to try because we are sure that we’ ll fail. Discipleship is simply depending on God, our Father, confident in that intimate relationship that God will enable us to do His will, and transform us as He has said.

Illusions: Luke 11:33-12:3 I once spoke at a youth conference on evangelism held at Disneyland Hotel in California. I had some free time, and visited the Circlevision theater in Tomorrowland. By linking nine cameras, the Disney photographers had provided a 360 vision of historic and scenic America, shown on giant screens that encircled the watcher. I was particularly jolted when the photographers took us inside a car careening down a twisting San Francisco street — and actually felt the bodily sensations of tipping and turning. It was as if we were in the car instead of standing on solid, carpeted floor inside the theater. Our eyes literally fooled our bodies; we felt what our eyes saw, what seemed to be happening, and not what was actually happening. The Bible points to a similar phenomenon: “ As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV). What a person perceives, what he sees as real, affects his whole personality and his behavior. As Luke moves on in his record of Jesus’ training of the disciples, the writer now shows us two particular illusions that can block our spiritual progress. The disciples of Jesus must see life and its meaning as does their Lord. To see as Jesus sees is vital as we seek to be as He is. The lamp and the eye (Luke 11:33-36). Jesus makes this point in Luke with the illustration of the lamp. “ [A person] puts it on a stand, so that those who come in may see the light” (Luke 11:33). Picture the lamp of Jesus’ day. It was, in all but the wealthiest of homes, a shallow dish of olive oil in which floated a wick of flax. The wick was lit, and gave off a flickering light. The lamp was never bright. Today, coming into a brightly lit home, we’ re hardly conscious of the lamps at all. They shed so much light that what we see is the room they illuminate. But in Jesus’ day men saw the lamp first: they came to the light, and as their eyes became accustomed to the semidarkness, they saw dimly the room that the lamp so imperfectly revealed. The lamp of Jesus’ day, then, was both a focus of attention and an illuminator of all that could be seen, however dimly. The lamp would enable a person to pick out the furnishings of a room, and to pick his way through without stumbling. Jesus then pointed out to His listeners that the eye performs a similar function for the body. The eye too is a focal point: on it depends our perception of what surrounds us, and so too the choices that we make. We find our way through this life by evaluating what we see. We make our decisions by what appears to us to be the safest and best way. “ When your eye is clear,” Jesus then noted, “ your whole body also is full of light” (Luke 11:34, NASB). But what if the eye is faulty? What if you don’ t evaluate correctly? Then you are in darkness! Then you will be unable to move without stumbling. And so Jesus warns us, Watch out that what you mistake as light isn’ t really darkness! (Luke 11:35) With this simple illustration, Jesus had stated a profound truth. If we make a mistake in values, if what we see as important in life is really an illusion, how great is the darkness in which we walk! We will certainly lose our way. We will certainly stumble off the road of the disciple. What is important? (Luke 11:37-54). After each key teaching, Luke reported events which illustrated his meaning. While Jesus was talking about illusory values, a Pharisee (one of those men whose values were completely distorted) invited Jesus to supper. At that table, Jesus showed a few of the false values against which His disciples must guard. The conflict in values appeared as they were seated at the Pharisee’ s table. The Pharisee noted with surprise that Jesus didn’ t “ wash” before the meal. The washing spoken of here was not for cleansing. It was a religious ritual. Over the centuries the Pharisees had embellished God’ s Law with many human traditions and interpretations. In Jesus’ day, these men were careful about every detail of their lives. In fact, their sense of religious superiority and their claim to spirituality was rooted in this care. So before each meal they would carefully wash, dipping their hands into a bowl of water, raising their arms to let the waters run down their elbows. One who had not gone through this ritual washing would not be considered “ clean” enough to eat! Jesus didn’ t follow this tradition. And, noting His host’ s reaction, Jesus launched into a scathing critique of the Pharisee’ s approach to spirituality, and of the values which lay at its root. What were some of the externals that seemed important to the Pharisees? Ritual washing. Ceremonial cleansing of every dish from which they ate. Such careful tithing that a Pharisee would count the leaves of household herbs to make sure 1 of every 10 was taken to the temple (Luke 11:42). It was on such compulsive concern for externals that the Pharisees had built their reputation for holiness! And, in their pride, they loved the front seats of the synagogue and to have men bow to them in public recognition of their spiritual superiority (Luke 11:43). And the Pharisees accepted all this deference as their due. They actually thought they were spiritually superior, because they were so careful in keeping the minutiae of what they saw in God’ s Law. How easy for us to fall into a pharisaic way of life. We too have our traditions, our own criteria of spiritual superiority. But are such things really measures of spirituality? Yes, there are lesser duties that we as Christians should perform (Luke 11:42). But we should not be primarily concerned with such externals. As Jesus spoke to the Pharisee He defined the areas of prime concern: justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42). True spirituality is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of caring about the things that God cares about. And what God cares about is justice and love and doing good to others. Only when our hearts are so tuned will our eyes be cleared of illusion, and we will see reality as Jesus knows it to be. Jesus was interrupted by an expert in the Law. But later He returned to His theme. “ Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (see Luke 12:1). I used to think that hypocrisy was doing something you knew was wrong, to fool others. It can be: one meaning of the original word is “ playacting.” But there is another emphasis here. Hypocrisy is “ outward show.” The Pharisees were not pretending. They actually thought that the outward show, the ritual, the attention to minutiae, was the real thing! They had mistaken externals for the heart of faith. Because they mistook outward show for reality, their inner eye was blind. What they thought was light, was darkness! With their values wrong, all that they might do could only lead them deeper into the dark night of the soul. Warning (Luke 12:1-3). It was later that Jesus warned His disciples, and us, against viewing spiritual life as did the religious people of His day. Outward show had become more important to them than the heart; the external had become reality. Yet, there is a day coming when no one will be able to hide behind his illusions! “ There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (Luke 11:2). When God reveals reality, how vital that neither you nor I nor our group members be found to have wandered into the cold, dark, empty world of outward show. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT One helpful way to enable people to get at the meaning of a biblical passage is to paraphrase. In a paraphrase a person attempts to express meaning without using the words of the original. So why not have your group members individually paraphrase Luke 11:37-44 imagining that Jesus is speaking to present-day Pharisees in the church. When each has completed his paraphrase, work together to do a group paraphrase. Talk through each suggestion made by group members, constantly referring back to the text to make sure the paraphrase expresses the intended meaning. When the group paraphrase is completed, list together “ the important points that Jesus made.”

Teaching Guide Prepare Before the group meets make your own list of “ Christian activities” and do the paraphrase of Luke 11:37-44.

Explore

1. As group members come in, ask each to complete this sentence: “ A spiritual Christian will. . . .” Each is to write down but not share his completion.
2. If there are non-Christians or new believers in your group, you may want to focus on the dialogue Jesus had with the man to whom He told the familiar story of the Good Samaritan. Use the “ link-to-life” idea on above to help all see the futility of attempting to gain acceptance by God through good works.
3. If your group is composed of more mature Christians, give a minilecture on the Good Samaritan story and its lesson, and move on to analyze the Lord’ s Prayer. Linking that prayer to key words, as suggested in “ link-to-life” above, will help your group members discover its vital message of dependence as the key to spiritual growth.

Expand

1. To help your group members see that activism and dependence are basic attitudes toward the spiritual life, make a list of things that good Christians do — and then discover which might be done by the activist, and which by the dependent believer. See “ link-to-life” above.
2. Or have individuals paraphrase Jesus’ criticism of phariseeism, in Luke 11:37-44. Then work toward a group paraphrase that will give special insight into illusions which distort spiritual living (see “ link-to-life” above).

Apply Conclude by asking each person to complete again the sentence with which the group session was begun: “ A spiritual Christian will. . . .” Ask volunteers to share their first completion, and then the second. How have impressions of spirituality changed through this shared Bible study?