Who is Your True Lord? · Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. 1

   Read 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Verse 5 says what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord. James pointed out that in that world Caesar was lord, so saying it about Jesus was a political sentence, not only a religious one. What was that sentence costing the people who said it out loud?

2. 2

   James drew a line between a contract and a covenant: a contract is over the moment one side breaks it, a covenant holds because of who made it. He also set the fading glory on Moses' face against the light in the face of Christ in verse 6. What is Paul trying to get you to see in that contrast?

3. 3

   James said the first counterfeit is tampering with the message — giving people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear — and that the hardest line to keep in is that we cannot fix ourselves. Why do you think that is always the first part to get quietly edited out?

4. 4

   James says he prayed a seven-year prayer of salvation: he believed all of it at twelve and it changed nothing, until at nineteen the chaplain of his fraternity looked at him and told him he was a hypocrite. Has anyone ever told you something true about yourself that you did not want to hear? What did you do with it?

5. 5

   When James finally prayed that prayer he was hoping for a dove and got, in his words, not even a mosquito — but two nights later at a party he found a new desire and the strength to walk in a different direction. Where have you wanted a sign and gotten silence? What did you do next?

6. 6

   James got intimidated by a crowd of high schoolers at his son's game and tried to hand the job to his son. He also said yes to a gym competition he knew he would lose, just to stop being the outsider — and ended up flat on the floor and glad. What is the room you have been standing at the edge of? Name one specific step into it before we meet again.