Discussion Notes

v5
Why did they do this and why not go to the Gentiles? Salvation comes first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. We do not know why, but we could guess. It could be that the Jews should have the first chance at salvation through Jesus Christ because they were the holders of the Jewish faith, the seed of Abraham who God made a convenant through and creates the Jewish people. Another potential, or additional reason, is practical--the disciples are not ready to go to more hostile areas where the Gentiles are. They need more preparation.

We also see this story with 72 disciples in Luke 10.

v8
Give freely because God has given us everything

v34

• "I thought peace was the whole purpose?"
• Yes, peace with God, but it might come at the cost of battle with other humans. Yet, Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 that our battle is against spiritual entities, not humans. They are the true evil.
• v28: there will be strife, trust in God (John 16:33)
• notice: the sword came by confessing Jesus is Lord

Others Discussions

How do you approach giving truth to someone who is oppositional to the truth?

• in car sales while trying to sell a car, if someone is highly emotional, then use logic. If show a lot of logical thinking, use emotions
• similar to getting into a locked house, try every door and window. We must try different methods of softening the person to the truth. At the end, prayer will be most effective, as very little will happen without the Lord (Psalm 127:1-2).
• look for spiritual gifts. How does God speak to you or to the other person?
• we realized that it is OK to use Scripture when comparing doctrine, but some of us thought familiar disagreements shouldn't use Scripture
  • some of use disagreed and thought that Scripture is fair game for any situation
    Misc
    We should compare to Christ, not each other. Christ is our perfector in faith and we should aim for righteousness. Jesus even said, "you, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) If we wait until perfection to correct others, we will never be able to correct. Lastly, we learn more by sharing and teaching than anything.

We also talked about being asleep in death. We mentioned that 2 Corinthians 5:8 says that the soul is immediately with God, but the body is dead.