The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg
Week 12: Chapter 11 — A Life of Reckless Love (The Practice of Community)
Read Chapter 11 of The Life You've Always Wanted. Key passages: John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 4:7-12.
Previewing Week 12 of The Life You've Always Wanted
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 13-week guide when you’re ready.
Ortberg brings the book to its climax with the discipline that fulfills all the others: love — and he refuses to let us settle for a sentimental version of it.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Ortberg calls love a discipline — not just a feeling or a spiritual gift we either have or don't. What does it mean to practice love as a discipline? What does that practice look like on a Tuesday morning with difficult people in your life?
2.He is honest that Christian community is one of the places where love is most tested and most formed — because the people who frustrate us most are often the people God has placed closest to us. Who in your life is God currently using to train you in love? (You don't have to share their name.)
3.1 Corinthians 13 describes love with a series of verbs: patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not irritable, keeping no record of wrongs. Which item on that list feels most convicting to you right now? Which seems most natural?
a.Ortberg often connects these traits to the specific texture of ordinary daily life. Where in your daily life does the love of 1 Corinthians 13 have its most direct application?
b.How would love as described in that chapter change one specific relationship in your life if you practiced it deliberately?