May 19: Called to Mutual Acceptance (Romans 11:11-24)

To engage the learners in a study of the Scripture text:

Download the handout “Fall and Rise” here. Divide the class into two groups: the Verses 11-16 Group and the Verses 17-24 Group. Have each group work on the appropriate half of the handout.

Give the class twenty minutes to complete the sheet. Then reconvene and have a spokesperson from the Verses 11-16 Group read aloud the questions and that group’s answers. Next, have a spokesperson from the Verses 17-24 Group do the same with their answers.

Together, discuss the flow of the passage and the insights the learners have gained in terms of the writer’s original intent.

To encourage personal application:

As you think about how much energy is exerted in our culture today to exalt one group of people over another—or over all others—how can you apply today’s lesson to it? What group has in the past exalted (or is now exalting) themselves over you or those you care about? What person or group have you exalted (or are you exalting) yourself over? Based on today’s passage, what should our attitude be toward those people?

Pick a person or group you have sometimes been tempted to feel superior to, if any, and make it a matter of prayer this week to think about that person or group. Remember that it is by our faith in Christ that any of us stands, and that it is by thinking we’re superior that any of us can fall.