For the Love of God: Small Group Study Guide: By This All People Will Know That You Are My Disciples

A companion for walking through For the Love of God chapter by chapter, in community. This 16-chapter Small Group Study Guide follows the full arc of Paul T. Barham's For the Love of God: By This All People Will Know That You Are My Disciples - from the book's opening claim that God has only ever had one plan, all the way through its closing charge: "Go love someone." Organized into the same four sections as the book itself: Section I: The Big Picture - God's unwavering plan, and Satan as a real but already-defeated enemy whose usual tactics are deception, division, diversion, and discouragement. Section II: Understanding Love - what Agape love actually is (not just a feeling, proven by action), and how God's love for us came first, entirely unearned. Section III: How We Are to Love - the practical, sometimes uncomfortable work of loving God, loving yourself, and loving family, other believers, neighbors, and enemies. This section includes two shorter interludes - Avoid Judgment and Vengeance, and Healthy Boundaries - giving groups flexibility to pair a lighter session with the chapter before or after it. Section IV: The Last Word - why love outlasts even faith and hope, love's many practical forms (generosity, compassion, patience, humility), the Apostle John's story of a life reduced to one repeated sentence, and a closing chapter that ties the whole study together. Every chapter follows the same rhythm: Key Points to anchor the chapter's core ideas, 8-10 Discussion Questions written to open real conversation rather than invite one-word answers, and a Personal Application section with space to name one specific, concrete change to try before the group meets again - with a built-in prompt to revisit that commitment at the next session. This is a write-in guide, not a workbook to read passively. Every discussion page includes ruled space for notes and answers, so it can be used cover to cover by a small group, a couples' study, or an individual working through the material alone. The guide also includes leader notes flagging chapters that touch on sensitive topics - past hurt, church wounds, unsafe relationships - so facilitators can hold those sessions with care. Whether you're leading a group for the first time or you've led dozens, this guide gives you the structure to have a real conversation about love - not just cover the material. NASB-grounded throughout, matching the theology and Scripture translation of the companion book.