1. Love is absent when the score is kept.

2. Keeping score creates winners and losers.

3. God chose to break the scoreboard.

START TALKING

What are some examples that come to mind from real-life or your own experiences where keeping score would be destined to fail? Or maybe examples of where you tried to keep score and it failed miserably?

START THINKING

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. How do you see the idea of score keeping in each of these statements about love? How does this passage show that love will be absent if we are keeping score in our relationships (with both God and others)?

The phrase "love keeps no record of wrongs" comes in the middle of this passage, and seems to be the "lynch pin" of this passage in that the love statements that come before it and after it seem to center on this idea. Read each of the love statements again and talk about how keeping a record of wrongs is related to each one.

START SHARING

How does the passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 challenge you? Which of the statements are most convicting and why? Which of the statements are most difficult for you?

Read Hebrews 8:12 and Psalm 103:12. What do these passages tell us about God keeping score with us?

Now read Isaiah 64:6. What does this tell us about the futility of trying to keep score with God by impressing him with our good deeds and acts of righteousness?

How do you find that you naturally default to the world's system of keeping score when it comes to your relationship with God? How has that led to struggling with legalism rather than an intimate relationship with Him? How have you experienced that it damages relationships?

START DOING

Take a moment to silently read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 individually, asking God to show you what he wants you to do next as you read this. What did you sense the Spirit telling you to do? What are you going to do about it?

How does this understanding that God doesn't keep score impact the way that you tell your faith story to other people? How can it help others be set free from their faulty understanding of God? Who comes to mind that you can share this with when the opportunity to do so is there?

START PRAYING

Pray for what each person shared above that they sense the Spirit telling them to do next. Pray that we will not allow the score keeping that is innate in every part of our lives to infiltrate our relationships with God and each other. Pray that by doing so each of us will experience Jesus greater each and every day, and that we will be able to help others experience Jesus and the freedom he brings.