Curriculum
As I have Loved You
Memory Verse:
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Bible Background
What Kids Will Learn
Jesus calls us friends. He loved others so much that He spent time with them and even was willing to die on the cross. Jesus doesn’t want us to keep His love to ourselves but to share it freely with others.
Scripture Summary
Jesus had just taught about the vine and branches. He is the vine— the source of all life, love, and nourishment. We are the branches— extensions of Him and His love.
Life will present great times and hard times alike, but the joy that comes from a consistent relationship with Jesus Christ can withstand the ups and downs of life’s circumstances.
Jesus is the perfect example of how to love others. As fully God, Jesus is love. Everything about Him and everything He did came from love. As fully human, Jesus shows us what it’s like to love others. In fulfilling God’s plan, Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us, His friends. Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
While we will probably not be faced with literally laying our lives down for our friends, we can follow Jesus’ example of everyday sacrificial love (listening, giving, serving). Jesus commands all of us to “love each other as I have loved you.”
Jesus calls us friends. Because Jesus is God and has God’s authority, He has every right to call us servants. But out of His great love for us, He chooses each of us as friends.
The first decision was Jesus’—to love us so much and die for us. The next decision is ours—whether or not we choose to accept Him and His love. It’s not always easy to follow Jesus’ example and love others well. But God gives us the strength and wisdom needed to carry out His command of loving others.
Why Is This Important
Jesus wants us to love others well. He spent His life and ministry showing us just how to love others. Jesus promises to give us the strength and wisdom to love others with His love.
Teacher Devotion
Scripture
“When Jesus heard him, He stopped and ordered that the man be brought to Him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’” (John 18:40-41)
Jesus paid the ultimate price of friendship. He laid down His life for us, His friends, and paid our debt of sin (John 15:13). This fulfillment of God’s plan happened on just one day of Jesus’ three-year ministry.
But what about the other 1,094 days? How else did Jesus love others?
While we might not have an opportunity to literally lay down our lives for our friends, I wonder what we can learn from how Jesus showed His love for others in the everyday commitments and conversations of His ministry.
Jesus was interruptible. Oh, I struggle with this one. As I set out for the day, I have too many to-dos listed for the
time allowed and often plow through in attempts to cross off each task. Rather than my bulldozer-like follow through, I lack the approachable nature Jesus so lovingly displayed as He stopped and interacted with blind Bartimaeus. A friend called this “the ministry of availability.” I resonated with her approach to creating enough space and margin in her day for interruptions.
Jesus was intentional. Jesus was present in the moment with each person He encountered. He was truly prepared, not with a to-do list and solutions for every anticipated outcome that day, but with time spent with God. He knew only the Father could prepare His heart and mind for what He was to face that day.
Prayer
Take just a few minutes and ask God to show you someone in your life who needs His love today. Ponder what it would look like to love this person well. It could be an invitation to lunch later this week, a kind note in the mail, or an offer to complete a chore and lighten his or her load.
We can thank Jesus for His great love for us as we’re intentionally seeking ways to show His love to others.
Dear God, thank You for loving me. Please help me follow Your example of loving others well. Whether I struggle with being interruptible or intentional, may You guide my next step today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Bible Memory Verse
Get Ready:
Before class, make up a chant for kids to echo back to you using the words of the memory verse.
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12 Lead kids in these steps:
- Invite kids to line up in a single file line.
- Help kids to march in unison.
- After kids are marching in unison, invite them to echo back the chant until they have the verse memorized.
SAY: Today we are going to learn that Jesus commanded us to love one another. He didn’t say to do it if you felt like it or if you really liked that person. Jesus commanded us to love one another like He loves us.
Interactive Bible Experience
You’ll Need: Bibles - one per child
- Invite kids to turn their Bibles to John 15.
- Show kids how to make a heart with both of their hands. They’ll bend their fingers, touching the backs of their fingertips togeth- er, to make the two rounded tops of the heart. They’ll stretch their thumbs down to meet to make the bottom point of the heart.
- Explain that as you read the passage aloud, kids are to make the heart shape each time they hear the word “love.”
- Read John 15:9-12 aloud.
ASK:
- What do you think Jesus means by loving others in the same way He has loved us?
- Give an example of loving others as Jesus loves us.
- Share that Jesus is going to further explain in the remainder of the passage.
- Read John 15:13-17 aloud, having kids continue to show the heart with their hands when they hear the word “love.”
- After you have completed the passage, tell kids they’re going to play a “true or false” game.
- Have kids stand and show them how to make an even bigger heart with their arms arched above their heads, as well as an X, by stretching their arms and legs away from their bodies.
- Explain that you’re going to read statements, and they’ll make a big heart if they think the sentence is true. If they think the sentence is false, they will make an X shape with their arms and legs.
Here are the statements:
- It is best to try NOT to remain in Jesus’ love. (FALSE)
- We can remain in Jesus’ love by loving others the way He does. (TRUE)
- We are to love one another as we feel like it. (FALSE)
- The greatest love is one that lays down his life for his friends. (TRUE)
- Jesus is pleased when His friends follow His commands. (TRUE)
- Jesus says we don’t need to love one another that much. (FALSE)
SAY: Sometimes we don’t feel like loving others, or we don’t think they deserve to be loved. But the truth is that we don’t deserve the love of Jesus. He lived a perfect life, but He laid down His life for us by dying on the cross for our sins. If we’re a follower of Jesus, we don’t get to choose if we want to love; Jesus commands us to love one another.
Snack
The Colors of Love Snack
You’ll Need: “The Colors of Love” handout - one per child, Individual bags of traditional M&Ms (with red, orange, yellow, brown, blue and green candies)
Follow these steps to share “The Colors of Love” snack:
- Give each child an individual bag of M&Ms and a handout.
- Explain that as they take out each M&M, they will go around the table and share their response to that color’s statement or question.
- Continue sharing until their M&Ms are gone.
SAY: It was great to listen to you share with one another. Remember that today’s lesson calls us into action. We are to love others. We are to love people who are easy to love, love people who are not easy to love, love people who are like us, love people who are not like us, love our enemies, and LOVE LIKE JESUS.
Game
Show the Love Game
You’ll Need: Index cards, A pen or pencil, A timer
Get Ready:
Before class, write at least 10 scenarios of how kids can show love to others on the index cards. For example, write a card to someone, help someone with a chore, be friends with someone who doesn’t have friends, say nice things, and so on. Fold the index cards in half.
Follow these steps to play “Show the Love”:
- Divide the class into two teams.
- Play rounds of Charades, giving each team one minute to try to guess what their teammate is acting out. They may use props if needed.
- Each team that guesses correctly gets a point.
- The team with the most points in the end wins.
ASK:
- What can you do when it is hard to love someone?
- Who, in your life, do you see the love of Jesus in most? How do they show it?
SAY: There is no love like the love of Jesus. He loves us so much, He laid down His life for us. When we love others, we have the opportunity to point them to Jesus and His life-changing love.
Craft
Hand Hearts Craft
You’ll Need: 11 x 17 white construction paper - one per child, Washable paint in various colors, Paper plates, Markers, Wet wipes
Get Ready:
Pour paint on separate paper plates.
To make the “Hand Hearts,” have kids follow these steps:
- Give each child a piece of construction paper and a marker.
- Tell them to write “Love one another” at the top of their pages.
- Have kids draw an extra-large heart on their paper to fill most of the page.
- Instruct kids to lay out their papers around the room
- Have them walk around to each of the other papers and sign their names outside the heart.
- Have kids make a handprint inside each child’s heart using the paint. Tell them to use only one color the whole time. (It’s okay if the handprints overlap.)
- Challenge kids to take their hearts home and hang them some- where where they can remember to pray for and love their friends.
SAY: I love all the different hand prints on your hand heart art. That reminds us that we are all different, but we are still called to love one another. Our class is a safe place to practice loving one another so you will be ready to love others outside of church.
Prayer
Love Chain Prayer
You’ll Need: Construction paper in various colors Tape, Markers
Get Ready:
Cut construction paper in strips, the same length and size. Cut enough strips for each child to have several.
- Provide the children with strips of various colors of the paper strips.
- Give the children a specified time limit to write the names of people they can love on the slips of paper.
- Next, instruct them to link strips together using tape, to form a chain.
- Explain to the children that each loop represents all the people that need to know God’s love—which is everyone in the world.
- Give children time to pray for each person on their loops.
- Invite them to take their loops home to continue praying for the people in their lives they may need help loving.
PRAY: Dear God, thank You for Jesus. He is the perfect example of love. Thank You that Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to lay down His life for us. Help us love others like Jesus loves us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
