Bad Religion · Week 2 · Good Works Without Love
October 18, 2026 · Jonah Tolpezninkas

Read: 1 John 4:7–21

“We love because he first loved us.”

Reflection

John begins with a call to love one another, then takes us to its source: God himself. In verses 7–10, knowing God and loving people belong together. We learn what love means by looking at Jesus. The Father sent his Son to give us life and deal with our sins. God took the initiative before we had anything to offer him.

That is why verse 11 moves from receiving love to sharing it. God’s generosity creates a real obligation to care for one another. Verse 12 adds something remarkable: although we cannot see God, his love becomes visible in a community that loves. Think about what someone encounters when they spend time with us. Do they find patience, truthful kindness, and room to be heard?

Verses 13–16 keep that life rooted in God. He gives his Spirit, and we confess Jesus as his Son and rely on his love. Christian love grows through this continuing relationship. We need God’s help when care becomes inconvenient or resentment has settled in.

In verses 17–18, John connects maturing love with confidence before God’s judgment. His words about fear concern punishment; they do not mean a faithful Christian will never feel anxious. We can bring our fears to the God whose Son has already come to save us.

The passage ends with a searching test. Verse 19 grounds our love in God’s first love, and verses 20–21 challenge any claim to love God while hating a brother or sister. Our treatment of the person we can see matters to the God we cannot see.

This extends Sunday’s invitation to let God’s love in Jesus change why we do good. Today, name one person you have been avoiding or keeping score against. Ask God to help you seek their good. Offer an apology, listen without interrupting, or meet a practical need. Such steps express the love you have received; they cannot purchase it.

Personal question

How is my treatment of a particular person agreeing with, or contradicting, my claim to love God?

Practical response

Reread verses 9–11 and 19–21. Name one person and one specific act of care you can offer today without requiring appreciation in return. Pray for them, then follow through.

Prayer

Father, thank you for loving us first and sending Jesus for our sins. By your Spirit, help me rely on your love. Expose the resentment I have excused, and teach me to care for the person in front of me. Amen.

This week’s sermon

Good Works Without Love · Bad Religion, Week 2
Watch the October 18 service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uS_IWUtxM4

Bad Religion · Week 2 · Good Works Without Love
October 18, 2026 · Jonah Tolpezninkas

Read: Romans 5:1–11

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Reflection

Paul begins Romans 5 with what Jesus has already accomplished for those who trust him. To be justified means to be put right with God. Verses 1–2 connect that standing to faith in Jesus, and describe its gifts: peace with God, access to grace, and hope in his glory. Our relationship with God rests on Christ’s work. We can begin today from that place of grace.

Verses 3–5 show that this hope survives hardship. Paul traces a movement from suffering through perseverance and character to hope. He also points to God’s love given through the Holy Spirit. Difficulty does not mean God has withdrawn his care. We can ask for help and grieve honestly while trusting that he remains at work.

In verses 6–8, Paul explains why that confidence is possible. Christ gave himself for us when we were powerless and sinful. We did not first build a record that made his sacrifice worthwhile. God acted in love toward people who needed rescue. When you wonder whether you have done enough to deserve his care, return to the cross.

Verses 9–11 carry the assurance forward. If God reconciled us to himself through Jesus’ death while we were his enemies, we can trust the risen Jesus with our future. The passage ends in joy over a relationship God has restored.

This gives depth to Sunday’s invitation to serve from God’s love. We sometimes turn even honest self-examination into another test: were my motives pure enough, and did I do enough? Paul directs our confidence back to Jesus. We can confess selfishness without making our next good deed a payment for acceptance.

Choose one responsibility in front of you today. Before beginning, thank God for the grace in which you stand through faith. Then do the task with care. You may need to change a habit, apologize, or give more generously. His love gives you reason and freedom to respond. The work becomes an expression of gratitude to the One who loved you first.

Personal question

Where am I treating a task, achievement, or good motive as proof that I deserve God’s love?

Practical response

Read verses 1–2 and 6–8 before one ordinary responsibility. Thank Jesus for making peace with God possible. Then do the task faithfully, asking how it can serve someone rather than prove your worth.

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for giving yourself for me while I was still a sinner. Help me trust the peace you have made and the grace you have given. Sustain my hope in hardship, and let gratitude for your love shape my work today. Amen.

This week’s sermon

Good Works Without Love · Bad Religion, Week 2
Watch the October 18 service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uS_IWUtxM4

Bad Religion · Week 2 · Good Works Without Love
October 18, 2026 · Jonah Tolpezninkas

Read: Matthew 6:1–18

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” — Matthew 6:1

Reflection

In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about three familiar practices of devotion: giving, prayer, and fasting. He assumes his disciples will practice them. The opening warning concerns their purpose: religious activity can become a way to gather an audience and secure its approval.

Verses 2–4 apply that warning to giving. When admiration becomes the goal, the applause is the reward we have chosen. Quiet generosity directs our attention toward the person in need and the Father who sees. We can help without turning someone else’s difficulty into a story about our goodness.

Verses 5–8 bring the same concern into prayer. Jesus invites us to speak privately with our Father and assures us that God already knows our needs. We do not have to impress him with an elaborate performance. Try carrying that assurance into your next quiet moment: God is attentive before you find the perfect words.

The prayer in verses 9–13 then reshapes what we desire. God’s name, kingdom, and will come first. We ask for daily provision, forgiveness, and protection. These requests teach dependence and make room for others through the repeated language of “our” and “us.” Verses 14–15 give a serious warning about refusing forgiveness. We cannot treat the mercy we seek from God as irrelevant to the mercy we extend.

Finally, verses 16–18 address fasting. Jesus tells his followers to avoid advertising their discomfort. Again, the Father sees the hidden life. Across all three practices, attention turns toward relationship with God.

Sunday’s message asked whether good works have become a way to earn love or manage our image. This passage gives us a practical place to begin changing. In Jesus, we can approach God as Father and entrust our need for recognition to him. Today, pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly, then offer one quiet act of care. Let the person’s need matter more than the response you receive.

Personal question

How would my giving, prayer, or service change if I trusted that my Father already sees me?

Practical response

Pray through verses 9–13 one line at a time. Name a need, a sin to confess, and a person you need help to forgive. Then do one helpful thing without announcing it.

Prayer

Our Father, teach me to seek your kingdom in the ordinary parts of today. Thank you for hearing me without a performance. Forgive my desire to make everything about me, and help me extend the mercy I receive from you. Amen.

This week’s sermon

Good Works Without Love · Bad Religion, Week 2
Watch the October 18 service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uS_IWUtxM4

Bad Religion · Week 2 · Good Works Without Love
October 18, 2026 · Jonah Tolpezninkas

Read: 1 Corinthians 13:1–13; Sermon connection: Luke 11:42 (NIV)

“You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”

Reflection

First Corinthians 13 sits inside Paul’s teaching about spiritual gifts and life together as Christ’s body. The chapter speaks directly to how a church treats its people. Gifts become fruitful as love shapes their use. That makes this passage especially searching for anyone who enjoys being helpful, knowledgeable, or dependable.

In verses 1–3, Paul imagines extraordinary speech, knowledge, faith, generosity, and sacrifice. Even these impressive things are empty without love. A long list of contributions cannot answer the question of how we are treating someone. We may give generously and still dismiss a person who needs our attention.

Verses 4–7 describe love in ordinary relationships. Patience makes room for someone who moves more slowly. Kindness asks what would help. Humility loosens our need to win or receive credit. Love refuses to keep using old wrongs as ammunition. Because it rejoices in truth, loving someone can also involve an honest conversation. Persevering love never requires pretending that harmful behavior is good.

Verses 8–13 widen our perspective. Our present gifts and knowledge are partial; love endures. Paul’s pictures of childhood and an indistinct reflection remind us how much growing remains. That should make us humble about our own understanding and patient with another person’s growth. We can value our gifts without treating them as proof that we have arrived.

This develops Sunday’s warning about loving only on our own terms. In Luke 11:42, Jesus confronts careful giving that neglects justice and love. Paul helps us recognize what love would look like in the very relationships our good works are meant to serve.

Read verses 4–7 again with one relationship in mind. Where is patience missing? Where has helping become a way to control? Bring that honestly to Jesus, whose love comes before our performance. Receive his grace, then choose one response that seeks the other person’s good. Perhaps today that means listening before offering your solution.

Personal question

Which description of love in verses 4–7 most challenges the way I am treating someone right now?

Practical response

Choose one phrase from verses 4–7. Ask someone close to you what support would be helpful this week. Listen without defending what you already do, then agree on one realistic way to respond.

Prayer

Father, thank you for the love you have shown me in Jesus. Help me use what you have given me with patience and kindness. Free me from pride and keeping score, and teach me to seek another person’s good. Amen.

This week’s sermon

Good Works Without Love · Bad Religion, Week 2
Watch the October 18 service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uS_IWUtxM4

Bad Religion · Week 2 · Good Works Without Love
October 18, 2026 · Jonah Tolpezninkas

Read: Luke 11:37–54

“Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?” — Luke 11:40

Reflection

A meal becomes a searching conversation in Luke 11. The host notices that Jesus has not washed before eating. This concerns a religious purity custom, a practice also described in Mark 7:3–4. Understanding that setting helps us hear the challenge Jesus makes: careful religious observance can coexist with a heart that resists God.

In verses 39–42, Jesus names greed beneath the clean exterior and calls for generosity toward the poor. The Creator cares about the whole person. Jesus then confronts meticulous tithing that leaves justice and love unattended. He tells his hearers to continue their giving while practicing what they have neglected. We can ask a similar question: has one visible strength become an excuse to ignore another responsibility?

The warnings widen in verses 43–52. Jesus exposes the desire for honor and compares hidden corruption to an unmarked grave. The law experts burden people without helping them. They honor dead prophets while sharing their ancestors’ resistance to God’s messengers. Their teaching obstructs the knowledge they should help others receive. Religious failure here harms other people, too.

The scene ends with leaders trying to trap Jesus in his words. Their response invites us to consider our own: when Scripture exposes something uncomfortable, do we defend our image or become willing to change?

Sunday’s message brought this searching passage together with the good news of Jesus’ love. He sees what our accomplishments cannot conceal, and we need the forgiveness and renewal he gives. We can come honestly to him without first making ourselves impressive.

Bad Religion · Judgment Without Grace · October 11, 2026

Read: Luke 7:36–50

There are two very different responses to Jesus at Simon’s table. Simon, a Pharisee, has invited Jesus into his home. A woman known in the town for her sinful life comes to him weeping. She wets his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, and anoints them with perfume. Simon sees her reputation and questions whether Jesus knows who is touching him.

Jesus knows. He also knows what is happening in Simon’s heart. Neither person is hidden from him. Yet the woman’s past does not keep Jesus from receiving her. He speaks forgiveness to her and, at the end of the encounter, tells her that her faith has saved her.

For some of us, the thought that God sees everything feels frightening. We’ve learned to keep the difficult parts of our lives out of sight. We can show up, say the right things, and still wonder what would happen if anyone really knew us.

This passage invites us to come honestly to Jesus. He already sees what we are afraid to name. We can acknowledge our sin without deciding that we are beyond his mercy. His grace gives us somewhere to bring the truth.

We need that grace now, in the middle of the struggles we would rather hide. We can turn toward him today.

Reflect: What are you afraid to bring into the light with Jesus? What does his response to this woman invite you to trust?

Practice: Take five quiet minutes to name one real struggle in prayer. Resist explaining it away. Ask Jesus for forgiveness and help with the next faithful step.

Prayer: Jesus, you see me completely. Help me stop hiding and come to you in faith. Teach me to trust your love as I face what needs to change. Amen. 

Watch this week’s sermon: Judgment Without Grace

Bad Religion · Judgment Without Grace · October 11, 2026

Read: John 1:14–17; Titus 2:11–12

John introduces Jesus as full of grace and truth. Both belong to who he is. When we pull them apart, we end up with a picture of Jesus that cannot bear the weight of real life.

We know how this happens. We can care so much about being right that we stop caring about the person in front of us. We can also want someone to feel comfortable so badly that we avoid saying anything about a pattern that is hurting them. Most of us recognize at least one of those tendencies in ourselves.

Jesus loves us enough to tell us the truth. Sin matters. It damages our relationships and draws us away from God. His grace meets us there and teaches us a different way to live. Titus describes grace as training us to turn from ungodliness and live with self-control. Receiving grace opens the door to change.

That helps us understand the difference between naming a wrong and condemning a person. We can identify a harmful action clearly without reducing someone’s whole identity to that action. We can take responsibility for our own sin without declaring ourselves hopeless.

Before we consider a conversation someone else needs to hear, let’s receive the whole truth ourselves. Where is Jesus calling us to stop? Where is he inviting us to trust his mercy? We need both his honesty and his kindness.

Reflect: When something needs to change, do you tend to avoid the truth or speak without compassion? How does that show up in one relationship?

Practice: Write down one concern you have been avoiding and one sentence that expresses genuine care. Pray over both before deciding whether, when, and how to speak.

Prayer: Jesus, help us receive all of who you are. Give us courage to face the truth and tenderness toward the people you love. Let your grace change how we live and speak. Amen. 

Watch this week’s sermon: Judgment Without Grace

Bad Religion · Judgment Without Grace · October 11, 2026

Read: Luke 6:36–42; Galatians 6:1–2

Jesus gives us an unforgettable picture: someone trying to remove a speck from another person’s eye while carrying a plank in their own. It would be funny if it weren’t so familiar. We can see another person’s failure with astonishing clarity while making excuses for our own.

In Luke 7, Simon notices the woman’s reputation but misses the condition of his own heart. Jesus draws attention to the love she has shown and the welcome Simon has withheld. Being respectable has not made Simon self-aware.

We can fall into that same pattern. We may have kept our lives looking fairly good while allowing resentment, pride, or indifference toward God to settle in. Following Jesus for years does not make us people who used to need grace. We still need it today.

Jesus tells us to deal with the plank first so we can see clearly enough to help. Honest self-examination changes our approach. We begin a hard conversation aware that we belong among the people who need mercy.

That is why the words we and us matter. We do not need to pretend we have committed someone else’s particular wrong. We can be truthful about our own weakness and our shared need for Jesus. Galatians calls us to restore gently, watch ourselves, and carry one another’s burdens. The aim is to help someone move toward God with humility and care.

Reflect: Before you correct someone else, what needs attention in your own heart? Are you willing to receive the kind of correction you want to give?

Practice: Ask God to show you one attitude you have excused. Confess it specifically. If you owe someone an apology, prepare a simple acknowledgment that takes responsibility without blaming them.

Prayer: Father, help us see ourselves clearly. Keep pride from shaping our words. Make us gentle, honest people who receive correction and help one another draw near to you. Amen.

Watch this week’s sermon: Judgment Without Grace 

Bad Religion · Judgment Without Grace · October 11, 2026

Read: Luke 7:41–47; Colossians 2:13–14

Jesus tells Simon about two people who owe money. One owes five hundred denarii; the other owes fifty. The amounts are different, but neither person can repay the debt. The lender cancels both. Jesus then asks which person will love the lender more. Simon answers that it will be the one whose larger debt was forgiven.

It is easy to become preoccupied with the size of someone else’s debt. We compare histories, habits, and reputations. We congratulate ourselves for avoiding certain failures. But the detail we cannot afford to miss is that neither debtor could pay.

We need forgiveness, too. A respectable appearance cannot settle our debt before God. Recognizing that need makes room for gratitude. We begin to see how patiently God has met us, including in the places we have been slow to acknowledge.

The cross shows us the cost of sin and the depth of God’s grace together. Jesus gives himself for us. Colossians describes God forgiving our trespasses and canceling the record of debt, nailing it to the cross. We can face the seriousness of our sin because Christ has made a way for forgiveness.

The woman’s love in Luke 7 is a response to forgiveness. Jesus points to her faith at the end of the encounter; her tears are not a payment that purchases his mercy. As we remember the grace we have received, gratitude can become love for God and patience with one another.

Reflect: Where have you begun to think of grace as something you needed long ago? What do you need to thank God for today?

Practice: Privately name three ways God has shown you mercy. Thank him for each one. Then choose one practical expression of gratitude: patient listening, a sincere apology, or an act of care.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for giving yourself for us. Help us see the debt we could never repay and receive your forgiveness with gratitude. Let the mercy we receive become love we give. Amen. 

Watch this week’s sermon: Judgment Without Grace

Bad Religion · Judgment Without Grace · October 11, 2026

Read: Luke 7:48–50; Romans 8:1–4

The encounter at Simon’s table ends with Jesus speaking directly to the woman. He tells her that her sins are forgiven, that her faith has saved her, and to go in peace. The voice that matters most is the voice of the one she has come to trust.

Romans 8 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those words invite us to rest our hope in him. We can stop treating our worst failure as the final word about who we are. We can confess honestly, receive forgiveness, and follow Jesus into a changed life.

Peace does not mean every consequence disappears or every difficult feeling leaves immediately. There may be relationships to repair, help to seek, and patterns to turn away from. Grace gives us a reason to take those steps with hope. We can move toward God instead of hiding from him.

And what we receive from Jesus should shape what others receive from us. When someone needs correction, we can remember our own need for mercy. When we need correction, we can listen without assuming that being wrong makes us beyond redemption.

As this week closes, consider where you see yourself in Luke 7. Perhaps you identify with the woman’s shame. Perhaps you recognize Simon’s distance and self-righteousness. Either way, we need to come to Jesus. We need his truth, his forgiveness, and his help today. He is the one who can make us whole.

Reflect: What would change today if you trusted that Christ’s mercy is sufficient for the truth about you?

Practice: Read Romans 8:1 slowly. Bring one specific need to Jesus, then choose a faithful next step: ask for help, make an honest apology, or turn away from a harmful habit.

Prayer: Jesus, help us receive your forgiveness and walk in your peace. Give us courage to change, humility to listen, and grace for one another. Keep drawing us near to you. Amen. 

Watch this week’s sermon: Judgment Without Grace