Bible Helps: David and Jonathan - Love Your Neighbor as Yourself Youth Bible Study

David and Jonathan – Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

Brief: God calls us to put others’ good above our own.

(Printable Student Sheet available for Patreon supporters or with a purchase of King David, the Mighty Runt.)

Intro Question

Who’s your best friend? What makes them your best friend?

Scripture: 1 Samuel 18:1-13; 20:12-17; Mark 12:28-30; 1 Corinthians 10:24

Saul’s son was named Jonathan. This passage is telling us that after David killed Goliath, Saul’s son Jonathan became David’s best friend. And it says that Jonathan loved David like he loved himself. What does it mean to love someone like you love yourself?

Loving someone like you love yourself means always putting that other person first. You used to put yourself first. You used to focus mostly on what’s good for you. When you love someone like you love yourself, you’re looking out for their good above your own. That’s the kind of friend that Jonathan was to David. He put David’s good above his own.

And, in fact, that’s what God wants us to do for everyone.

Read Mark 12:28-30 and 1 Corinthians 10:24.

Loving other people as yourself and putting others’ good before your own is what it means to be a real friend.

Read 1 Samuel 18:5-13.

Why does Saul try to kill David?

Saul is jealous of David. People are calling David greater than Saul, and Saul is jealous of that. He wants to be called greater than David. Does that sound like Saul is putting his good first or others’?

Saul is putting himself first. When we love other people like ourselves, we can be happy about the good things that they have or the good things that are happening to them, even if we don’t have those things. We’re looking out for their good above our own and so are happy when good things happen to them. But Saul is being selfish and putting himself first.

Saul continues to try to kill David off and on whenever he gets jealous of him, and Jonathan, Saul’s son and David’s best friend, finally has to help David escape.

Read 1 Samuel 20:12-17.

When Jonathan talks to his father, he finds out that Saul really does want to kill David and so he sends David away like he said he would.

Who is Saul? (The king.)

And that makes Jonathan what? (The prince.)

Jonathan is next in line to be king. If he would have helped his father kill David, then, when Saul died, Jonathan would have been king, not David. But instead, Jonathan helps David escape and only asks for David to be kind to him and his family when David becomes king. If Jonathan had helped kill David, he would have been looking out for his own good because then, he would have been king, but instead, Jonathan is unselfish – he is loving – and puts David’s good first.

The question is this: What kind of person are you? What kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to be someone who is selfish and puts yourself first, or do you want to be a loving person who puts others’ good above your own?

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This lesson is included in my book, King David, the Mighty Runt: Youth Bible Studies on David's Road to the Throne.