"Playing the Harp for Your Enemy - Doing Good to All" Youth Bible Study on 1 Samuel 16

Brief: God calls us to show love to everyone, even our enemies.

(Printable Student Sheet)

 

Intro Question

Have any of you ever had someone in your life who you would consider an enemy? Maybe another student at school, or maybe someone who hurt you in the past, maybe someone now who generally makes your life difficult?

Today, we’re going to read about how one man dealt with his enemy.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:14, 17-23; John 14:15-17, 26; 1 Peter 3:9

 

Read 1 Samuel 16:14

It says that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. Have you ever thought about God’s Spirit leaving someone? How do you think someone gets God’s Spirit in the first place?

 

Read John 14:15-17, 26

Everyone who believes in Jesus has God’s Holy Spirit living inside them. If you believe in Christ, you have a part of God living in you.

At that time, God had also given His Spirit to King Sau.. But now, the Holy Spirit had left Saul. Why do you think that was? What would make the Holy Spirit leave someone?

Saul had been sinning against God. That’s why God chose someone else to be king. And that’s why God’s Spirit left Saul. God is holy, and if someone is continually sinning against God and not listening to God, God’s Spirit won’t stay with that person. If someone doesn’t want God in their life and they won’t listen to Him, God won’t stay there. He leaves.

 

Read 1 Samuel 16:17-23

Who is chosen to play for Saul? (David.)

When God rejected Saul as king because of all his sins, God chose David to be the next king. If David knew that he was going to be king after Saul, do you think David would want to help Saul feel better?

It would be hard. Saul was kind of like David’s enemy at this point. Saul was the bad king, and as soon as Saul was out of the way, David could take over as king. Some people in David’s position might even try to kill Saul so that he could be king sooner.

But David is good to Saul. He serves him and helps him feel better. And I think that shows us how we are supposed to act toward our enemies. If someone is mean to us, we should be kind to them. And we should try to help everyone in any way we can, even people we don’t like.

 

Read 1 Peter 3:9

Peter tells us that when someone does something wrong to us or insults us, we shouldn’t be mean back, but we should do good to them and that if we are good to the people who are mean to us, then God will reward us.

God wants us to be the bigger person. He wants us to show His love to everyone, no matter what they do to us.

If someone is being mean to you, and you keep being nice to them, what do you think that person will do?

Most of the time, that person will stop being mean to you. It’s hard to be mean to someone who’s always nice to you. They’ll feel bad about how they’ve been acting and will stop.

That’s what happens most of the time. But even if they don’t stop being mean, God wants us to still be nice to them. And He will reward us for doing the right thing.