Living in the Image of God M06S04

We discuss Peter and John interactions with a lame man at the Temple gate, to understand recognizing a need and an opportunity to make positive impact by addressing the need; assessing your capabilities to provide goods or service to address the need; and preparing the beneficiary to understand what you can offer them and how the offer will address their need. Your capabilities are “what the Lord has given us” that you control: to serve the benefits of self, others, and community by addressing needs that God will show you. Peter and John recognized that the lame man presented them an opportunity to make positive impact using their capability to heal the sick. The man had asked for money but they offered him healing instead, to make lasting positive impact on the healing recipient and others that may witness the events or learn about them later.

This bible study discusses Peter and John interactions with a lame man at the Temple gate. The man was lame from birth and was carried and placed at the temple gate daily to beg from people going into the temple courts. Peter and John recognized the need and cared about the lame man. They assessed the need and their capabilities and recognized an opportunity to make lasting positive impact on the man and others that may witness the events or learn about them later. They recognized they could make such impact by healing the man, thus making him a visible beneficiary of their healing capability.

Their healing capability, after all, was a gift of God, given to each of them for the benefit of others: that is, a special case of “what the Lord has given us” that you control. In general, your capabilities—physical, mental, and spiritual—are “what the Lord has given us” that you control: to determine how to respond to needs that God will show you—to choose when and how to address the needs—needs of self, others, or community. In choosing to heal the lame man instead of giving him money, Peter and John illustrate that a person presented with a need can choose how to address the need, based on understanding what is needed and assessing his or her capabilities to provide for the need.