Key Question: U2.2 What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the twenty-first century?

LO: I can explain the impact Jesus’ example and teachings might have on Christians today

The value of love: what did Jesus teach and what difference does it make?
• Ask pupils to think about three Bible quotations: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ “Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends’ “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
• In a sense, all three are about love: Christians believe that the love of God is the greatest treasure; that giving your life for others is the greatest love, and that in the end, love wins and even death will be destroyed.
• Give pupils a chance to respond to these three big ideas giving their ideas and opinions. What do they think each one means? Do they agree or disagree? It is interesting that these are the three Bible quotations found in the Harry Potter books.
From 1 Corinthians 13, Saint Paul’s Poem of Love
• Focus on the Christian value of Love using the passage from the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Draw attention to the fact that this is a poem, about 1950 years old, read aloud in more weddings on earth than any other reading. Take the poem to pieces: it says ‘Love is / Love is not / Love does not / Love always / Love never…’ Ask pupils what they think Saint Paul’s best lines are, and why. Ask them to write their own descriptive poetry about love, using the sentence stems above.
• You might link this to a Christian festival: Saint Valentine’s Day is a ‘festival of love’, but so too are Christmas, Easter and Pentecost in their own ways.
• Think, pair and share responses to the questions: what is love? What difference does love make? How do we recognise love? There could be powerful links to the SRE curriculum here: draw attention to some different kinds of love, between parents and children, between partners, including people who are married, between friends, and between God and humanity. Feed ideas back in class discussion. How do people show love to friends? Community? The wider world? Give pupils heart shaped paper for their written responses.