Ephesians: “Stay Awake!”

May 11, 2025

Ephesians 5:6-15

Study Questions

1. Read Ephesians 5:6-15. Describe the difference between physical darkness and spiritual darkness.

2. Identify the different words and phrases that the Apostle Paul uses to describe the darkness and the light. What words and phrases could you add to them?

3. Focus on Ephesians 5:11-13. Identify and discuss the battle between the flesh and spirit. (See Matthew 26:41; Romans 8:7,13; Galatians 5:15-16; Romans 7:14-25.) What does this struggle look like in your life? What does it look like practically to ‘not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness’?

4. Identify activities of the flesh (sinful nature) that are typically done in secret. Why is that?

5. Read Psalm 97:10 and Romans 12:9. Describe in your own words what it means to ‘hate’ evil.

6. What would need to change in your life in order to deny the desires of the flesh (sinful nature) and walk as a child of God?

Additional reading: “My Sin Feels So Good in the Moment. Why Stop?” Desiring God, John Piper, May 22, 2017. https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/my-sin-feels-good-in-the-moment-why-stop