Children of Light

Study Guide & Video

Week 9

With the Spirit

Ephesians 5:3-20

Alternative Video site: https://vimeo.com/298896212

Opening:  How grateful a person are you?  When are you most likely to express being thankful?  (If you participated last week, share with the group how practicing speech that builds up went.)

Examine the Passage: Ephesians 5:3-20.

• Paul strongly speaks out against sexual immorality, greed and the negativity that can come from our words (vs. 3-7). How does our society’s culture normalize these behaviors so that we miss how terribly bad they really are for us?  How does society tempt us to walk in this darkness? 
• How did Paul describe our walk as “children of the light?”  What are some practical ways you can walk as children of the light today (vs. 8-14)?  Grab a pen and circle or highlight these words that describe how we ought to live.

What is missing from an English translation of this passage, in verses 18-21, is a clear way to outline what is being said.  There are two imperatives (commandments) which we must do and five participles (-ing words) which describe how we fulfill the second imperative.  (Note: in the English translations, sometimes in order to keep from long, run-on sentences, participles are switched over and written to appear as new sentences with separate commandments.)  Here is the structure for verses 18-21.  Note the four (five) things you can do to be filled with the Spirit. Grab a pen and circle or highlight them in your Bible.

• Do not get drunk on wine…instead, (Command)
• Be filled with the Spirit (Command)
  • Speaking to one another psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit
  • Singing and making music from your heart to the LORD
  • Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything…
  • Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
• What role does corporate worship play in growing your connectedness with God?
• What role does personal worship play in growing your connectedness with God?
• Why do you think Paul associates gratitude with being filled with the Spirit?
• How might submitting and living in harmony with others help us to be filled with the Spirit?
• Practically, how might you ‘make the most of every opportunity’ (vs. 16) and participate more in these activities?

Explore the Theme:  Thankfulness.  “Brothers and sisters, rejoice!  Strive for full restoration, encourage one another…. “(2 Corinthians 13:11)

• How has a grateful person affected your own vision of what matters in life? How has someone who lives out of bitterness affected your life?
• How does comparison work against thankfulness? When are you tempted to compare?
• In what environments are you tempted to be overly-critical in? How can move toward thankfulness to counterbalance negativity in those scenarios?
• Name a time you were thankful in retrospect for something that was challenging or painful.

Engage Your Life:  Practice thanksgiving.  Devote yourself to the serious business of being grateful.  Create a long list of things which you are thankful for – in your journal, on your smart phone or on a list on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror.  Return to this task throughout the day.  Make alerts on your phone to remind you.  Consider people, opportunities, unique things about you, common everyday things, challenges and traits of God as potential items to go on your list of things for which you are thankful to God.  Come next week prepared to share about practicing thankfulness. 

Praying Grace and Peace:  As a part of sharing prayer requests, this week devote significant time to sharing things for which you are grateful.  Provide for a couple of minutes of your prayer time to be specifically focused on thanksgiving and praise, and then go to corporate prayer for one another and for praying grace and peace to all.  

(Note: you may want to add the phrases, “light,” and “children of light,” from Ephesians 5:8 to your note card that you made during the 6^th lesson which highlights our identity in Christ as found in Scripture.)