Ephesians 5 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Ephesians 5:1-7

 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

A. Find Out:    

1. How are we to imitate Christ? v.1,2
2. What 3 things should not be in our lives and why? v.3
3. What should not come from our lips? v.4a
4. Why? v.4b
5. Who has no inheritance in the kingdom? v.5
6. What causes God’s anger? v.6

B. Think:

1. How does WHO we are determine WHAT sort of life we live?
2. What sort of people should Christians be in their behaviour?
3. What sort of people should they be in respect of their speech?

C. Comment:

First, observe WHO we are: dearly loved children of God.

Second, observe WHY we are: Christ has loved us and died for us in our place to take our sins so that we may appear blameless before God.

Third, observe WHAT we do: we now live lives of love, being as much like Christ as possible. This is real love.

Contrasting the way of the unbeliever with that of the believer (started in 4:17), Paul then lists various things that should not be in our lives as Christians. First, he rejects any form of sensuous desire that pollutes us and says there should not even be a hint of it in our lives. For the Christian there must be total purity before marriage and total fidelity after marriage. There must be purity of life, not partaking in anything that could in any way be considered “impure”. Neither must there be greed for this is again just a sensuous self-expression. Similarly, our language should have a sense of purity about it, constantly flavored with thanks to God.

Paul is quite clear, any person involved in these sorts of things has no place in the inheritance that Christ has for Christians. It’s not words but lives that count before God. We should be careful to avoid a partnership with these sorts of people.

D. Application?

1. Christ gave up his life for us as the expression of God’s love for us.  
2. There is no room in the Christian life for immorality or impurity.

Passage: Ephesians 5:8-14

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible – and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:

‘Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.’

A. Find Out:

1. How are we to live? v.8
2. What fruit is there to be in us? v.9
3. As such what are we to do? v.10
4. What are we to do about the deeds of darkness? v.11
5. What does the light do? v.13, 14a
6. What has happened to us? v.14b

B. Think:

1. How are light and darkness mutually exclusive?
2. Why are we now light?
3. What effect does that have?

C. Comment:

Continuing this comparison between believer and unbeliever Paul now uses light and darkness to further illustrate what he is saying.

Note first of all the CHARACTERISTIC of light: light excludes darkness, light and darkness are mutually exclusive, light and darkness cannot exist in the same place at the same time.

Second, note the LOCATION of light: within us, that we ARE light because Christ has shined into our lives with his light (for he IS light) and he now dwells within us, making us light.

Third, note the EXPRESSION of light within us: goodness (good expressed, wholesomeness), righteousness (moral rightness before God), and truth (devoid of anything false or deceptive). Such are to be ours.

Fourth, note the OPPOSITE to light: darkness, indicating a life of gloom, a life of deeds that are shameful and which must be done in secret. These things are no longer to be in our lives for surely, they cannot exist in the same place as the deeds of light, good and evil cannot be together.

In conclusion, we are what we are now because the source of all light has come into our lives and where he is, it is impossible for darkness to remain.

D. Application?

1. Jesus said, “I am the light of the word” and he’s now in us. (Jn 8:12)  
2. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” and now we are to live as such (Mt 5:14)

Passage: Ephesians 5:15-20

15 Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A. Find Out:

1. How are we to live? v.15
2. What are we to do and why? v.16
3. What are we also not to be and to do? v.17
4. What are we also not to do and to do? v.18
5. What are we fill our lives with? v.19
6. What are we to be constantly doing? v.20

B. Think:

1. What are the characteristics of the two contrasting lifestyles here?
2. When do people naturally sing?
3. What does this say about the Christian life?

C. Comment:

Observe the two lifestyles that Paul has been speaking about. First the unbeliever: unwise, foolish, involves sensual desires, leading to more and more unrighteous behavior. Consider next the other lifestyle, the one Paul says is for us. It is to be:

1. A CAREFULLY CONSIDERED life, whereby we think about who we are and what we do.
2. A WISE life, knowing how we are to live in the face of the sometimes difficult or evil circumstances that come before us.
3. A life of UNDERSTANDING, having an insight and a comprehension of what God’s will is so we not only know how to live but why to live like we do.
4. A life FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, relying upon Him for our life and our power, the power to change us and the power to equip us for serving Him.
5. A life of JOY, singing out the wonder of who we are. People only sing naturally when their spirits are lifted, and joy fills them. That, says Paul, is how I want it to be for you.
6. THANKFUL life, acknowledging that all these good things come from God through Jesus by His Spirit. What blessing!

D. Application?

1. We need to be clear about the sort of life God wants for us.
2. Check your life for these things.

Passage: Ephesians 5:21-33

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church – 30 for we are members of his body. 31 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ 32 This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

A. Find Out:

1. How & why should wives submit to husbands? v.22-24
2. How should husbands love their wives? v.25
3. What was Christ’s aim? v.26,27
4. How also should husbands love their wives? v.28
5. Why? v.29
6. Of what are we reminded? v.31

B. Think:

1. How is the church an illustration to wives?
2. How is Christ an illustration to husbands?
3. How is the church, a body, a further illustration?

C. Comment:

In this passage Paul interweaves instruction to husbands and wives with realities of the church. Paul’s main point is that we are to submit, give way or defer to one another, and that is to be seen in marriages especially, in the same way as it is in the church.

First the SPIRITUAL REALITIES: Christ is the head of the church and gave himself up for it, and so now the church submits to him. He has become one with us and as his body, he now cares for us.

Second the APPLICATION FOR WOMEN: in God’s order of things the man is to be the head of the family (being responsible for it to God) and the wife is to accept him in that role.

Third the APPLICATION TO MEN: the man has no opportunity to lord it over his wife for he is to take Christ as his example, and he is to love his wife in the same way that Christ loved the church. How was that? He gave up his life for the church, his whole being was given, and is given, to blessing the church and making it a wonderful thing. In the same way, this is to be the aim of the husband.

Note here that we cannot make our partners be like this, we just have to ensure that we play our part in being obedient to God’s word and leave Him to do the changing of our partners! Yes, you must!

D. Application?

1. 1God decrees the order for husbands and wives!
2. We are to a) accept God’s order & b) work out our part with His help.