Key Truth: We must also cultivate the interior and personal aspects of our lives through thanksgiving and discern what pleases God so as to shine as a light for the life of the world.  

Introduction:

How are you affected by what other people think, say, and/or do with their own bodies?

“In the preceding section the apostle had spoken of sins against our neighbor; here, from ver. 3 to ver. 20, he dwells principally on sins against ourselves.”

Charles Hodge, Ephesians

The Call to Cultivate Our Interior Lives with Thanksgiving:

Ephesians 5:3-6 

“The antidote to all of these destructive patterns of behavior and speech is not renewed focus on improving interpersonal relations but thanksgiving to God. There seem to be several respects in which this might be so. For example, each of these vices in one way or another reflects a level of disorder in one’s desires and loves. Thanksgiving reorders a believer’s loves so that they are focused on God. Further, cultivating the habit of thanksgiving also enables believers to love others in God properly. Thus, focusing believers’ attention thankfully on God can also enable believers to apprehend their neighbors with the love God commands them to show.”

Stephen E. Fowl, Ephesians: A Commentary

What sins do you most frequently commit against yourself?
Do you recognize the impact that this is having on people in your spheres of influence and at church?
What are you doing to cultivate the interior and personal aspects of yourself in Christ for the life of the world?

The Call to Discern What Pleases God for the Life of the World:

Ephesians 5:7-14

“The gospel of light produces fruit; its effects appear with spiritual naturalness, not be artificial forcing or feeding. By contrast darkness produces works—effort, toil, a sinful striving. Sin, at the end of the day, exhausts and then kills us. It is unfruitful—it produces the ‘body of death’ (Rom. 7:24) and destroys the soil in which grace and lasting pleasure grows.”

Sinclair Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians

What rhythms of life, habits, and actions have you discerned to be pleasing to the Lord?
What was the purpose of Christ being our light?
What is the purpose of our being a light in the world?

Application: 

Ephesians 5:3-14 teaches us that we are to:
-cultivate the interior and personal aspects of our lives through thanksgiving
-discern what pleases God so as to shine as a light for the life of the world 

Benediction:

Ephesians 6:23-24