For small groups · 10 questions
Ephesians 2 Bible study questions
We were dead in sin, and God made us alive with Christ by grace through faith. Christ broke down the wall between Jews and Gentiles and made one people.
Read the chapter aloud first. Then take the questions in order: what it says, what it means, what to do. About 45 minutes. Skip any question that doesn’t fit your group.
Start here
- What is a gift you received that you could never have paid for?
Look: what does it say?
- How does Paul describe us before God stepped in?Ephesians 2:1-3
- What two words turn the story around, and what did God do?Ephesians 2:4-7
- What wall did Christ break down, and what did he build?Ephesians 2:14-22
Understand: what does it mean?
- What does saved by grace through faith mean? What is it not?Ephesians 2:8-9
- We are saved not by good works, but for good works. How do those fit?Ephesians 2:9-10
- Who were the far off and who were the near? Who might they be today?Ephesians 2:13,17
Live it: what will we do?
- Where do you still try to earn what God gives as a gift?Ephesians 2:8-9
- What good work might God have prepared for you this week?Ephesians 2:10
- What wall between people could you help take down?Ephesians 2:14
Close in prayer
Thank God that you are his workmanship, and pray for unity across the walls in your town.
Ephesians 2
Lumin Translation. It prints after the questions, so the group has the words in front of them.
1 You also were dead through your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked, in step with the age of this world, in step with the ruler who holds authority over the air, the spirit that is now active among those who are disobedient.
3 Among them all of us too once conducted our lives in the cravings of our flesh, doing what the flesh and our thoughts willed, and by nature we were children of wrath, just as the others were.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love he had for us,
5 brought us to life together with Christ, even when we were dead through our trespasses—by grace you have been saved—
6 and he raised us up together with him and gave us a seat with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages that are coming he could display the overflowing wealth of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this does not come from you; it is God’s gift,
9 not from works, so that nobody can boast.
10 For we are what he has made, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared in advance, so that we would walk in them.
11 So keep in mind that you were once Gentiles in the flesh—called “uncircumcision” by those called “circumcision,” a circumcision performed in the flesh by human hands—
12 keep in mind that at that time you were apart from Christ, shut out of the commonwealth of Israel, outsiders to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and no God in the world.
13 But now, in Christ Jesus, you who used to be far off have come near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace. He made the two one, and he demolished the wall that stood in the middle as a barrier,
15 that is, the hostility. In his flesh he put an end to the law of commandments with its decrees, so that in himself he might create one new human being from the two, making peace,
16 and might reconcile both of them to God in a single body through the cross, killing the hostility by it.
17 And he came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 For it is through him that we both can approach the Father, in one Spirit.
19 So you are no longer outsiders and resident aliens. Rather, you are citizens together with the saints and belong to God’s household,
20 having been built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, where the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
21 In him the entire building is fitted together and is growing into a temple that is holy in the Lord.
22 In him you too are being built up together into a home where God dwells by the Spirit.
Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.