Every Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn & Fred Stoeker
Week 5: Part Three — Choosing Victory
Read Part Three, Chapters 8–9 of Every Man's Battle. Key Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Hebrews 12:1-2.
Previewing Week 5 of Every Man's Battle
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
The shift in these chapters is from diagnosis to decision — the authors call you not just to understand the battle but to make a firm, costly, and specific choice to win it. Come to these questions ready to move from awareness to commitment.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.The authors frame purity as something that must be chosen decisively, not drifted into. Fred Stoeker describes his own moment of choice — a clear-eyed decision that he was going to pursue purity regardless of how hard it was. Have you ever made such a decision? If so, what happened to it over time?
2.Arterburn and Stoeker use the language of an athlete in training — disciplining the body for a prize. Paul's imagery from 1 Corinthians 9 is invoked: beating the body and making it a slave. What does 'training' look like in the area of sexual purity, compared to mere rule-following?
3.The book argues that one major reason men stay stuck is that they have no clear definition of what 'victory' looks like. They feel guilty but have no concrete goal. How would you define sexual purity as a specific, observable goal for your own life — not a feeling but a standard of behavior and thought?