14-Week Study & Discussion Guide

Live No Lies

by John Mark Comer·103 discussion questions

Week 1 — FreeRead the Introduction of Live No Lies by John Mark Comer.

Discussion question your group will work through:

1.Comer opens by distinguishing between telling lies and living them. What does he mean by that distinction, and why does he think living a lie is more dangerous than simply believing a false proposition?

Read all of Week 1 — Free

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About This Study Guide

In Live No Lies, John Mark Comer argues that the greatest threat to our spiritual and emotional health is not external persecution or doctrinal error, but the lies we absorb — and then live. Drawing on the ancient Christian framework of "the three enemies of the soul" (the devil, the flesh, and the world), Comer offers a rigorous and surprisingly practical diagnosis of why so many people who follow Jesus still feel anxious, restless, and spiritually stuck. His thesis is disarmingly simple: deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life looks like get lodged in our bodies and our habits, and they quietly sabotage our peace. The answer is not willpower but truth — practiced, embodied, and pursued in community.

This study guide is designed to be used week by week, one chapter at a time. The pattern is straightforward: read the assigned chapter before your group meets (or before your personal study time), pause to journal your honest reactions, then work through the discussion questions — alone or with others. Don't rush. Comer's chapters reward slow reading and honest self-examination. If you are using this guide in a small group, consider opening with a few minutes of silence and closing with the prayer printed at the end of each week's section. The prayers are intentionally written in the language of that week's chapter, so they should feel like a natural landing place for everything you've discussed.

By the end of this guide, you will have a clearer picture of how lies actually work — spiritually, neurologically, and culturally — and a concrete set of practices for countering them. You will also have a more honest map of your own interior life: where the enemy has a foothold, where your flesh pulls you away from flourishing, and where the spirit of the age has seeped into your assumptions without your noticing. Most importantly, you will have spent time in the company of a wide range of Christian teachers — from the desert fathers to Dallas Willard to N. T. Wright — who have walked this road before and left a reliable trail.

Week 1: Introduction — We Are at War

Free sample
Read Week 1

Read the Introduction of Live No Lies by John Mark Comer.

1.Comer opens by distinguishing between telling lies and living them. What does he mean by that distinction, and why does he think living a lie is more dangerous than simply believing a false proposition?

2.He describes our culture as one drowning in anxiety, anger, and addiction, yet also one that has largely abandoned the traditional vocabulary for diagnosing the problem (sin, the devil, the flesh). Do you think that vocabulary loss is a problem? What gets lost when we swap spiritual categories for purely psychological or sociological ones?

3.Comer introduces the ancient Christian framework of three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Had you heard this framework before? What was your initial reaction to each of the three categories?

4.He is honest that modern, educated people tend to feel embarrassed by language about the devil. Do you share that embarrassment? What would it take for you to hold that category seriously without feeling intellectually unsophisticated?

5.The introduction sets up a contrast between deformation and formation — the idea that we are always being shaped by something, for better or worse. Where do you sense you are currently being deformed rather than formed?

a.What voices, habits, or environments are doing the shaping?

b.Have you ever made a deliberate choice to counter that deformation? What happened?

6.Comer's stated goal is to combine cultural analysis with spiritual formation. Why might both be necessary? What happens when Christians do cultural analysis without spiritual formation, or spiritual formation without cultural analysis?

7.How would you describe the 'tug-of-war' Comer mentions — the inner conflict between truth and lies — in your own life right now? Where do you feel it most acutely?

Week 2: Part One — The Devil (Chapters 1–2 Overview): The Liar

All 8 questions

Read Part One, Chapters 1–2 of Live No Lies (covering the enemy of the devil as the deceiver).

1.Comer argues that the devil's primary weapon is not temptation to evil acts but deception — planting false ideas. How does this reframe the way you think about spiritual warfare? Does it make the concept feel more or less real to you?

+ 7 more questions in the full guide

Week 3: Chapter 3 — The Truth About Lies (How Lies Work in the Body)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 3 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Romans 12:1–2; 2 Corinthians 10:3–5.

1.Comer draws on research about how the brain forms habits and emotional patterns — the idea that repeated thoughts literally shape our neural architecture. Did this neuroscientific framing help you understand why lies are so sticky? Or did it feel like it was pulling the spiritual rug out from under the conversation?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 4: Part Two — The Flesh (Chapters 4–5 Overview): Desire Gone Wrong

All 8 questions

Read Part Two, Chapters 4–5 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Galatians 5:16–25; Romans 7–8.

1.Comer argues that the New Testament word 'flesh' (Greek: sarx) does not mean the physical body but rather the pull of disordered desire — the part of us that wants good things in bad ways or bad things instead of good ones. How does this definition change your reading of passages like Galatians 5 or Romans 7?

+ 7 more questions in the full guide

Week 5: Chapter 6 — The Practices of the Flesh (Fighting Desire with Desire)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 6 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Romans 13:14; Colossians 3:1–17.

1.Comer argues that the traditional approach of 'just say no' to the flesh is not only ineffective but actually counter-productive — suppression without replacement doesn't work. Do you agree? What has been your default strategy for resisting fleshly desires, and how has it worked?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 6: Part Three — The World (Chapters 7–8 Overview): The Age We Swim In

All 8 questions

Read Part Three, Chapters 7–8 of Live No Lies. Key reference: 1 John 2:15–17; John 17:14–18; Romans 12:1–2.

1.Comer carefully distinguishes between 'world' as God's good creation (which we are to love), 'world' as the people in it (whom we are to love), and 'world' as the spirit of the age — the set of anti-God values, assumptions, and stories that structure secular culture. Why is this threefold distinction important? What goes wrong when Christians collapse them?

+ 7 more questions in the full guide

Week 7: Chapter 9 — The Secular Liturgies (How the World Shapes Us Without Our Knowing)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 9 of Live No Lies. Key reference: 1 John 2:15–17; Colossians 2:8.

1.Comer (drawing on James K. A. Smith) argues that we are primarily 'desiring animals' rather than 'thinking animals' — our loves, not just our beliefs, determine who we are. How does this anthropology reshape the way you think about discipleship and spiritual formation?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 8: Chapter 10 — The Three Lies (The World's Core Deceptions)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 10 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Genesis 3; 1 John 2:16.

1.Comer argues that the world's lies tend to cluster around three core questions: Who am I? What is freedom? and What will make me happy? How do these three questions map onto the three lies he identifies? Can you state each lie in a single sentence?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 9: Chapter 11 — How to Fight the World (The Practice of Non-Conformity)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 11 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Romans 12:1–2; 1 Peter 2:9–12; John 17:15–18.

1.Comer resists two bad options: world-flight (retreating into a Christian subculture and disengaging from the broader world) and world-accommodation (simply blending in). What is his proposed third way, and how does he describe it?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 10: Chapter 12 — The Weapon of Truth (Scripture and the Renewal of the Mind)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 12 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Ephesians 6:10–18; Psalm 119:9–11; John 17:17.

1.Comer describes Paul's 'armor of God' passage (Ephesians 6) and points out that most of the armor is defensive — except the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. What does it mean that truth is our primary offensive weapon? How does this change the way you think about engaging your Bible?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 11: Chapter 13 — The Role of Community (We Cannot Win Alone)

All 7 questions

Read Chapter 13 of Live No Lies. Key reference: Hebrews 3:12–13; Galatians 6:1–2; Ephesians 4:11–16.

1.Comer argues that the 'one another' commands of the New Testament — confess to one another, pray for one another, bear one another's burdens — are not optional extras for particularly social Christians but essential armor for everyone. Which 'one another' command do you find hardest to practice, and why?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 12: Chapter 14 — Practising the Way (Spiritual Disciplines as Weapons)

All 8 questions

Read Chapter 14 of Live No Lies. Key reference: 1 Timothy 4:7–8; Luke 4:1–13; Colossians 3:1–4.

1.Comer argues that Jesus didn't just teach spiritual disciplines — he practiced them: solitude, silence, fasting, prayer, Sabbath, Scripture. What is the significance of Jesus himself needing these practices? What does it tell us about what kind of beings we are?

+ 7 more questions in the full guide

Week 13: Conclusion — Living the Truth

All 7 questions

Read the Conclusion of Live No Lies by John Mark Comer.

1.Comer ends with a call to decision — to stop drifting and to actively, deliberately choose the way of Jesus. What is the decision he is asking you to make? Have you made it? What does 'yes' actually look like in concrete terms for your life?

+ 6 more questions in the full guide

Week 14: Review & Reflection — Looking Back, Moving Forward

All 8 questions

No new reading this week. Review your notes, journals, and underlined passages from the entire book.

1.Looking back across the full arc of the book: what was the single most important thing you learned or the moment when something shifted most significantly for you? Was it a concept, a story, a question, or a practice?

+ 7 more questions in the full guide

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Frequently Asked Questions

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This study guide covers Live No Lies in 14 weeks, with chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, reading references, and closing prayers for each session.

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The complete guide includes 103 discussion questions across 14 weeks — an average of 7 questions per week, designed for group conversation.

Can I use this guide for a book club?

Yes — the questions are written for group discussion and work well for small groups, book clubs, church studies, and couples reading together.

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