Ephesians 5:17-21

Ephesians 5:17–21 “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

A few weeks ago we discussed why inheritance from God is better than idolatry which leads to wrath from God.

The goodness of God poured out into creation so that we as people made in his image could drink it in.

That what was needed for this to happen was for us to walk this creation without shame before God.

Since Adam and Eve fell in sin, people try to enjoy this goodness without God in idolatry

And it is only through faith in Christ that we can truly enjoy this creation as an inheritance that God intended all along

Today we are going to zoom in on this further, what it looks like to enjoy the goodness of God in creation by Christ—and the practice of it.

And it is going to hinge on the phrase in chapter 5:17 be filled with the Spirit

The verse prior in 16 will tell us how to be filled with the Spirit, and the verses after will tell us the happy fruit of being so filled and what facilitates it as well: singing, prayer, and submitting with thanksgiving to the Lord.

Read text

Pray

Intro: The frustration of being told to do something to fix an issue that is not clear how to do it

Depressed person: Be happy

Murmuring person: Be Content

Struggling to fall asleep: Go to sleep

Be filled with the Spirit — Not like a car low on gas or oil in which you simply just fill it up

The Spirit’s job is to apply all the benefits Christ has enabled by his death and resurrection to his people

We receive him at the first at our conversion

Ephesians 1:13 “13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”

In fact, even the receiving of Christ, or the truth, or the gospel was enabled by the giving and receiving of the Spirit

Ezekiel 36:26–27 “26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

And so everyone of you who have turned from sin and are looking to Jesus have done so because God sent his Spirit into you.

But there’s also an aspect in which we can grow in Christ, or be filled more and more with the Spirit

This does not mean you become more saved: but it does mean enjoying the fruits of salvation more and more

Which is the same as saying enjoying the goodness of God more and more in this creation he has made for us to receive his eternal goodness (inheritance)

To put theological terminology on it: Justification is initial salvation that you cannot grow in. This is God declaring you to be righteous before him through your faith in Jesus Christ. You cannot grow in your justification status. But what comes forth from it is your sanctification in which we grow more and more in practicing our righteousness and enjoying the fruit of salvation.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;”

Or he could just as easily say, For this is the will of God, be filled with the Spirit

Paul at the end of Ephesians 5 is telling you to be filled with the Spirit—and for the Christian who wants this desperately, you know its not a simple switch you need to switch, and so the question becomes: how?

I think we get that answer at the beginning of this section:

Paul just got done telling us to separate and expose the darkness of sin.

And also that there needs to be an urgency to it since the days are evil.

And along these same lines he says:

Ephesians 5:17 “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Foolishness, or works of darkness, is to be dominated with the concern of self will

Eve in the Garden—the fruit was good and pleasing…yet it was not the will of the Lord for her to eat but it sure was her will

Romans 3:11 “11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.” They do not understand God’s will nor do they seek it

Romans 3:18 “18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”” Everything we look at in his creation should be what would God have of me here

But to forsake foolishness is to forsake self will and instead to endeavor to understand what the will of the Lord is.

Now a fool steep in his foolishness will say, okay, don’t seek self will seek God’s will, and then proceed to seek self will cloaking it in seeking God’s will

The most popular form of preaching is a pastor that will use a verse of the Bible as a diving board to launch him into many words that has nothing to do with the Bible.

They will read a verse of the Bible, and then 20 minutes later you forgot that he had ever even read the Bible.

But, it has always been the endeavor of God’s people to seek the will of the Lord. That is the very first thing God awakens his people to when he brings them to salvation.

When the gospel was first preached by Peter after Pentecost and the church grew it happened with people asking what God’s will was for their sin problem:

Acts 2:37 “37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””

Acts 2:38 “38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And it is not as if they stop seeking the will of the Lord upon receiving salvation, but there was a marked interest in growing in salvation, or growing in knowing the will of the Lord:

Acts 2:42 “42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

What marks you out as a Christian is you have asked the question, what is the Lord’s will for my life

In which the answer as for you to repent and believe upon Jesus and you will receive the blessed Spirit.

And after doing this you ask again each day, what is the Lord’s will for my life now in Christ?

In which the answer is for you to look to his word, or devote yourself to the teaching, and live your life in light of it.

So there’s an outer and inner aspect of understanding the Lord’s will.

Outer: What has he said in his Word

Inner: How can I apply this to my heart

There are two major muscles in the Christian life that must be worked out daily: our ability to understand what his word is saying, and our ability to understand how to apply it to our lives.

You judge how hungry someone is by how quick they put their food to their mouth.

You judge how thirsty someone is by how quick they put their cup of water to their lips

You judge how sick someone is by how quick they apply the remedy to their diseased area

You can judge how well you are understanding the will of the Lord by how eager you are to understand the word, and how to apply it to your life.

If this is a practice of your life: understanding the will of the Lord then it will produce something specific:

Just as sure as food will make you go from hungry to full

Water will make you go from dehydrated to hydrated

Medicine will make you go from sick to well

So understanding both outer and inner, the will of the Lord will produce a life

Ephesians 5:18 “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

The Spirit’s sanctifying role—a growing in salvation or holiness, or righteousness, is always in the wake of how well the person is understanding the will of the Lord.

Your justified status is never determined by your action—but sanctification certainly is dependent on what you do.

When someone comes in with a major problem and they are not feeling full of the Spirit, it always has something to do with their ability to understand the will of the Lord, and the application of it to their lives.

Be encouraged that Paul labels it fill with the Spirit, for your endeavor to understand the will of the Lord is enabled and completed in the Spirit’s presence—not in your ability.

But nevertheless, the pursuit of understanding and applying the will of God produces a Christian life filled with the Spirit.

Notice the beginning of this verse though, how Paul details the opposite:

Ephesians 5:18 “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

Drunkenness is excessive alcohol

Debauchery is excessive living

Understanding the will of the Lord: Keeping everything at a proper balance according to God in order to be filled with the Spirit

Excessive living is the cornerstone of idolatry: You make a god of creation and so use the things of creation in an excessive way.

So where being filled with the Spirit comes with being filled with the will of the Lord

An opposite of that and a sure way to be void of the Spirit is to be filled with things of creation in excess since its being treated as an idol.

Drunkenness is a great example of the opposite of being filled with the Spirit because it is a cheap substitute

Often times Satan temps us with something that is a cheap substitute for what God offers us which is better.

Sexual immorality is a cheap substitute for a rich and loving marriage.

Drunkenness is a cheap substitute for being filled with the Spirit

As we will see in a moment, the fruit of being filled by the Spirit enabled by understanding the will of God is:

Being filled with the Spirit provides: A joyful time with others as you sing together the praises of God

Alcohol is very popular at parties where an abuse of it is practiced to make the party more full of happiness and fun.

Being filled with the Spirit provides: A happiness within your own soul driven by thanksgiving in your heart expressed in prayer to God

Alcohol always promises to make you feel good and some form of happiness in your own soul.

The devil offers drunkenness as a cheap substitute to what the fullness of the Spirit provides. And further still, engaging in the idolatry of filling yourself with creation will always ensure you will not fill yourself with the Creator God.

(THIS WOULD PROBABLY DO WILL TO GO AFTER TALKING ABOUT THE FRUIT)Do not fill yourself with the excess of this world which is idolatry, but fill yourself with the will of the Lord which is being filled with the Spirit

What will follow are fruits, but also things to facilitate the filling of the Spirit

How gracious is God that the fruit, the enjoyable and blessed fruit of being filled with the Spirit are also used by him to facilitate the same.

That means if you are failing to really feel the fruit, the answer is to still practice what the fruit is.

But the fountain head of what needs to be practice is understanding the will of the Lord. If you do all these fruits even though it doesn’t feel like it is being done as fruit without the underlining motivation of understanding the will of the Lord, then it will never produce fruit. But doing these fruits in an unfruitful way with the motivation to understand the will will return you to doing it as fruit.

God sometimes takes the fruit feel away to ensure you are doing what you are doing not for the gift but the giver.

Ephesians 5:19 “19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,”

Ephesians 5:20 “20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Ephesians 5:21 “21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Singing, praying, submitting = fruits of being filled with the Holy Spirit AND the facilitator of it.

The reason why being filled with the Spirit’s fruit is centered in thankful singing and prayers is because God’s ultimate will for his people is salvation

We have spent several weeks looking at what it means to separate from sin and expose the same in the land of the imperatives, and we finished last week by saying there is an urgency to it as we understand that the days are evil, or, the time is short and things have a natural sway to darkness.

Now we can pull that same urgency with us for this next section of scripture with the emphasis being of how to act with one another, or within the people following Christ. Indeed, the act of exposing darkness should have the effect of enriching fellowship with those who are of the light and not darkness:

Read text

Now the major question that is typically asked when trying to explain what Paul means here, is, is he talking about the formal gathering of the saints in which we should:

Seek God’s will together (17)

Strive to be filled with the Spirit, and not wine which is a cheap substitute (18)

Sing to one another your worship to Christ (19)

Give thanks to God with one another in prayer (20)

Submit to one another (21)

Is this detailing our official gatherings that we are enjoying now, or is this just talking about how we interact with each other as the body of Christ in general, or informally. I.e in our homes and other fellowship times outside the Lord’s day worship?

I’ve even read one commentator say this is talking about less formal times where as the parallel verse in Colossians is talking about more formal gatherings, although they are similar:

Colossians 3:16–17 “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:16 “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom

Ephesians 5:17 “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Colossians 3:16 “16 ... singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Ephesians 5:19 “19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,”

Colossians 3:17 “17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Ephesians 5:20 “20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Colossians 3:18 “18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:21–22 “21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

It doesn’t appear to me the natural reading of these things should keep it to just one context over the other, but rather to say Paul is detailing proper living in the imperative land as the community of Christ both informally, and formally.

From the Lord’s day worship to the life in the Christian home, to the inviting a brother or sister over for dinner to enjoy fellowship in the home.

It seems best do see this in the context of how we should interact with each other in general in which it has obvious implications in both the formal and informal setting of our fellowship with one another

I almost want to do a topical on the relationship the formal worship and the informal worship have with one another in the lifeblood of the church—but suffice it to say, the formal Lord’s day worship should set the tempo of the informal time of worship with one another through out the week.

The formal worship sets the beat and is the front door to the informal and more intimate fellowship in the week.

And so the principles we pull from here has application to both formal and informal worship with one another.

And so off with this notion that I can engage in formal worship, one hour a week, and get all the fellowship I need for the week.

I. Seek God’s will with one another (17)

II. Strive to be filled with the Spirit, and not wine which is a cheap substitute (18)

III. Sing to one another your worship to Christ (19)

IV. Give thanks to God with one another (prayer) (20)

V. Submit to one another (21)

This all happens on the Lord’s day formally, but if that’s all the fellowshipping you are doing then you will cut yourself off from greater growth God has for you in the imperative land.

Formal worship sets the tempo and bleeds into our informal worship and fellowship with one another: both being vital for our growth in Christ.

And so let’s look at these verses that give us shared principles of what our fellowship should look like both in the formal and informal setting.

Let’s look at them first in the context of formal worship on the Lord’s day, and then as these principles also should influence our fellowship through out the week:

I. Seek God’s will with one another

Ephesians 5:17 “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Colossians 3:16 “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,

The people of God always begin their endeavor as Christ’s people asking what would the Lord have of me, and this becomes the theme of their entire life which gives meaning to their gathering:

Acts 2:37 “37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””

Acts 2:42 “42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

And notice how the will of the Lord is found in the apostolic teaching: the New Testament confirming and completing the Old Testament.

Or as Colossians says: word of Christ

But simply studying the word of Christ, or the Bible, is not ALL there is to not being foolish and understanding what the will of the Lord is

There is also a process of looking at your own life, in light of looking at the authoritative word of Christ.

The Acts text above—they asked what they must do in light of their current situation

Thus, knowing what the will of the Lord is involves knowing the Bible, but also letting it inform your own life in particular.

There is a looking out, and looking in.

Out at the word of God

In at what that means for you and how to respond

This is what it means to Ephesians 5:17 “17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Official Gathering:

The Word or Will of God is Central

Unofficial Fellowship

The Word or Will of God is Central

And with this happening in your life:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 “3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;”

1 Thessalonians 4:7–8 “7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

And this then bleeds into the rest of these verses:

Ephesians 5:18 “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

An allusion to the greek god Dionysus (Bacchus) who was the god of wine and ecstasy

Being filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Word of Christ and a determination to follow his will for you.

Colossians does not say be filled with the Spirit but I think Paul says something like it when he says:

Colossians 3:16 “16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

And with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, that means an in and out paradigm happening in which you know the Word and the Word is causing you to follow the Lord’s will

Ephesians 5:20 “20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Is always and for everything hyperbole? Certainly we can agree that we should be people thanking God more, but is such all inclusive language literally true, and how when bad things happen?

A conviction of Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” paired with

Romans 8:29 “29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Thus every Christian can face the hardest times knowing that God’s will is to use it to make you look like Christ, and for the Christian that is the greatest of all desire, thus thanksgiving for this greatest desire met can always be had.