Sermon Tone Analysis

Being Filled with The Spirit

but be filled with the Spirit—The effect in inspiration was that the person was “filled” with an ecstatic exhilaration, like that caused by wine; hence the two are here connected (compare Ac 2:13–18).

Hence arose the abstinence from wine of many of the prophets, for example, John the Baptist, namely, in order to keep distinct before the world the ecstasy caused by the Spirit, from that caused by wine.

So also in ordinary Christians the Spirit dwells not in the mind that seeks the disturbing influences of excitement, but in the well-balanced prayerful mind.

Such a one expresses his joy, not in drunken or worldly songs, but in Christian hymns of thankfulness.

5:18.

Ephesus was a center of pagan worship and ritual.

The Ephesian culture worshiped Baccus, the god of wine and drunken orgies.

They believed that to commune with their god and to be led by him, they had to be drunk.

In this drunken state, they could determine the will of their god and determine how best to serve and obey him.

Paul was talking about how to commune with the God of heaven, how to live for him, how to serve and obey him, how to determine his will.

It was natural for him to draw the contrast between how the god of Ephesus is served and how the God of heaven is served.

With the God of heaven, you do not get drunk with wine.

Rather, you are filled with the Spirit.

Being drunk with wine leads to the sexual sins and immorality of darkness described above.

By being filled with the Spirit, you can determine God’s will and serve him faithfully in moral living.

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

Some interpreters equate this command with instances of being filled with the Spirit in the Book of Acts in which miraculous things happened: people spoke in tongues; prophecies and visions were given; people were healed.

“Be filled” in this verse (plarao) is not the same word as the one used in the Book of Acts (pimplemi), nor are the consequences the same.

Rather than understanding this command in verse 18 to have anything to do with miraculous or extraordinary happenings, it is better to understand it in context.

In this ethical context, it means directed, influenced, and ultimately governed by the Holy Spirit.

Be not drunken with wine (μη μεθυσκεσθε οἰνῳ [mē methuskesthe oinōi]).

Present passive imperative of μεθυσκω [methuskō], old verb to intoxicate.

Forbidden as a habit and to stop it also if guilty.

Instrumental case οἰνῳ [oinōi].

Riot (ἀσωτια [asōtia]).

Old word from ἀσωτος [asōtos] (adverb ἀσωτως [asōtōs] in Luke 15:13), in N. T.

only here, Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4.

But be filled with the Spirit (ἀλλα πληρουσθε ἐν πνευματι [alla plērousthe en pneumati]).

In contrast to a state of intoxication with wine.

18. Be not drunk (μὴ μεθύσκεσθε).

See on John 2:10.

Wherein.

In drunkenness, not in wine.

Excess (ἀσωτία).

Rev., riot.

Lit., unsavingness.

See on riotous living, Luke 15:13.

(5:18–20) “Be drunk” is methuskō (μεθυσκω), “to get drunk, become intoxicated.”

Wycliffe translates, “be filled.”

Vincent says: “A curious use of the word occurs in Homer, where he is describing the stretching of a bull’s hide, which in order to make it more elastic, is soaked (methuskō (μεθυσκω)) with fat.”

The word, therefore, refers to the condition of a person in which he is soaked with wine.

The words, “wherein is excess,” are to be construed with the entire clause, “Be not drunk with wine,” not with the word “wine” alone, but with the becoming drunk with wine.

“Excess” is asōtia (ἀσωτια), from sōzō (σωζω), “to save,” and Alpha privative, the literal meaning being, “unsavingness”; that is, that which is asōtia (ἀσωτια) has nothing of a saving quality about it, but rather, a destructive one.

The word as it is generally used expresses the idea of an abandoned, debauched, profligate life.

The words “profligacy, debauching,” well describe its meaning.

“Filled” is plēroō (πληροω), “to fill up, to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally, to flood, to diffuse throughout.”

In Acts 6:15 we have Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.

Faith filled Stephen in the sense that it controlled him.

The Holy Spirit filled Stephen in the sense that He controlled him.

Therefore, the fullness of the Spirit has reference to His control over the believer yielded to Him.

The verb is in the present imperative; “Be constantly being filled with the Spirit.”

The interpretation is, “Be constantly, moment by moment, being controlled by the Spirit.”

Please consult the author’s book, Untranslatable Riches in the Greek New Testament for a detailed, practical treatment of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 18 introduces the third of the contrasts, this time being filled with wine versus being filled with the Spirit.

To a modern reader, the focus appears to shift abruptly from wisdom and insight to sobriety.

This impression is aided by the fact that the injunction Be not drunk with wine! appears to be a direct quotation of Proverbs 23:31, where it is a part of an extended description of the effects of over-consumption of wine (23:29–35).

Yet the difference between Ephesians 5:18 and the previous contrasts may not be so great after all.

In Proverbs 20:1, drunkenness is contrasted to wisdom, much as is foolishness.

We should be prepared for the fact that this is more than “clearly spelled out” and “easily understood” ethical instruction on immoderate drinking (contra R. Martin, 1991:63–4; Schnackenburg: 236), even if warnings against over-consumption of alcohol are fitting, now as then (Best, 1998:507, citing literature).

Drunkenness is a metaphor for life in the darkness (TBC).

Here it serves to describe the inebriated walk of the foolish sons of disobedience in 5:3–5 or of the ignorant Gentiles in 4:17–19.

Early readers also might have heard in this an allusion to the uninhibited intoxication that characterized many pagan religious observances; this aspect aids its suitability as a metaphor (specific references to worship appear immediately following, in 5:19–20).

The injunction not to be drunk with wine is likely not motivated by any particular problems with alcohol consumption (as in 1 Cor.

11:21) or inappropriate worship, but both would have been familiar to the readers.

Instead, being drunk is associated with the “walk” of fools.

Sometimes a direct connection to Proverbs 23:31 is contested, on the grounds that the injunction against getting drunk with wine had already become widespread in Jewish moral teaching and made its way into Ephesians that way (cf.

Lincoln: 340).

Testament of Judah 14, for example, contains an identical injunction against getting drunk with wine, connecting Judah’s sin against his daughter-in-law Tamar (cf.

Gen. 38:12–26) with the destructive effects of intoxication.

There is good reason, however, to think that Proverbs 23 is being used, in particular in its Greek form.

Proverbs 23:31 (LXX) uses the not … but rather (mē … alla) formula, just as we see in Ephesians 5:18.

Further, sounding much like Ephesians 5:19–22, the Greek text of Proverbs 23:31 (LXX) carries an alternative to drunkenness: Do not be drunk with wine, but converse (homileō, the verb form of “homily”) with righteous persons.

In Ephesians, the alternative to being drunk with wine is to be filled with and by the Spirit, which then finds expression in speaking to each other with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

The center of the exhortation is the summons to be filled in [with and by the] Spirit [“In”].

Here again we see the pattern observed in 4:25–32, where a negative injunction is followed by a more important positive exhortation.

The alternative to being drunk with wine is not simply sobriety, but being filled with the Spirit.

It is correct not to over-read this as “don’t be drunk with wine, but do be drunk with the Spirit” (so also Fee, 1987:720–1); yet one should not miss the parallel, either.

The two have more than once been mistaken for each other (cf.

Acts 2:14–21!).

In Ephesians, being filled with the Spirit is not focused on ecstatic manifestations of the Spirit, as is the case in 1 Corinthians 14.

But we will miss the energy and enthusiasm that is to pervade the corporate experience of the church if we allow no spillover from the image of intoxication (“sober inebriation,” Schnackenburg: 236–7).

Keeping in mind that these words are directed to sages, Sirach (Ecclus.)

1:16 comes to mind: “To fear the Lord is fullness of wisdom; she inebriates mortals with her fruits.”

The Spirit enjoys considerable prominence in Ephesians, referring to the nearness of God’s renewing and sustaining power in the lives of believers (a few relevant instances: 1:13; 2:18, 22; 3:16; 4:3–4, 30).

As in 3:19, which our present text echoes, believers are to open themselves to the fullness of God by being filled with the Spirit.

Remarkably, whereas being filled is a passive imperative, it is nonetheless an imperative.

This command leaves no doubt that the wise have considerable responsibility for the degree to which they are able to discern what pleases God, what God’s will is, and what it means to walk in the light (cf.

Gal.

5:16).

Even so, believers need the energizing presence of God to exercise that responsibility.

Ultimately, it is the gracious Spirit of God who empowers the wise children of light in their walk (notes on 1:15–23; 2:1–10; 3:14–21; esp. on 1:17; 2:8; 3:16, 19, 20).

To be sure, it is the community together that is filled with the Spirit.

Beyng filled with and by the Spirit is not an individualistic experience.

Instead, it enables the body of the new human to breathe the very breath of God (cf.

Paul’s discussion in 1 Cor.

12 and 14, where the gifts of the Spirit have as their sole purpose the enlivening and coordination of the body of Christ, “for the common good” [12:7]).

Importantly, grieving the Holy Spirit also takes place in the corporate life of believers (4:30, notes).

The question of drunkenness undoubtedly arises in the Gentile environment because a variety of sects used alcohol to induce ecstatic states.

But the same confusion appeared at Pentecost (Acts 2:12; and see Prov 23:29–34).

Drunkenness was forbidden not only because of its pagan religious connections (the Bacchus festivals in the worship of Dionysus, for example), but because it leads to other shameful acts and is, in any case, a poor substitute for the joy that is available to the Christian in the Holy Spirit.

(For interesting contemporary treatments of drunkenness see Philo’s treatise “On Drunkenness.”)