Ephesians 5:18 is perhaps the most important verse in the 2nd half of Ephesians, for it reveals how we are to obey all the other commands and exhortations found there. If Ephesians 4-6 are a race course, and you are the driver, Eph.5:18 is the fuel. In this message we examine what the Bible teaches about drunkenness, and about how we can obey the command to be filled with the Spirit.
Teaching Notes:
The Spirit-Filled Life – Pt. 1
Ephesians 5:18-21
Intro: Just as a glove without a hand can’t do anything, so we without the filling of the Spirit can’t do God’s will. We are powerless to obey without it. Apart from Him, we can do nothing! We have come to the most important verse in the 2nd half of Ephesians. The first half of Ephesians is Doctrinal; the last half is Practical. Right smack dab in the middle of the practical section is 5:18. If Chapters 4-6 are a race course God has called you to drive, and you are the car, 5:18 is the engine. It is the power source. How can we do all the things Paul has exhorted us to do in this section? Paul’s exhortations to wives, husbands, children, parents, employees, employers, and those engaged in spiritual warfare can only be effective as long as they are filled with the Holy Spirit. If we don’t obey the command in 5:18, we can’t obey any other command. In this text we have 2 commands: one negative and the other positive. The negative command (do not get drunk with wine) contains a reason (for that is dissipation). Let’s examine each one.
1. Do Not Get Drunk With Wine
The Bible does not condemn all drinking of alcohol, but it does condemn drunkenness. Let’s take a quick survey of the Bible’s teaching about drunkenness:
Prov.20:1: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.”
Prov. 23:20-21: “Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.”
Prov.23:29-35: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”
Lu.21:34: “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.”
1 Cor. 5:11: “ But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.
Gal.5:19-21: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Tim. 3:3: “An overseer must not be addicted to wine”
1 Pet. 4:3: “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.”
Summary: What is the Bible’s teaching on drunkenness? It is not wise, it will bring you to poverty, it will make your life miserable, it will weigh your heart down so that you are not prepared for Christ’s 2nd coming, it requires church discipline and if not repented of will cause someone to be put out of the church, it is a deed of the flesh which if practiced will exclude a person from God’s kingdom, a person given to it can not be chosen for church leadership, and it is a characteristic of lost people, not saved people.
For That Is Dissipation: What does this word “dissipation” mean? I made a very interesting discovery this week. The Greek word is asotos. It is a compound word made up of “a” and “sotos”. Sotos is a derivate of sozo, which means to save. The letter “a” before a word in Greek negates the word. It is like “un” in English. “Un” negates any English word like unformed, unmanageable, undeceiving, unsaved. So this word literally means, “the character of an abandoned man, one that cannot be saved; unsavedness.” Drunkenness is the character trait of a prodigal, reprobate, unsaved man. It is the opposite of the character of the saved man. Now, that is the literal meaning of the word. Other translations translate this word as dissipation (wasteful expenditure or consumption; intemperate in the pursuit of pleasure); dissolute (lacking moral restraint; indulging in sensual pleasures or vices); debauchery (extreme indulgence in sensual pleasure); Prodigality (extravagant wastefulness); Riot, Luxury, Overcome, Ruin your life, Excess.
2. But Be Filled With The Spirit
A. Note The Grammar In This Text: Present tense, passive voice, imperative mood, plural. Let’s break all that down. Present tense: In the Greek, a verb in the present tense is ongoing and continual. That tells us that this filling is not a once and for all filling. It is a continual filling. Literally it would read, “Be being filled, or be constantly filled.” That tells us that what Paul is describing here is not the same as being indwelt by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9), being baptized in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), or being sealed with the Spirit (Eph.1:13). We are never commanded in Scripture to be indwelt, baptized or sealed with the Spirit. All of these were once and for all events that took place at our conversion. Here we are commanded to be continually filled with the Spirit. In other words, yesterdays’ filling will not do for today, and today’s filling won’t do for tomorrow. Passive voice: This means that we don’t fill ourselves. The glove doesn’t pull the hand into it. The Holy Spirit fills us. Imperative mood: This means that this is not a suggestion or piece of advice. This is a command of God, and we must treat it as such. Plural number: Paul wasn’t giving this command to an elite group within the church, but for every believer. If you are a Christian, this command is for you!
B. Note Its Contrast With Drunkenness:
- Drunkenness leads to overindulgence; excessive sensual pleasures; unrestrained living. Drunkenness leads to the loss of self-control. The filling with the Spirit produces self-control.
- When a person gets drunk he makes a fool of himself whereas the person filled with the Spirit glorifies God.
- The drunk calls attention to himself; whereas the person filled with the Spirit directs his attention to Jesus Christ.
- Drunkenness leads to misery and sorrow, but the Spirit-filled life leads to blessing, joy and peace.
- Drunkenness produces a fleshly high; the filling of the Spirit produces a spiritual high.
C. Note Its Similarities With Drunkenness: the words “drunk” and “filled” are parallel, and the words “wine” and “spirit” are parallel in this verse. In fact we often refer to alcoholic beverages as “spirits.”
- When a person is drunk with wine the alcohol controls him. DUI means “driving under the influence.” Alcohol is influencing and controlling him. When he is drunk he becomes a different man than the one he is normally. When a person is filled with the Spirit, the Spirit controls and influences him, and he becomes another man than the one he is by nature.
Application: So how are we to obey this command to be filled with the Spirit. Obviously, this is something we are responsible for, otherwise it makes no sense to command a person to obey it. There seem to be 2 types of Spirit-fillings in the Bible: an empowering kind and a controlling kind. Sometimes in Scripture we read of someone being filled with the Spirit, and it is an absolutely sovereign work of God. The person had nothing to do with being filled with the Spirit. Usually, this filling is associated with a special empowering for ministry (Acts 2:4; 4:8,31; 9:17; 13:9). At other times this filling of the Spirit refers to being controlled by the Spirit in order to produce His fruit (Acts 6:3,5; 13:42). The latter is the kind of filling we are reading about in Eph.5:18. So again I ask, how do we obey this command to be controlled by the Spirit?
1. Let the Word dwell in you richly. Eph. 5:18-21 are parallel to Col.3:16-17. In Colossians the same consequences are listed: teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing in your hearts to God, giving thanks for all things to God. But instead of saying “Be filled with the Spirit” Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” This tells me that the filling of the Spirit is the same thing as the Word of God dwelling in us richly. So, if you want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit in order to produce His fruit, you need to be a man or woman of the Word. You need to let it dwell in you richly. This is not reading the Word occasionally, or reading a 1 page devotion in the morning which mentions a Bible verse. To let the word dwell in you richly implies that you give it priority. You give it ample time to fill you. It implies that you think about the Word. Perhaps you commit it to memory. It fills you so that it begins to govern your life.
2. Yield to the Spirit: Notice the word “let”. “Let” the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Since Eph.5:18 and Col.3:16 are parallel verses, this teaches me that not only must I “let” the word dwell in me richly, but I must also “let” the Spirit fill and control me. The Holy Spirit will have as much influence in our lives as we yield to Him. We must submit, and surrender our will to Him. This is what Paul has been teaching in 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” When we do not “let” Him fill us, we act out of our flesh and grieve Him. This is similar what Jesus taught in Mt.5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” That light in you doesn’t automatically shine. We must “let” it shine. So we must “let” the Spirit fill us by yielding our lives to Him continually. When I’m cleaning windows I have a big 5 gallon bucket filled with water. But I don’t want to carry that heavy bucket around, so I fill my small 32 oz. water bottle and keep it on my belt while I’m working. The way I fill it is by unscrewing the cap, plunging it under the water, and letting the water from the 5 gallon bucket flow into it. But, if I put my water bottle into the 5 gallon bucket without unscrewing the cap, even though it is surrounded by water, it can’t be filled with water. Our “self-life” is like the cap. If we want to be filled with the Spirit, we have to deal with the self-life. Our self-life is just our desires that are opposed to God’s. As long as we stubbornly resist the will of God, we can’t be filled with the Spirit. We must yield our desires to His. If God wants you to humble yourself and apologize to your wife and you stubbornly refuse, don’t expect to be filled with the Spirit. This is where prayer comes in. I’ve found that the best way to learn to yield to the Spirit is by praying about every issue in your life. When you bring it before the Lord, He has a way of enabling you to yield to Him.
So, being filled with the Spirit is really not complicated. It is letting the Word dwell in you richly, and yielding to the Spirit who dwells in you. This week, let’s just focus on that 1 thought. Let’s seek to be filled with the Spirit all day long 24/7. I know we won’t hit that bull’s eye, but let’s make that our goal. Amen?
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