And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18)
This is a powerful, life-changing Bible verse. Contained within this verse is everything we need to live a victorious Christian life. Do you know the Spirit of God? Do you have fellowship with Him? The Holy Spirit is coequal and coexistent with God the Father and God the Son. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we speak of God.
When a person receives Christ as Saviour, God’s Holy Spirit comes to live within him. At the moment of salvation, that person receives all of God that he will ever receive; however, God wants more and more of that person every day.
These days, we see much confusion about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. While it would not be possible to discuss this doctrine completely in this brief blog, we can at least understand some basic but very important principles.
The Bible says, “Be filled with the Spirit.“ Imagine taking a sponge and putting it in a bucket of water, allowing the water to be absorbed in the sponge. Is the water in the sponge, or is the sponge in the water? The answer is both. When a person trusts Christ as Saviour, Jesus comes to live in him, but he is also placed in Christ. He becomes a part of the body of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
When we read and hear about people being filled with the Holy Spirit, people who have been greatly used by God, sometimes the experience they talk about seems so far-reaching that it appears unattainable to the ordinary Christian. However, being filled with the Spirit of God is something that we can obtain and something that we should seek daily.
The Context
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18)
The context or broader text of this passage is related to the everyday life of a family. This means that a man cannot be the father or husband he should be without being filled with the Holy Spirit. A Christian lady cannot be the wife or mother that God wants her to be without being filled with the Holy Spirit. A Christian child should be Spirit-filled to live the kind of Christian life that honors and obeys his parents.
Being drunk is an experience where the body is taken over by intoxication. As strange as it sounds, we are told here about the filling of the Holy Spirit, and in the same verse told not to be drunk with wine.
This comparison is very important. The drunk is under the control of another substance. The Spirit-filled person is under the control of the Holy Spirit. Drunk people do things they would not normally do if they were not drunk; they have a boldness they would never have to attempt things they would never attempt if they were not intoxicated.
The Bible says that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This will affect the way we behave. If we are Christians, Christ is living in us, but that does not mean that He fills our lives.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:19-21)
Notice that verse 18 (at beginning of this section) ends with a semicolon; so do verses 19 and 20. This means that verses 18-21 are all one complete sentence, showing a connection between being filled with the Spirit and having the right kind of music, being thankful, and submitting to each other. Yet, the passage continues:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:22-25)
The key to the right relationship between a husband and wife is for both to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God every day. Children and their relationship with their parents are not excluded from this context either:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1-4)
If a man wants to be the father every child deserves to have, he must be a Spirit-filled father. Every Christian mother should say, “I want to be a Spirit-filled mother.” This is the context. The filling of the Holy Spirit is for every believer. Being filled with the Spirit is not simply for the pulpit; it is for all of life.
The Command
Being a Spirit-filled Christian is not an option; it is a command. To disobey this command would be like disobeying any other command in the Bible. There are certain things the Holy Spirit does for us that are positional. In Ephesians 4:30 we see an example of this: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” At the moment we are saved, we are sealed; we receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit; we are baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit does everything that we need to keep us safe and secure in Jesus Christ, but everything we need to live the kind of Christian life we should live has to do with the filling of the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be guided by the Holy Spirit.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, God produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. This fruit is revealed in our lives in nine ways as seen in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace; longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.“ The fruit of the Holy Spirit comes through the filling of the Holy Spirit.
We have much more to discuss on this topic, so we will continue next week with Part Two. Until then, we pray that your desire will be for God’s Holy Spirit to fill you each day as you seek to serve Him.
To read more about what Trinity Baptist Church believes in regards to the Holy Spirit, please click here to read our statement of faith.
To read more of what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, please click here.