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.”)

Instead of exhibiting “debauchery” (asōtia, which means “excess” and implies one who is profligate or dissolute), Christians are to live in ways that exhibit their life in the Holy Spirit. Verse 19 suggests not only that joy should characterize the life of the Christian community, but that the attitude of joy in our hearts is like a song to God. “Speak to one another” implies gathering in a meeting small enough for common participation, one that would be spontaneous and flexible, in short, under the control of the Holy Spirit. If pagans gather to drink, Christians gather for praise. “Psalms” were songs of praise; the verb form of the word suggested the plucking strings, so it was used to mean sacred songs accompanied by instruments. “Hymns” referred to sacred poetical compositions for praise. “ōdais” meant any kind of song, so the writer qualifies it with “spiritual” (pneumatikais).

“Be filled with the Spirit” is God’s command, and He expects us to obey. The command is plural, so it applies to all Christians and not just to a select few. The verb is in the present tense—“keep on being filled”—so it is an experience we should enjoy constantly and not just on special occasions. And the verb is passive. We do not fill ourselves but permit the Spirit to fill us. The verb “fill” has nothing to do with contents or quantity, as though we are empty vessels that need a required amount of spiritual fuel to keep going. In the Bible, filled means “controlled by.” “They … were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:28) means “they were controlled by wrath” and for that reason tried to kill Jesus. “The Jews were filled with envy” (Acts 13:45) means that the Jews were controlled by envy and opposed the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. To be “filled with the Spirit” means to be constantly controlled by the Spirit in our mind, emotions, and will.

When a person trusts Christ as his Saviour, he is immediately baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to be baptized by the Spirit, because this is a once-for-all experience that takes place at conversion. When the Spirit came at Pentecost, the believers were baptized by the Spirit and thus the body of Christ was formed (Acts 1:4–5). But they were also “filled with the Spirit” (Acts 2:4), and it was this filling that gave them the power they needed to witness for Christ (Acts 1:8). In Acts 2, the Jewish believers were baptized by the Spirit, and in Acts 10 the Gentile believers had the same experience (Acts 10:44–48; 11:15–17). Thus the body of Christ was made up of Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11–22). That historic baptism, in two stages, has never been repeated any more than Calvary has been repeated. But that baptism is made personal when the sinner trusts Christ and the Spirit enters in to make him a member of the body of Christ. The baptism of the Spirit means that I belong to Christ’s body. The filling of the Spirit means that my body belongs to Christ.

We usually think of the power of the Spirit as necessary for preaching and witnessing, and this is true. (See Acts 4:8, 31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 13:9. The Apostles experienced repeated fillings after that initial experience at Pentecost.) But Paul wrote that the Spirit’s fullness is also needed in the home. If our homes are to be a heaven on earth, then we must be controlled by the Holy Spirit. But how can a person tell whether or not he is filled with the Spirit? Paul stated that there are three evidences of the fullness of the Spirit in the life of the believer: he is joyful (Eph. 5:19), thankful (Eph. 5:20), and submissive (Eph. 5:21–33). Paul said nothing about miracles or tongues, or other special manifestations. He stated that the home can be a heaven on earth if each family member is controlled by the Spirit, and is joyful, thankful, and submissive.

Ver. 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, &c.] The sin of drunkenness here dehorted from, is a custom, or habit, of voluntary excessive drinking of any strong liquor, whereby the mind is disturbed, and deprived of the use of reason: though wine is only here mentioned, that being the usual liquor drank in the eastern countries, yet the same holds good of any other strong liquor, as of that; nor is drinking wine for necessary use prohibited, nor for honest delight and lawful pleasure; but excessive drinking of it, and this voluntary, and with design, and on purpose; otherwise persons may be overtaken and intoxicated, through ignorance of the strength of the liquor, and their own weakness; and it is a custom, or habit of excessive drinking, for not a single act, but a series of actions, a course of living in this sin, denominates a man a drunkard; and generally speaking, excessive drinking deprives persons of the use of reason, though not always; and such are criminal, who are mighty to drink wine, and strong to mingle strong drink; as are also such, who though not guilty of this sin themselves, are the means of it in others: the sin is very sinful; it is one of the works of the flesh; it is an abuse of the creature; it is opposed to walking honestly; for it persons are to be excluded from the communion of the church; and, without the grace of true repentance, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven: many things might be said to dissuade from it; it hurts the mind, memory, and judgment; deprives of reason, and sets a man below a beast; it brings diseases on the body, and wastes the estate; it unfits for business and duty; it opens a door for every sin, and exposes to shame and danger; and therefore should be carefully avoided, and especially by professors of religion: but be filled with the spirit; that is, with the Holy Spirit, as read the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; with the gifts and graces of the spirit: some have been filled with them in an extraordinary way, as the apostles on the day of Pentecost; and others in an ordinary manner, as common believers; and who may be said to be filled with the spirit, as with wine, or instead of it, or in opposition to it, when the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the spirit, which is compared to wine, for its antiquity, purity, and refreshing nature; and they are filled with it, who have a comfortable sense of it, and a firm persuasion of interest in it, and are delighted with the views of it, and are as it were inebriated with it; and they are filled with the spirit, in whom his grace is a well of living water, and out of whose belly flow rivers of it; and who have a large measure of spiritual peace and joy, expressed in the following manner.

18. wherein—not in the wine (1 Tim. 5:23), but in ‘becoming drunk’ with it. excess [asotia]—‘dissoluteness;’ lit., unsavingness; unrestrained recklessness. but be filled with (lit., IN) the Spirit. In inspiration the person was “filled” with ecstatic exhilaration, like that caused by wine; hence the two are connected (cf. Acts 2:13–18). Many prophets—e. g., John Baptist—abstained from wine, in order that the world might distinguish the ecstasy caused by the Spirit from that caused by wine. So in ordinary Christians, the Spirit dwells not in the mind that seeks excitement, but in the well-balanced prayerful mind. Such express their joy, not in drunken or worldly songs, but in Christian hymns of thankfulness. 19. (Col. 3:16) to yourselves. Hence arose the antiphonal or responsive chanting of which Pliny writes to Trajan: ‘They are wont on a fixed day to meet before daylight (to avoid persecution) and to recite a hymn among themselves by turns, to Christ as if God.’ The Spirit gives true wine a spurious eloquence. psalms

3. Being Filled With the Spirit (vss. 18–21). Verse 18 contains both a negative and a positive command: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Drunkenness is alluded to as a concrete example of the heedless folly referred to in verse 17. It is forbidden because it leads to “excess,” “dissipation,” or “ruin.” John Eadie’s words, written long ago, are still all too true. Speaking of intemperance, he declared that there is in it

that kind of dissoluteness which brooks no restraint, which defies all efforts to reform it, and which sinks lower and lower into hopeless and helpless ruin.… This tremendous sin … is all the more to be shunned as its hold is so great on its victims, for with periodical remorse there is periodical inebriety; the fatal cup is again coveted and drained; while character, fortune, and life are risked and lost in the gratification of an appetite of all others the most brutal in form and brutifying in result. There are few vices out of which there is less hope of recovery—its haunts are so numerous and its hold is so tremendous (p. 397).

The emphasis of the verse, however, falls on the positive command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” The Greek text, which may read, “Be filled in spirit,” suggests to some interpreters that spirit (as opposed to the physical part of our being) is the sphere in which we are to be filled. It is much better, however, to understand the reference to be to the Holy Spirit. Viewed in this manner, the injunction may be translated, “Be filled through [or by] the Spirit.” But it seems preferable to follow the rendering of KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB, and others (“be filled with the Spirit”) or that of NEB (“let the Holy Spirit fill you”). Robinson feels that the language combines the ideas of a “fulness which comes through the Spirit” and a “fulness which consists in being full of the Spirit” (p. 204). To be full of the Spirit is to possess as much of the Spirit as one can contain. Perhaps there is the added notion of being permeated by His presence and power, being brought under his gracious control.

Anyone desiring to grasp the meaning of this passage should study the writings of Luke, for whom the idea of a “filling” was a favorite (cf. Luke 1:15; 41, 67; 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52).

In the present passage the subject of the verb is plural, indicating that the experience should not be looked upon as exceptional, nor as the prerogative of only a select few. The tense of the verb is present, pointing up either an action that is to be repeated from time to time or an action that is continuous. In this respect, the “filling” is different from the baptism in/with/by the Spirit. The latter is experienced by all believers and is never repeated (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). Moreover, the New Testament contains not a single command to be baptized in/with/by the Spirit. The voice of the verb is passive, indicating that we are acted upon by the Spirit (cf. NEB).

Carnal intoxication leads to ruin, but the fullness wrought by the Spirit of God issues in joyfulness (vs. 19), thankfulness (vs. 20), and mutual submission (vs. 21). These are the qualities that mark the Spirit-filled life.

The idea of being filled with the Spirit recalls being filled to all the fullness of God (3:19) and the Church as the fullness of God and Christ (see 1:13, 17; 3:16; 4:30). Spirit-possession, contrasted here with drinking wine excessively, has a rich history (e.g., 1 Sam 19:20–24; Exod 31:3; Pss 104:30; 143:9–11; Isa 61:1–4; see also Matt 12:18; Acts 2:4; Rom 8:11; Rev 19:10). It denoted empowerment by God to function beyond the ordinary.