Ephesians 5:18 Commentary and Bible Study

It is recorded in Acts 6 that the apostles called for the appointment of deacons. The first choice was Stephen who was to be the first Christian martyr, and it is duly recorded that he was seen to be full of the Holy Spirit. How did they know? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 14:17 that ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ can be measured and seen in terms of righteousness and peace and joy in the Spirit. We read also in the book of Acts of the fillings of the Spirit. Peter and also all the disciples in Acts 4 were filled with the Holy Spirit for witness. Then in Acts 9 Paul is filled with the Spirit and straightway preaches Christ, and later in Acts 13 Paul was again filled with the Spirit at the beginning of the first missionary journey. The old saying is: one baptism of the Spirit (which is occurs at conversion), but many fillings. And here we are told to seek a filling. This is not only for witness, but also for advance in holiness, for worship, and for comfort. You need not seek for it in those specific terms, because the interesting thing is that when you read about the filling of the Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles, you do not read of their having prayed specifically for that, but simply called upon the Lord for help and for power. They asked for help and courage, and what they received was a filling of the Spirit. There is a tremendous contrast in the verse: ‘Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit.’ They were not drinking people. Of course, the exhortation must always be made: never be drunk, never drink to excess, but these Ephesians had found the Lord. They had left the old life of drinking and drunkenness and they were living the new life. We will go further and say, never drink at all. However, ‘be not drunk with wine wherein is excess’. Paul brings this in here for the sake of contrast. They are opposites. There is all the difference in the world. Some seem to think that being filled with the Spirit bears similarities to being affected by wine. They seem to think that just as wine makes you uninhibited, unrestrained, frees you up in any number of ways – morally, frees your arms and your legs so you can flail about and dance as you worship – so, they think, a filling of the Holy Spirit frees you from reservations, sets you free from the binding power of reason and government by your mind, so that you can worship just about any way you like. Worship they think is an expression of the sensational and feelings and the physical. It's a fundamental mistake and a wrong view of verses like this.In reality there are tremendous contrasts between these two fillings. Alcohol dulls the senses, whereas the filling of the Holy Spirit enhances the mind and emancipates the reason, so that we think more clearly, and we see the wonderful truths of the word and the doctrines of the faith. These things are seen not only intellectually but deeply, and we are moved with views of Christ and great and profound truths. It is the mind, which is enhanced and made capable of handling the spiritual. It isn’t quenched. Alcohol, as it were, releases the animal in you and subdues your higher thoughts, reservations, and control, whereas the filling of the Spirit restrains the old nature and the fleshly lusts. They don't correspond or have similarities; they are absolute opposite. Alcohol impairs your critical judgement, the filling of the Spirit sharpens your critical judgement, no end. Alcohol dulls the perceptions; the Spirit deepens them. Alcohol shatters your inhibitions, whereas the filling of the Spirit strengthens them. Alcohol promotes the trivial. Haven't you noticed all the worldly songs are nearly all about trivial things and sex. There is virtually no other subject, no other arrow in the worldly quiver, no other weapon in the worldly arsenal, no other subject on the agenda, but sex and trivia. Then you contrast it to the filling of the Spirit and the psalms and hymns become real to you with their observations of God and human nature, and their great depths and their profound sentiments. Alcohol gives you a false sense of friendship, but the Holy Spirit deepens our bonds and we find true and faithful friends. Moral abandon is the result of alcohol; moral strengthening is the result of the filling of the Spirit. Alcohol makes you insensitive – you cannot find your way round or even drive properly or do your job properly – whereas the Spirit makes you sensitive to others. Alcohol is escapism, whereas the Holy Spirit deepens you so that, even in trouble and grief, you can lay hold on the promises of God.