Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey Pauls letter to the Ephesian church is an incredibly profound letter that begins in a place other than time. Paul writes
3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his willEphesians 1.3-5, NRSV Paul uses the term mystery (mustrion) in Ephesians (1:9; 3:3-6, 9-11; 5:32; 6:19) six times. The idea is that the gospel of the Kingdom is something that has been concealed but is now revealed in and through Christ. Chapters 1-3 Paul spends time speaking about the mystique of the church then in Chapter 4 Paul lands on earth and becomes intensely practical. He speaks about spiritual transformation and renewal. The practical section of Ephesians begins in Chapter 4 and ends in Chapter 6.10. The practical sections of Ephesians address how we live as Kingdom agents and members of this body known as the Church. The Church is the creation of God the Father, by means of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Spirit is the act of the Holy Spirit joining into a spiritual unity people of diverse racial extractions and diverse social background so that they form the body of Christthe Ekklesia. The Ekklesia is not simply a human fellowship it is the creation of God through the Spirit.1 In the midst of Pauls practical exhortations as to how to live as the Church, Paul writes,
15

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Pauls exhortation is that we are careful how we live. The KJV renders this verse as See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise The word translated as careful (NRSV) or circumspectly (KJV) from the Greel, aribos means to be diligent, to be exact, hence to be thoughtful or careful. The word is contrasted with the word fools asophos, or one without wisdom. Being wise is not the same as being academic or book learning; being wise actually is an umbrella term which refers to master of the art of living. Wisdom is a mastery of the art of living in accordance with Gods expectation.2 Wisdom implies a a process of attainment not accomplishment.3 It is a state of being and not just an action or series
1 2

G.E. Ladd Theology of the New Testament, p. 347, Lutterworth Press Vine, W.E., Unger Merrill F., White, William Jr. Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words p. 290 Thomas Nelson Publishers 1985

1|Page

Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey of actions. Wisdom is not academic learning or philosophical contemplation. Wisdom is skill in maintaining your relationships, managing your resources and achieving the right results. Basically wisdom is the intensely practical art of being skilful and successful in life.4 A wise person is an individual who knows how to live well. Wisdom is skill in the management of affairs.5 This wisdom is attached the need for us to understand what the will of the Lord is (verse 17.). Paul then says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit Paul says do not get drunk with wine this is in the imperfect passive tense in Greek. This means that getting drunk is an action as continued, repeated, or habitual6 and can refer to something which happens time and again. The sense then is Do not allow yourself to keep on, continually, repeatedly and habitually being drunk with wine; instead keep on, continually, repeatedly and habitually being filled with the Spirit. That is the focus of my reflection today; the idea of continually, repeatedly and habitually being filled with the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? That is a big question that has to be answered in little bits at a time. Lets first deal with the idea of being filled. What does Paul mean when he says for us to allow ourselves to be filled? The Greek here, pleroo which means 1) to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full; 2) to render full, i.e. to complete in the sense of to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure, fill to the brim; to make complete in every particular, to render perfect.7 Paul says to be filled with the Spirit and he contrasts being filled with the Spirit with being filled with wine. According to Professor of clinical biochemistry Timothy Peters of King's College London One of the most rapid effects of alcohol is on the central nervous system (CNS), which controls a range of vital body functions not least the sense organs, muscles controlling speech as well as the sweat glands in the skin. intoxication interferes with the CNS ability to analyse sensory information resulting in the typical symptoms of being drunk such as disturbed balance, slurred speech, blurred vision, heavy sweating and the dulling of our sensation of pain, which is why alcohol in the past was used as an anaesthetic.

Vine, W.E., Unger Merrill F., White, William Jr. Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words p. 290 Thomas Nelson Publishers 1985 4 Dyrness William Themes in Old Testament Theology p 189, Paternoster Press 1979 5 Enhanced Strongs Lexicon, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995. 6 rd Zerwick, Max and Grosvenor, Mary, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, 3 Revised Edition, p. xxii, Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici 1988 7 Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Hendrickson Publishers; Rei Sub edition (June 1, 1996)

2|Page

Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey Alcohol also affects the outer layer of the brain, the frontal cortex, the region concerned with conscious thought which is why people under the influence of alcohol often lose their inhibitions. Alcohol also affects the cerebellum in the brain which controls balance and coordination as well as eye movements. Therefore high alcohol consumption can disrupt the brain's judgement of distances and heights and cause dizziness. Although people often seem to crash out and sleep after drinking, there is evidence to show that after drinking people's quality of sleep will be affected through dehydration. Alcohol also interferes with sleeping rhythms. The toxicity of alcohol can irritate the stomach causing gastritis (chronic stomach upset) often resulting in retching and vomiting. The toxic effect of alcohol can also cause inflammation of the oesophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, causing heartburn. Alcohol often affects the large bowel. The small and large intestine reabsorb salt and water but alcohol interferes with this process often causing diarrhoea. Alcohol plunders our stores of vitamins and minerals, which need to be in the correct balance for the body to function normally. It seriously disturbs the appropriate balance of minerals in the blood including potassium along with calcium, and sodium which are known as ions, is maintained by the kidneys.8 The point here is that being filled with alcohol impacts a persons entire physiological system globally. This is not to mention the psychological and emotional effects of being filled with wine. Your entire physiological system is flooded with the substance Now if this is what happens to a person who is physically filled with wine what happen to a person who is spiritually filled with the Spirit? Firstly being filled with the Holy Spirit is not to be confused with the idea of being baptised in the Spirit; the two realities are related but they are not the same. I do not want to spend too much time on this but simply to say, that being baptised with the Holy Spirit is part of the conversioninitiation complex. For the writers of the NT the baptism in or the gift of the Spirit was part of the event (or process) of becoming a Christian, together with the effective proclamation of the gospel, belief in Jesus as Lord, and water-baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus; that it was a chief element in conversion-initiation so that only those who had thus received the Spirit could be
8

BBC News, What happens when you get drunk Friday, 21 December, 2001, 23:52 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1721987.stm

3|Page

Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey called Christians9 Thus being baptised with the Holy Spirit is a single one off event that happens as part of the experience of conversion. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a continuous, repeated, on-going, habitual process. Being filled with the Spirit does not emphasize the ecstatic character of the Spirits presence, but the fullness of his presence.10 So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Just as alcohol floods and overwhelms the physical body so that all physical systems are overloaded so too being filled with the Holy Spirit means that a persons entire spiritual, emotional and psychological being is flooded by the fullness of the Holy Spirits presence and activity. Gordon D. Fee notes One can scarcely miss the richness of this metaphor. First of all, it is merely another way, a more powerfully metaphorical way to be sure, of repeating Pauls basic imperative found in Gal. 5.16: Walk in/by the Spirit. All truly Christian behaviour is the result of being Spirit people, people filled with the Spirit of God, who live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit. The richness of the metaphor comes in part from its contrast to being drunken with wine and in part from the verb be filled. Together they do not picture a person who is drunk on the Spirit, as it were, as if there were virtue in that, but a person and in this case, a community. whose life is so totally given over to the Spirit that the life and deeds of the Spirit are as obvious in their case as the effects of too much wine are obvious in the other.11 You and I are to live in such a way that our lives are totally filled by the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. When a person is filled with wine they are inebriated or intoxicated, that is, alcohol has filled their system to such an extent that they behaviour and actions can be said to be fuelled by alcohol. In the same way we are to be so filled by the Holy Spirit that our behaviour and actions are fuelled by the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God; he is one with the Father and the Son. The Father is God over us; the Son is God with us and the Holy Spirit is God within us. He is thus the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is the inner life of God. He is the flow of loving energy that flows from the Father, to the Son and from that Father and Son into the hearts and lives of members of the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit can be understood as the sum total of Gods thoughts, Gods feelings, Gods emotions, Gods passions, Gods drives, Gods internal motivations and Gods impulses.
9

Dunn James D.G. Baptism in the Holy Spirit Studies in Biblical Theology Second Series p. 4 SCM Press Ltd 1970 Fee, Gordon D., Gods Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit In the Letters of Paul, p. 721, Hendrickson Publishers 2002 11 Fee, Gordon D., Gods Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit In the Letters of Paul, p. 721, Hendrickson Publishers 2002
10

4|Page

Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey The word emotion comes from the concept of motion or movement towards a thing. When we emote or are emotional we are moved by internal feelings towards external people of things. We attach value and significance to things based on our emotional attachment to them. Emotion can be said to be the foundation of all behaviour. The Holy Spirit is the centre of Gods emotional being. Therefore to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the emotional life of God. So that we are moved by those things which move God; our inner being is flooded and overwhelmed by the sum total of Gods thoughts, Gods feelings, Gods emotions, Gods passions, Gods drives, Gods internal motivations and Gods impulses. This is why Paul writes in Galatians 5: But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5.22-23, NLT). Being filled with the Spirit not some ecstatic experience characterised by speaking with tongues, fainting, falling into a trance or shaking uncontrollably. I do not want to negate this experiences, however, I do want to be clear about them because it is possible to have all of these experiences and never be filled with the Holy Spirit in the sense in which Paul means here in Ephesians 5.18 and in Galatians 5.22-23. To be filled with the Holy Spirit in the biblical sense is to be so intoxicated or inebriated with the emotions and passions of God that our entire being is moved towards those things that God is moved towards. That is why Paul writes in Romans 14.17, For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness [or the pursuit of Gods justice for the poor and oppressed] and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit? How does a person get drunk? They make the time and space in their lives to purchase and consume copious amounts of alcohol; and they do this repeatedly, continuously and habitually. We are filled with the Spirit in a similar way: we make the time and space in our lives to actively pursue and engage with the thoughts, the feelings, the emotions, the motivations, the drives and passions of God. I do not want this this to be any more mysterious than it needs to be. We are filled with Gods Spirit when we care about the things that God cares about, when we are moved by the things that God is moved by and when we repeatedly act, think and speak in ways that are consistent with Gods heart and desires. When a person becomes drunk they simply open their mouths and pour the alcohol in; the alcohol will do the rest. To be filled with the Spirit simply open your heart, let Gods words, Gods passions, Gods ideas, Gods love, Gods mercy, and Gods compassion in and the Spirit the inner life of God will do the rest! As we are collectively filled with Gods Spirit our worship and our homes give full evidence of the Spirits presence: by song, praise, and thanksgiving that simultaneously praise and adore God and teach the community, and by the 5|Page

Being Filled With The Spirit

Ephesians 5.15-20, NRSV Paul B. Bailey kind of submission of ourselves to one another in which the concern is not whos in charge here, but how to love the family as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her.12 Being filled with the Spirit is key to praise and worship 5.19-20, husbands loving wives, husbands and wives submitting to each other 5.21-33, children obeying parents 6.1-3, fathers nurturing and teaching their children 6.4; and negotiating the complex relationships between slaves and masters in 6.5-9. In short church and ministry, family and work life is impossible without the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Gods empowering presence in our lives. So then, Paul urges the communities to whom the letter is written, be filled with the fullness of God by his Spirit, and let that be evidenced not by Spirit-inebriation, but by behaviour and worship that give full evidence of Gods empowering presence.13

12

Fee, Gordon D., Gods Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit In the Letters of Paul, p. 722, Hendrickson Publishers 2002 13 Ibid.

6|Page