Be Filled with The Spirit?

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:18,19)

The words of the title of this article occur in the King James Version of the passage quoted above, as they do in a number of more modern translations of the Scriptures, including The New International Version . They have given rise to the idea that Paul was here urging his readers to be filled with the Holy Spirit Himself, and some charismatic Christian movements have suggested that a kind of ethereal experience is both possible and necessary for the believer, over and above salvation. Paul's contrast between being “drunk with wine” and being “filled with the Spirit”, adds fuel to this idea, both of which could lead to speaking, singing and making music, sometimes out of control.

The contrast between drunkenness and the work of the Spirit was made by Peter on the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples, “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). Peter stood up and addressed the crowd:

“….listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose….this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.'” (Acts 2:14-17)

Again we have the statement in the English translation of The New International and King James versions (and others), “filled with the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost)”. In the Acts passage, the outcome of this experience, however it is understood, was “speaking in different kinds of tongues”, reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 12, where this phenomena was one of the spiritual gifts of the period, and a prominent one at that (verse 28 & chapter 14).

The difference between the Ephesian and Corinthian passages is that the former makes no mention of speaking in tongues, but of speaking to one another with “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (5:19), so that the injunction to be filled with the Spirit issues in a different experience. That a change of dispensation has occurred between the writing of these two epistles is explained in other works published by The Open Bible Trust, and we regret that we cannot go into it here. We must concentrate on whether Paul is instructing us to “be filled with the Spirit”, as the English seems to suggest, and if this translation is correct.

Firstly we note that not every version follows the KJV and NIV referred to above. The New English Bible has , “ Let the Holy Spirit fill you” and The Contemporary English Version , “Let the Spirit fill your life”. Young's Literal Translation of the Bible renders it, “be filled in the Spirit”. There is obviously a great difference between being filled with the Spirit (i.e., the Holy Spirit) and being filled by (or in ) the Spirit with something (whatever that might be). For this reason we have added a question mark to the heading of this article suggesting that with , may not be the correct translation.

Dr. E.W. Bullinger in his work, The Giver and His Gifts (1905), reprinted in 1979 under the title, Word Studies on the Holy Spirit , gives a concise commentary on every New Testament passage where the word “spirit” or “Spirit” (Greek pneuma ) occurs. He gives grammatical reasons why Ephesians 5:18 should be rendered, “be filled by the Spirit”, from the usage of the Greek preposition en (by, with, in, etc.) in Scripture. The original title of his work warns us then to distinguish between ‘the Giver and His gifts', and gives a whole new complexion to the work of the Holy Spirit at the present time. If then the Holy Spirit is ‘the Giver', what is the gift?

There is a connection throughout Scripture between ‘spirit' and ‘word'. In the opening verses of Genesis we have, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said... ” (1:2,3). The creation is brought into being by the movement of God's Spirit and His word, and that word is later identified in the person of Christ as the Word of John chapter 1, who made all things. Likewise, when the Spirit of God came upon Balaam “he uttered his oracle ” (Numbers 24:2,3) and David's last words are introduced with, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me ” (2 Samuel 23:2). We have already referred to the connection between the Holy Spirit's work and the gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost, which was foreseen in the prophecy of Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy... ” (Acts 2:15-17), and so on.

So, whilst we would not limit the work of the Holy Spirit among men to words only, there is a strong connection and emphasis between that work and God's word.

Coming back to Ephesians 5:18,19, and in order to understand what ‘the Giver' gives, and what, in practice it means to be filled by the Spirit, we note the following in the context of the whole passage.

• The passage is introduced by an appeal to wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord's will, in the light of the present “days of evil”. It suggests the possibility of being unwise and being led astray, hence the need to be “very careful” (vs. 15-17).
• The contrast between the effects of excessive drink and being filled by the Spirit (a contrast we might have hesitated to make for fear of being disrespectful), suggests that the outcome is a feeling of elation, perhaps even lack of inhibition. It is one of the characteristics of drunkenness that the natural ‘shyness' of man seems to disappear, as evidenced by talkativeness. This may suggest from Paul's comparison, that to be filled by the Spirit is largely an outward manifestation. But when we read on, Paul sees the work of the Holy Spirit as issuing in an inward joy of “singing and praising with your heart to the Lord” (verse 19 lit.). That this may also involve some outward expression is not disputed, since we “speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”. How important it is therefore, that any outward form of worship, even singing, is Scriptural, in which “giving thanks to God” plays a large part.
• The relationship of this passage to the parallel passage in Colossians 3:16,17; 4:5,6, has often been noted and throws light on what it means to be filled by the Spirit and what His gift is.

We give the parallels so:

Ephesians 5:15-20	Colossians 3:16-4:6
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise (v15) making the most of every opportunity (v16) Be filled by the Spirit (v18) Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (v19) Make music in your heart to the Lord (v19) Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (v20)	Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity (4:5) Let the word of Christ dwell in you (3:16) Teach and admonish one another....as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (3:16) Sing....with gratitude in your hearts to God (3:16) Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (3:17)

Most of the parallels are obvious, but whereas Ephesians says, “Be filled by the Spirit”, the parallel passage in Colossians urges, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you”, surely a commentary on how we can be filled by the Spirit. Whatever the outward manifestation of the Spirit's filling (here it is singing and making music in the heart) the essential fact to note is that the Spirit's work begins with the word of Christ dwelling in us. How then does this become a practical reality? If we allow the Scriptures to answer this question we recall the experience of Jeremiah:

You understand, O Lord….When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight (Jeremiah 15:15,16)

In a passage that speaks of the utter loneliness of the prophet, he takes in avidly the words of the Lord, as though eating them, and they bring joy to his heart. Similarly Ezekiel, called upon to speak to a “rebellious nation” and being in fear, the Lord says to him:

As he spoke, the Spirit came into me….You must speak my words to them…open your mouth and eat what I give you. Then I looked and saw a scroll….he gave me the scroll to eat (Ezekiel 2:1-3:3)

In Ezekiel's case the Lord's words were “of lament and mourning and woe” (2:10), necessary for a rebellious people, but they were the Lord's words which Ezekiel was bidden to eat and with which to fill his stomach (3:3).

These experiences speak of something more than just reading or listening to the words of the Lord and are in line with the Colossian verse, which we have as yet only partly quoted, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (3:16). God spoke to Israel by an angelic ministry; they were His messengers and carried His words. His prophets were seen, in a metaphor, as not only hearing His words, but also eating them.

Today, He speaks through the Scriptures. We cannot eat them, but we can let them dwell in us richly. When Paul was writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, he made much of Timothy's grounding in the Scriptures, reminding him that, “All Scripture is God-breathed ( Theo-pneustos) ”; it is the work of the Holy Spirit (Pneuma). It is essential reading, not only for the academic, but for the workman “who does not need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2:15).

To be filled by the Spirit is a practical injunction. It is not arbitrary, but necessary to be able to walk in wisdom and avoid being misled by the claims of the world (even under the guise of Christianity), a world which knows not the word of Christ. There are two facets to being filled by the Spirit: His work is to do the filling, ours to be filled, by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly—by ‘eating' His word. He is the Giver, we the recipients; the gift is the word of Christ.