Ephesians 5:18

drunk with wine Cp. for similar cautions, Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:30-31; Luke 21:34; Rom 13:13; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21; 1 Timothy 3:3. "He fitly follows up a warning against impurity with a warning against drunkenness" (Bengel).

wherein In "being drunken with wine;" in the act and habit of intemperance.

excess R.V., riot. The word recurs Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4; and its adverb, Luke 15:13. By derivation it nearly answers the idea of that which is "dissolute," i.e. unbound, unrestrained. The miserable exaltation of strong drink annuls the holy bonds of conscience with fatal ease and certainty.

but be filled As if to say, "Avoid such false elevation; yet seek instead not a dead level of feeling, but the sacred heights of spiritual joy and power, in that Divine Love which (Song of Solomon 1:2) -is better than wine"."

filled with the Spirit Lit., "in spirit," and so margin R.V. But the text R.V., and the A.V., are assuredly right. The definite article may well be omitted here (see on Ephesians 1:17, and Ephesians 2:22), without obscuring the ref. to the Divine Spirit, if context favours it. And surely the context does so, in the words "in which" just above. The two "in" (inwhich," "inSpirit,") are parallel. And as the first "in" points to an objective cause of "riot," so surely the second "in" points to the objective cause, not subjective sphere, of joy; to the Spirit, not to our spirit. On the phrase "in (the) Spirit" cp. Matthew 22:43; Romans 8:9; Colossians 1:8; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:10. The phrase "in the Spirit" (def. article expressed) occurs only Luke 2:27. "In (the) Holy Spirit" occurs frequently, and in many places where A.V. has "by&c."; e.g., 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 12:9. The parallel phrase "in an uncleanspirit" occurs Mark 5:2. On the whole, the idea conveyed appears to be that the possessing Power, Divine or evil, which from one point of view inhabitsthe man, from another surroundshim, as with an atmosphere. "If the Spirit be in you, you are in It" (Jer. Taylor, Sermon for Whitsunday).

Thus, "be ye filled in (the) Spirit," may be lawfully paraphrased, "Let in the holy atmosphere to your inmost self, to your whole will and soul. Let the Divine Spirit, in Whom you, believing, are, pervade your being, as water fills the sponge." And the context gives the special thought that this "filling" will tend to that sacred exhilaration, "the Spirit's calm excess [39] ", of which wine-drinking could produce only a horrible parody. See next verse.

[39] St Ambrose (" Splendor paternæ gloriæ" tr. by Chandler).