In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul starts of by saying, “be imitators of God.” A huge task for anyone. He goes on to qualify that statement by telling his readers (the Ephesians) how not to live, because doing those things would keep you from imitating God’s character. Then in verses 8-16, Paul starts to make a case as why you should imitate God and not live sinful lives, saying, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” You’re different now. God has rescued you.
Then, in verse 17, Paul gets to the how. He said what (be imitators of God), then how not (no sexual immorality, etc), then why (the light and darkness bit), and now how to.
The first thing he says in this section is, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” There are a few things that stick out in this verse which bear discussing.
First of all, so many people talk about wanting to know what God’s will for their life is, which is definitely a good thing. We need to follow him wherever He leads us. However, we also need to recognize that it is always God’s will to be filled by the Spirit. Not sure what God’s plan for your life is? Okay. Don’t stop there or get paralyzed by that. Seek to be continually filled by the Spirit.
Second of all, there is an obvious comparison between getting drunk and being filled that is supposed to help us understand just how much we are to be filled by God. There are two words that we should take a look at to help us.
The first one is the word methuskó. It’s a pretty basic Greek word meaning to intoxicate, or make drunk. Pretty self explanatory, right? Just for the record, this is not what we’re supposed to do. This is compared to the next word that we need to dissect. Pléroó.
Pléroó is the Greek word that’s translated “be filled” in the NIV. In the Greek, though, it really means something more along the lines of to fill to individual capacity. It comes from another Greek verb, plḗthō, which means to fill to the maximum, the limit. The interesting thing is that both of these words have a root, ple, which expresses totality, and implies full quantity. To. The. Max.
Here’s the point. Just as people fill themselves up with all that akahol, that’s how God wants us to be filled with His Spirit. God’s will is that we get drunk on the Spirit (weird, right?). Just as people drink and are influenced to do stupid things that the regret, God wants us to drink up, and be influenced by Him, to be under His influence, and not our own (and not to do stupid things, but to live righteous lives).
The challenge is we can only be filled by the Spirit as much as we empty ourselves of sin. If we truly want God to fill us, we better expect that God is going to want us to make room. If our lives are already filled upon asking for the Spirit, we may need to clean house.
(photo from Luca Venturi Oslo)