What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
• And do not get drunk with wine,
for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
with your heart. (Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV)
I don’t think that we, who have the Spirit, can have more of
the Spirit. Instead, it seems that having the Spirit is an “all or nothing”
proposition. Either we have Him or we don’t.
How then are we to fulfill the command to be filled with the
Spirit? I tend to think that it’s a matter of being filled with the things of
the Spirit, namely the Scriptures, which He has authored:
• For no prophecy was ever produced
by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
Even the command to be filled with the Spirit seems to
indicate that we must filled with the Words of the Spirit, “addressing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” This is how we are to be
filled with the Spirit.
A parallel set of verses supports this understanding:
• Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And
whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him. Wives, submit to your husbands, as
is fitting in the Lord. (Colossians 3:16-18)
This passage is almost parallel to the Ephesians passage,
which continues in this manner:
• giving thanks always and for
everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting
to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands,
as to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:20-22)
Now compare this to the Colossians passage - almost
identical, right? In light of this identity between the two passages, it is
also likely that the lead-off verses are also expressing the same thought:
• And do not get drunk with wine,
for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
with your heart, (Ephesians 5:18-19)
• Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
(Colossians 3:16)
If this is so, then being “filled with the Spirit” is
another way of saying “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
If so, this is a teaching that makes sense, one that we can
obey. In contrast, trying to literally fill ourselves with more of the Spirit,
whom we already have in totality, has led many in what seems to be the wrong
direction. Some take this teaching to mean that we have to experience more of
the Spirit, perhaps through dream interpretations, feelings, or by becoming
more in tune with His promptings, which can lead to an unbiblical and misguided
focus upon ourselves.
In contrast, it is growing in the knowledge of God through
the Spirit’s illumination of His Word that provides growth, guidance, and
blessing:
• May grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has
granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the
knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has
granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you
may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption
that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:2-4)
All things are granted to us through the knowledge of our
Savior.
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