The Spirit-Filled Life
Ephesians 5:15-21
Quick Discussion: What are the two most significant influences on your life?
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.”
At the heart of this contrast is a life lived under the influence of … those influences, which become something that we rely on to make it through the day. They may be destructive like alcohol which slows the mind, and dulls the senses … or it may be considered benign, like the hyper-caffeinating by today’s teens who are chugging between 800 and 1000 milligrams of caffeine a day (3 times the adult recommended maximum dosage), relying on it to provide the energy to get them through the day (The result has been a sharp rise in teen instances of hyper-tension, and heart palpitations). Or consider that we are living in a culture that “gets drunk” on other forms of self-indulgence, like sex or risk-taking or hunger for power because it activates the same dopamine centers in the brain that taking drugs achieve.
In contrast to relinquishing of our lives to destructive influences, Paul tells us to “be filled with the Spirit.”
Possession of the Spirit is the mark of being a Christian. But if the Spirit is given to a believer at conversion and, indeed, is the agent of conversion, what does this command involve?
Paul’s point is that the Holy Spirit is the controlling influence motivating and directing the lives of believers. Paul commands us to live a life consumed even dominated by the Holy Spirit’s influence.
We can understand this command by examining other texts with this or similar ideas. If a text says people are filled with grief, joy, or knowledge, we have no difficulty understanding that the emotion or knowledge dominates and describes what they are really like. If Acts 5:3 describes Ananias by saying Satan filled his heart, clearly Satan has dominated his impulses, any countervailing tendencies have been rooted out. The Scriptures also speak specifically of people being full of the Spirit ... Jesus at his baptism, Stephen, Barnabas. The seven chosen to serve the Hellenistic widows were to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Surely the intent is that the people chosen should be characterized by wisdom and live in tune with God’s Spirit.
Attention is here placed on the believers’ responsibility to be receptive to the Spirit. While human beings do not manipulate the movement of God’s Spirit, human responsibility is involved. We have choice in this matter, for the Spirit’s transforming work in us is not done apart from human consent. God does not force the Holy Spirit upon us to change us in ways that we refuse.
And Paul emphasizes that Christians are to be continually filled with God’s Spirit. This is the force of the Greek verb. To ask us to be filled with the Spirit does not point to repeated charismatic experiences, as some claim. It is to ask us to focus our attention on Christ and his presence in us, to open ourselves to the continual transforming work of the Spirit so that the presence of Christ empowers and shapes our lives. The Spirit is to be the dominant influence for all Christians.
And a life dominated by the influence of the Holy Spirit will result in a number of common characteristics. Paul uses five-participles explain the results of being filled with the Spirit. The five participles do not call for trappings of piety that can be faked. Such a religious front is offensive to anyone seeking integrity. Though most of our Bibles translate these phrases as commands, it is not an accurate translation. Paul is not commanding these actions. He is stating that they are the natural consequences of a life driven and influenced by the Holy Spirit.
What are those participles? They are:
Speaking to each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
Singing
Making music
Giving Thanks
Submitting to each other out of reverence for Christ.
As we sort through these participles, we can identify at least three results of the Holy Spirit’s influence.
1. Spirit-filled people authentically share in joyous worship.
La gente Espiritu-llenada comparte auténtico en la adoración feliz.
I know that none of us would consider that the singing and music are perfunctory elements of our worship service that we need to suffer through so we can get on to the real worship. And it is a good thing that none of us would consider singing and music a worship add-on because Paul wouldn’t agree with us.
I can say that with confidence because of the five participles describing life in the Spirit, three have to do with singing. Just notice that priority that Paul gives to singing in these verses. “Speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts.”
Singing is the natural expression of joy that God brings into a person’s life. Singing is not an add-on to worship. It is not the warm up to what is really important in worship. Singing is the heart crying out in such inexpressibly sweet joy that it cannot be confined to the spoken word. Singing is worship through words that are given wings.
§ It is the song of Miriam celebrating God’s deliverance that the horse and his rider had been cast into the sea.
§ It is the songs of David in the Psalms that celebrate God’s deliverance from life and death circumstances.
§ It is the song of Mary celebrating God’s selection of her as the mother of His Son.
Repeatedly, time and again, when people experienced the richness of God’s blessings on their life they burst out in song – it was the only language that could express the depth of their joy.
Although, Paul mentions singing and music in three phrases, his central concern is not music. His call is for a sense of God’s presence that results in a spontaneous and authentic joy. Although, musical expression is Paul avenue of choice, such joy may be expressed in a variety of fashions. The key is expressing a joyous spirit of worship is a by-product of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
Obviously, one time when we express joyous celebration is in our corporate worship. Although, the Day of Atonement was a somber service, it was the exception. Most Old Testament corporate worship times were festive celebrations of God’s provision for His people.
That people are to sing in their heart is not a request that people sing with feeling or emotion. While there are texts that do have something to say about our expressing our emotions in worship, this text does not address changes in mood. While emotions are always involved in spirituality, being spiritual does not depend on a level of emotional feeling.
Rather, ‘heart’ refers to the controlling center of one’s being: ‘Sing with your whole being,’ which certainly involves the emotions. The issue is the integrity with which one sings, not the feeling. Words are not merely sung, they express the reality of the life in the Spirit.
There is a danger of falling off either edge of the table when it comes to expressing ourselves in worship. Those who are more reserved, personally, may wish that those who are not would just sit down. Those who express themselves more actively in clapping, and raising of hands, and such, can be seduced into believing that those who don’t express themselves outwardly aren’t really worshiping.
But spirituality is the cause of singing, not its result. No one is asked to take on cultural religious trappings. People are expected only to express the inner joy Christ brings, even if they cannot carry a tune or even if they have to write new songs to express with integrity the reality they have found in Christ.
But notice what else it says about music. The purpose of singing is both praise of God and instruction of believers. Singing, then, has two audiences. Not only is singing an offering of praise to God. But Christians sing to each other, to teach and remind each other about God’s character and work in Christ. As a matter of fact, we have several songs penned in the New Testament that served as early creedal statements of the church’s beliefs set to music. As songs, the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, served as tools to share personal testimonies and teach Biblical truths about the grace of Christ.
Yet, we continue to turn our ears to the lessons in music that teach us about corrupt lifestyles and language. Finally, after the Don Imus firestorm, Jesse Jackson came out to call for the rap culture to clean up its lyrics, which demean and defile women, while a national conference was being held in Washington DC by some rap artists and producers were calling for lyrical changes. So don’t even try to suggest that the music that we listen to doesn’t serve to teach us what we consider morally appropriate.
But one thing I’m not getting from this text is that the songs and music of worship is about me. While songs that are consistent with my background may aid me in worshiping authentically, with my heart, it’s not about me.
Ronald Allen, in Worship: Rediscovering the Missing Jewel, gives us some meaningful guidance in helping us to establish some perimeters for authentically sharing in joy-filled worship:
What, then is the essence of worship? It is celebration of God! When we worship God, we celebrate Him: Extol Him, we sound His praises, we boast in Him.
We worship when we allow the prelude to attune our hearts to the glory of God by the means of the music.
Worship is not the mumbling of prayers or the mouthing of hymns with little thought and less heart; we celebrate God when we join together earnestly in prayer and intensely in song.
Worship is not self-aggrandizing words or boring clichés when one is asked to give a testimony; we celebrate God when we authentically share the difference that God has made in our lives.
Worship is not great music performed flawlessly or haphazard music done poorly; we celebrate God when we enjoy and participate in music to His glory.
What is my point in all of this: simply this – it is too easy for some of us to attempt to fake it in worship. We have lost our passion for worship. The joy of experiencing God has run thin, and with it our heart for worship has turned cold. When our joy fades and worship gets dull and boring … when we arrive at that place that we have to fake it in worship … when it is easier to criticize others worship offerings than to critique our own integrity in worship, we need to experience once again a renewal of joy that is only achieved through the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives.
Short of the Spirit breathing into us a fresh breath of joy, the style of the music, the tempo at which it is played, the person leading it out, how heartily the congregation joins in will not renew our enthusiasm for worship. A joyous passion for worship will only be restored through a renewed sense of God’s presence by His Spirit.
My story *****
Spirit-filled people authentically share in joyous worship. Yet, the Spirit influence effects one other result in worship.
2. Spirit-filled people continually express Christ-centered thanksgiving.
La gente Espiritu-llenada expresa continuamente thanksgiving Cristo-centrado.
Yet, many Christians lack appreciation of the importance of thanksgiving in the New Testament. Romans 1:21 views the failure to give thanks as the root cause of sin. With such a theology, it is not surprising that thanksgiving is associated with life in the Spirit.
Thanksgiving is the believing appreciation of God and his purposes for good in Christ. Obviously such giving of thanks points to a lifestyle not just to spoken words.
Christians are to give thanks to God always for everything “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Some people take that text and distort it to say that we thank God for everything, good or bad.
Christians have sometimes felt compelled through texts like this to be thankful even in a tragedy, such as the death of a child. The result has been heartache for themselves and others. There was a pastor in Minot, that would often walk into Pastor’s meetings and pour out his stream of depressing circumstances. It would sound something like this … ******* … And each string would always end the same, “so thank God anyway.”
Paul’s intent is not that we are to be thankful for evil or tragedy. Surely such reasoning pushes the text beyond its intention. Such an application is a phenomenal distortion because the “everything” is controlled by the following phrase, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ‘Name’ is a way of referring to what the person stands for and has accomplished. Christians are to give thanks ‘on the basis of’ who Jesus is and what he has done.
John Stott is correct in saying ‘everything’ in verse 20 is hyperbole. We are not asked to thank God for evil. Rather, we are asked to live out our awareness that all of life, even the ‘bad,’ is lived out with a keen awareness of what Christ has done for us.
Only then can we live lives of response to grace. The practice of thanksgiving is itself transforming. It is difficult for a person to be thankful and spiteful at the same time. It is difficult for a person to be thankful for his or her spouse and at the same time to desire another person.
This second result of the Spirit is given only perfunctory attention by most Christians, but it may be the most important activity we do. As several people have pointed out, sin is basically ingratitude, and in Christianity, religion is grace and ethics is gratitude. The giving of thanks is the first act after the recognition that we are not independent creatures but people who owe allegiance to God and have been blessed by him.
We have bought into the idolatry of self-sufficiency.
The very consistency of God’s blessings sometimes seems to dull our gratitude. We have been Christians for so long that we take his grace for granted. No longer does remembering and replaying his gracious acts stir an overwhelming sensation of appreciation. Instead of grace producing gratitude, we settle in so that grace elicits nothing more than a yawn. It’s as if we could take the words that Professor Higgins sings of Eliza Doolittle in the musical, My Fair Lady, and only slightly alter them … “We’ve grown accustomed to His grace.”
We need to affirm that all we are and have comes from God, and that sense of thanksgiving can only be restored through the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit influencing our lives.
Spirit-filled people authentically share in joy-filled worship. Spirit-filled people continuously express Christ-centered thanksgiving. Lastly, …
3. Spirit-filled people respectfully honor Christ through mutual surrender.
La gente Espiritu-llenada honra respetuosamente a Cristo con entrega mutua.
The last participle describing the results of life in the Spirit is perhaps the most surprising. People led by the Spirit “submit to one another.” Many are offended by the word “submission,” as if it points to a passive, weak life dominated by a negative self-image, giving up of control and free will. This is not Paul’s intent, except for the fact that control for Christians has already been given over to Christ.
The Greek word submit literally means ‘to arrange under.’ Attempts to translate ‘submit’ by ‘be supportive of,’ ‘ be committed to,’ or ‘identify with’ are unacceptable. It is important to note that this text does not ask some Christians to submit to other Christians. It asks all Christians to submit to each other. No privileged group is in view.
Yet, the idea of mutual submission would have been as offensive to people in the ancient world as today.
Submission was so important for New Testament writers because it demanded the self-giving love, humility, and willingness to die that are demanded for all Christians.
Repeatedly, Jesus makes the same point: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Neither Jesus nor Paul was weak, nor did either acquiesce to anyone, but both knew what God requires. Christians are called to live in mutual submission, and without mutual submission they cannot fulfill their destiny.
Such submission is a strong and free act of the will based on real love of the other person. In the end, submission is nothing more than a decision about the relative worth of another person, a manner of dying and rising with Christ, and a way to respect and love other people.
Some have argued that mutual submission is illogical, which it is, if viewed apart from Christ. However, if we understand the gospel, mutual submission makes perfectly good sense. What Paul has in mind is that Christians reject self-centeredness and work for the good of others. Submission is nothing more than considering “others better than yourselves”.
Also, in verse 21 is the statement that submission is to take place in fear of Christ. This is the only time this expression occurs in the New Testament. In the Old Testament ‘fear ‘ is a covenant word, a characteristic of those who love God. ‘Fear’ and ‘love’ are used almost synonymously to describe allegiance and obedience to God.
For us the term ‘fear’ is usually negative, and the biblical writers knew this negative use ... but by and large used it in a positive sense, for which there is no satisfactory English equivalent. Words like ‘reverence’ or ‘respect’ are too weak to capture the nuance intended. The positive sense of the fear of Christ points to his power and holiness and to the recognition that he is Lord and coming Judge. Such fear is the ground of both praise and obedience. We ought not forget that the one who is feared is the same one who ‘loved us and gave himself for us.’ Self-centeredness is jettisoned because we know Christ is both loving Savior and coming Judge. Christ is a friend, but not just a friend. He is also Lord of the universe.
Our society emphasizes equality, but mutual submission is a much stronger idea. With equality, you still have a battle of rights. Equality can exist without love, but it will not create a Christian community. With mutual submission, we give up rights and support each other. Mutual submission is love in action. It brings equal valuing and is the power by which a Christian community establishes itself.
Mutual submission will not allow us to promote ourselves and our own interests, but neither does it makes us doormats to be used by others. Legitimate submission cannot be coerced.
The text assumes that everyone in the community is supported and enhanced. Where that does not take place, a person will have to be wise enough to discern whether to forego his or her own rights or seek justice. Christ’s pattern of self-giving love does not mean that we can never seek justice for ourselves. Jesus did not acquiesce to Herod or the Pharisees, and Paul did not hesitate to defend himself or speak strongly to the Galatians or Corinthians. Submission will mean that even in seeking justice, we are motivated by love for others in the community, rather than by our own self-aggrandizing, self-centered, love of ourselves.
Mutual submission has application concerns money. Usually we allow our society to dictate how money is used, assigned, and hoarded. Mutual submission is disturbing to this society’s dictates, for it requires reconsideration of how wages are determined and how wealth is shared. This raises difficult questions, but do not equal valuing and self-giving love have economic impact? Our wallets are not bracketed from mutual submission. Is not 4:28 with its command for the thief to work to have something to give an example of mutual submission? In particular, justice needs to be done to equal pay for women. Sadly, Christian organizations are among the worst offenders in underpaying female workers.
The relation of pastors and congregations is another place where mutual submission needs to be implemented. In a wordplay on the word ‘submit,’ 1 Cor 16:15-16 asks that people arrange themselves under those who have arranged themselves for service to God’s people. That is, they are to submit to servants. Leaders are servants of a church and should submit to the people, but they are not to be belittled or made subservient. From such a position they lead as they model the character of Christ. People in the church are to submit to the Elders, but not so that the Elders become dictators to whom they acquiesce. Each is responsible to seek the benefit of the other as both live out the self-giving love of Christ.
A further place where mutual submission could be applied to current discussions is worship styles. To insist that worship can take place in only one manner is myopic and limits the expression of the whole body. Mutual submission requires the humility to listen, tolerate, be taught, and be enriched by the worship of others, so long as it is within legitimate bounds.
Over the next two weeks, we will look at two sets of relationships that Paul uses to illustrate mutual submission, in the Christian marriage and in Christian parenting.
But for now, we simply need to be reminded the only way we can surrender our own self-centeredness and serve one another’s best interests is by being renewed by the Holy Spirit’s influence.
Resources: Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians. NIV Application Commentary.
