Ephesians 5:18

καὶ μὴ μεθύσκεσθε οἴνῳ : and be not made drunk with wine. A particular case of the ἀφροσύνη to be avoided is now mentioned. The καί is used here, as, e.g., also in Mark 1:5, to add a special designation to a general, inclusive statement; Win.-Moult., p. 546. The case is the abuse of wine. But there is nothing to suggest any reference to excess at the Agapae (1 Corinthians 11:21) in especial. ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ἀσωτία : wherein is dissoluteness. Or, with the RV, “wherein is riot”. The AV, Tynd., Cov., Cran., Gen., Bish., all give “excess”; Wicl. has lechery, and the Rhem. riotousness. ἀσωτία (cf. Proverbs 28:7) expresses the idea of an abandoned, debauched life; literally, the condition of one who is past salvation. The ἐν ᾧ refers not to the οἶνος alone (which might infer a Gnostic view of matter or Montanistic, ascetic ideas of life), but to the whole phrase μεθύσκεσθε οἴνῳ the becoming drunk with wine. ἀλλὰ πληροῦσθε ἐν Πνεύματι : but be filled with the Spirit. The verb πληροῦν is construed with the gen. of the thing that fills (e.g., Acts 2:28; Acts 5:28; Acts 13:52, pass., etc.); or with the Hebraistic acc. (Colossians 1:9); or with the dat. (Romans 1:29; 2 Corinthians 7:4, etc.). The construction with ἐν here is exceptional. Hence some prefer to understand πνεύματι of man's spirit, and render it (as RV margin) “be filled in spirit”. The contrast would then be between being filled in one's physical or carnal nature and filled in one's spiritual nature (so Braune, and in effect Abb.). In NT Greek, however, verbs that are followed by the simple dat. sometimes vary it by a prepositional form, e.g., βαπτίζεσθαι ὕδατι (Luke 3:16) and ἐν ὕδατι (Matthew 3:11), παντὶ τρόπῳ (Philippians 1:18) and ἐνπαντὶ τρόπῳ (2 Thessalonians 2:16), etc.; and the formula πληροῦν or πληροῦσθαι ἐν is not wholly without analogy; cf. τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν πληρουμένου, Ephesians 1:23 above; and Colossians 4:12, πεπληροφορημένοι ἐν παντὶ θελήματι τοῦ Θεοῦ, where indeed the πεπληρωένοι of the TR must give place to another verb, yet one with the same idea, the sense being probably “filled with everything willed by God” (cf. Win.-Moult., p. 272; Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek, p. 117). The ἐν may be taken, therefore, as the instrum. ἐν, and the sense will be “filled with or by the Spirit”. Some (e.g., Ell., Alf.) would combine the ideas of in and by, supposing the unusual phrase to be chosen with a view to convey the fact that the Holy Spirit is not only the instrument by which the Christian man is filled, but that also in which he is so filled. But this is a needless refinement. The contrast, as most commentators recognise, is not merely between the οἴνῳ and the πνεύματι, but between the μεθύσκεσθε and the πληροῦσθε. Otherwise the order would have been μὴ οἴνῳ μεθύσκεσθε, ἀλλʼ ἐν πνεύματι πληροῦσθε (Mey.). The contrast is not between the instruments but between the states between two elevated states, one due to the excitement of wine, the other to the inspiration and enlightenment of the Spirit.