Ephesians 5:18

Ephesians 5:18. And adds to the general precept of Ephesians 5:17 a special prohibition of a common form of becoming ‘senseless.'

Be not made drank. To be taken literally, since the vice deserved then, and has ever since deserved, such special mention.

With wine; the usual intoxicating liquor.

But this word is not the prominent one.

Wherein refers to becoming drunk, not to ‘wine,' since the moral quality is not attributed to a material object, but to a human habit

Excess, or, ‘dissoluteness.' The word is derived from another which means ‘one who does not know how to save,' and has in the New Testament the sense of profligacy, dissoluteness; comp. Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4. It is true that other forms of intoxication are forbidden, but' there is in the vice of intemperance that kind of dissoluteness which brooks no restraint, which defies all efforts to reform it, and which sinks lower and lower into helpless ruin' (Eadie). Unfortunately efforts to check the vice have been frequently thwarted by the unwisdom of so-called reformers.

But be filled in the Spirit. Over against the temporary intoxication, is the permanent state of fulness; the contrast is between the verbs, as the original indicate. ‘Spirit' does not refer to the human spirit, but to the Holy Spirit, as dwelling in our spirit ‘In' is instrumental, but points to that ‘in which as well as ‘with which' they are to be filled. The Christian's joy is not brief intoxication, but abiding exaltation in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The next verses show how this spiritual joy expresses itself.