Being “Filled with the Spirit” #2
Being “Filled with the Spirit” #2
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Eph 5:18-21
In the first Blog on these verses, I gave an overview, saying that Paul gives us 4 things to do so that we can be filled more and more with the Holy Spirit.
In this Blog, we will look at these 4 things individually.
In the third and last Blog on these verses, we will look at the results, the benefits that accrue to us, as we are more filled with the Holy Spirit.
The 4 things are:
1) speak/preach to ourselves using psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
2) sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord
3) give thanks always, for all things, unto God, even the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
4) submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God
Regarding “speaking/preaching to ourselves using psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”, there is a point of grammar here, which first must be addressed. Some translations take this to mean that we speak to each other using psalms etc, other translations take it to be that we speak to ourselves using psalms etc.
I take the later position, for 2 reasons:
1) It does not say “speak to each other” or “speak among yourselves” but it says “speak to yourselves”. In English we say, “I talk to myself,” but regarding a group we say, “We said to each other,” or “we said among ourselves”. If you do a concordance search, you will find plenty of verses in the NT that say “they said to each other”, or “they said among themselves”; those are different prepositions than the one used here in Eph 5. A verse that might seem like a parallel verse would be Col 3:16, but it is not a parallel verse; it does not teach the same thing; it is rather a contrasting verse, teaching the other thing. In Col 3:16 we are in fact told to speak to each other using holy words, but here in Eph 5 we are told to speak to ourselves using holy words.
2) The other 3 directives are clearly things I am to do regarding myself, so it follows this too would be something I need to do within my own being.
So I take this command to be that I am to talk to myself using the words of psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs. The Puritans commended preaching to ourselves, telling us to remind ourselves of sermons we have heard, things we have read in books, and of course scripture we have read and memorized. Talk to yourself using holy words!
Notice, this is speaking to ourselves, in contrast to the next one that is singing.
There is also a question about what “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” means. There are some who take these to be categories of the book of psalms, and use that argument to promote “Exclusive Psalmody”; singing only the Psalms. But think about if, if we should sing only the Psalms, meaning we should not sing songs written by people, then we should not read books written by people; that is a position which no one promotes, and so for that reason I think these words “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” cannot be used to promote “Exclusive Psalmody”.
So in this directive, Paul is telling us to “talk to ourselves” using the words of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. We are to replace words of the world with holy words, words about God, words from God; we are to wash our minds with scripture.
This is to cultivate knowledge of God, and knowledge and familiarity with the truths of scripture. Do you want to know the bible, fill your minds with it! Ruminate on it; chew on it over and over, as cows do with the grass they eat.
Doing that will clear out much of the garbage that fills our minds, i.e. worldly and sinful thoughts, and open up “space” which the Holy Spirit will occupy, giving him room to work in us and upon us.
He wants to occupy more of our minds; the problem lies with us!
Regarding “singing and making melody in our hearts unto the Lord”, here we have a directive to cultivate joy and happiness within ourselves. God is happy, the happiest Being in the Universe; happiness is a blessing of God. FYI, for this Blog I am taking joy and happiness to be synonymous enough to be used interchangeably. We are, what we think, we are the songs we sing. I still sing the songs of the 1960s that I grew up listening to. They still play in my mind; I must consciously work to replace them with Christian Songs and Hymns, and sing Christian Songs and Hymns to myself during the day. When I sing “Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blessed” I think of how absolutely beautiful and wonderful heaven will be; that makes me happy, very happy! Music most definitely effects our emotions; singing the right songs will make us joyful and happy. This will displace gloom and sadness, and promote a healthy environment in which the Holy Spirit can exercise a fruitful work within our hearts.
Luther wrote around 30, for all occasions; he understood that singing truth fixes it in the mind; whether Traditional Hymns or Contemporary Christian Songs, a song should aim to fix Truth firmly in our thinking; please, no ditties.
Regarding “giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, this is a directive to promote trust in our Father, cultivating in us a mindset (a set thinking pattern in our minds; a channel of thought that our thinking always runs in), that all he does for us, is for our good, even when we don’t see it clearly.
Again, a quick point of Greek grammar, the word “and” joining God and Father, is the Greek word “kai” which can also mean “even”. Paul is not talking about 2 people: God being one and the Father being another; he is talking about God, even the Father (God who is the Father); one person.
Why can I give thanks? Do I give thanks based on feelings or fact; upon what fact?
Remember faith rests upon fact, not feeling.
I give thanks because God is in control; that is a fact. As a Christina, I give thanks because God is my Father; that is a fact. I give thanks because my Father loves me; that is a fact. If these statements are true, then everything that comes into our lives comes to us from an all powerful God, who is our loving heavenly Father; if we really believed that, we would thank him for everything.
As we cultivate a mindset of giving thanks to our Father for everything, all the time, we will learn to trust him. Yes, first give thanks, based on the facts that he is God and also our Father; the trust will follow. This is called growing as a Christian.
God is good, all the time!
Lastly, regarding “submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God”, this is a command for me to be cognizant of the needs of my Christian brothers and sisters, and voluntarily put myself at their disposal.
“Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Php 2:4
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Gal 6:10
Gal 6:10 gives good counsel here: “as we have opportunity” and “especially to other Christians first.”
As the Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches, we are not responsible for all people, just those whom God brings across our path; and we are not responsible for all their needs, forever, just the pressing needs they have to get them on their feet again.
The point of Eph 5 is to be acquainted with those around us, to look for opportunities to do them good, and then do it. The fact is, some people have needs far greater than mine, and I am to help them to the best of my ability.
I am to be inconvenienced for others, whether it be money or time, and in our overly busy world, giving of our time can be more of a challenge than giving money!
In summation: if I do these things, I will systematically kill the old man who is still within me and quite active (Rom 7); I will crucify him, I will reduce his influence, making him smaller, and thereby give room for the Holy Spirit to fill me more and more; I will grow in grace; I will be working out my own salvation, my sanctification. I will not grieve, nor quench, nor hinder the Holy Spirit, but I will give him space to work within me.
9 March 2024