Be Filled with the Spirit
31 May 2025 · 1 min read · Understanding the Bible
Be not drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit. Paul's contrast is deliberate: everyone knows what it is to be under an influence. The command — present tense, continuous: keep being filled — makes Spirit-fullness the Christian's intended ordinary condition, not a rare summit.
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;
The evidence is domestic
Watch what follows the command in Ephesians: singing, giving thanks always for all things, and submitting yourselves one to another. Then husbands, wives, children, servants. Spirit-fullness shows up not primarily in spectacle but in homes — sweeter speech, readier thanks, humbler relationships.
The parallel passage in Colossians swaps be filled with the Spirit for let the word of Christ dwell in you richly — same results, singing and thankfulness. Word-saturation and Spirit-fullness are twin descriptions of one condition.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
How to be filled
The mechanics are mercifully simple: empty of known sin (confessed), yielded (presented as Romans 12 asks), and asking — if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts... how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Ask daily. Fullness leaks — through hurry, sin, and self-reliance — and is renewed the same way it began: empty hands, open Bible, honest prayer. Keep being filled.
