Reflection on God's Word

LED BY THE SPIRIT AND FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

by Tim Thomas

November 21, 2006

Ephesians 5:15-20

The fifth chapter of Ephesians began by telling us that we are dearly loved children, and that as dearly loved children, we are to live lives of love. Paul then exhorted us to turn from sexual immorality and greed, because they are not consistent with holiness. Then he reminded us that we are light and not darkness, and that we are to arise and let God's light shine from within us. The passage we examine here concludes Paul's general thoughts on how to live as a Christian.

He seems to be trying to strike a balance in verses 15 through 17 about how to practically live our lives. On the one extreme are those believers who map out there lives, with milestones and intermediate goals. Often, this group of people looks at the Christian life as one in which we are workers for God to whom we must give account one day as to what we accomplished in our lives for Him. The parable of the talents comes to mind, where three servants are given talents (a measure of money, worth probably more than 10,000 dollars). Two of them double what they were given and are commended, while one buried his talent, because he was afraid that he might lose it and make the master angry. This third servant did make the master angry by not multiplying what he was given.

At the other extreme are those who just wander through life, "being led by the Spirit" in spur of the moment activities. These are the "happy go lucky" types who often jump from one project to another, one group to another, or one experience to another. They often accomplish things for the Kingdom of God that the first group would never do, but their down side is that they often do not complete things they start, and they can easily get into things the Lord never intended for them to get into.

The Apostle Paul, I believe, is arguing for a middle ground, blending the best of both camps. The Amplified Bible suggests that by being careful how we live, Paul means that we are to live our lives purposefully (verse 17). That is, to some degree, we are to have a strategic plan, if not for our entire lives, at least for a few months or more at a time. This does not have to be a written plan, but it is more or less an understanding on our part as to what our focus is to be. This focus should probably be informed by our awareness of how God has gifted us, where He has planted us (in terms of location, occupation, stage of life, family, and congregation), and one more very important component -- how the Spirit is leading us. This is the missing component from the first extreme group. We are not simpling serving the Master, we are partnering with the Master, and the Master actually has a plan that He desires us to cooperate with. The parables that Jesus told were never meant to accurately portray how everything in the Kingdom of God works in each story. Rather, each one emphasized one or two key truths about the Kingdom of God. So to develop a "work for the master" view of the Christian life from the parable of the talents that was meant to teach us about stepping out in faith and having Kingdom of God purposes in mind -- this would be taking the meaning of the parable too far, especially in light of what Jesus said in John 15 about abiding in the vine (drawing our sustenance from Him).

Where the second group goes wrong is that they think that the Spirit's leading is only spontaneous, and act as if either God doesn't have a longer-range, bigger picture plan, or that He is not willing to communicate what that is to us. That view of our relationship with God treats us as day-laborers for God, where we show up and God tells us what to do, then we do it. If we are truly created in God's image, then we have the gift of creativity, and so we are co-creators, co-inventors, co-ministers, co-writers, and co-everything else with God. In order to be a partner with God, we need some sense of God's purpose and objective for our lives and for our labors.

Verse 16 talks about making the most of every opportunity, which means that we sometimes have to deviate from "the Plan" or "the Timeline" if we are to stay in God's will. I am more structured in my life, so this is something that I am continually challenged with. I often fail to make the most of opportunities, because I am involved in following what I believe are the steps in "the Plan", and forget that some of the opportunities that arise may even be better steps to take than the ones that I had a notion to take.

Verse 17 brings the counter-point to verse 16. It says that we are not to walk through every open door or take advantage of every opportunity. Instead, we are to listen to the Holy Spirit lead us into deciding what God's will is. I personally do much better in the situations in which I have time to go home and ponder what the Holy Spirit might be saying. We all know that there are times in which we do not have the opportunity to pray it through. These are situations where it is necessary to be instantly sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. These are also the situations where I tend to make the most mistakes. While I do not advocate being "brainless" -- there are great advantages in using the wisdom that God gives us and that we have developed through the years -- the whole process of accessing that wisdom and thinking through the issues seems to interfere with my ability to listen to the Spirit speaking to me. I am aware that the Holy Spirit can speak to us through the wisdom process, but sometimes the Holy Spirit wants to override what wisdom might dictate. Wisdom often coincides with a "play it safe" mentality, and yet the life of faith often requires us to go out on a limb, which is not safe! I suppose what I need to do is to try to create sufficient time where I can use both wisdom, and then switch gears and listen to see if the Spirit is saying that it is "limb" time. Many times, this simply means that I have to remember to say to myself something like, "Now that I know the wise course of action, let's take time to see if the Holy Spirit is in agreement".

This passage shifts gear in verse 18. We are told that as followers of Christ, we are not to consume alcohol to the extent that it causes us to get drunk. Where is the line in practice -- the definition -- for being drunk? I think that this passage suggests that it occurs at the point where our judgment, particularly related to our morals, becomes impaired, and we get to the point where we are tempted to do things that we would not do if we had not consumed any alcohol. Because alcohol consumption impairs our ability to discern when our judgment is affected, it is impossible to look inside ourselves while we are drinking to figure this out. Others, who are not drinking at the time, might be able to tell us. I would dare suggest that if our physical reaction time is impaired, our moral judment might also be impaired. So the level of alcohol consumption that would lead to a charge of driving a car under the influence of alcohol or driving while impaired is an estimate of the upper bound for this limit for most people.

Why do people get drunk? I am not an expert, but I think it has to do with wanting to help us forget our hurts and failures, and help us feel better about ourselves. Back in my heavy drinking days, that is certainly why I got drunk. The Apostle Paul here suggests that as Christians, we have access to a more effective way to feel better about ourselves, and that is by being filled with the Spirit of God. I know that when I feel most filled with the Spirit, I have a sense of joy and peace, and I have a hopefulness about the future.

Suggesting that being filled with the Spirit is how to get cured of depression should not be misunderstood to suggest that Christians should not take anti-depressants or receive counseling to overcome depression. I think the Apostle Paul is suggesting that being filled with the Spirit is more effective than getting drunk, but not that it cures all depressions in all people. Christians take medicines for chemical imbalances in their bodies, such as taking insulin for diabetes. Why wouldn't a Christian take antidepressants for chemical imbalances that cause or are related to depression?

Because it follows immediately afterward, it seems reasonable to conclude that verses 19 and 20 are Paul's brief tutorial about how to be filled with the Spirit, especially since reading it this way helps the passage make better sense. What it tells us is what many of us know through experience is true. If we begin worshipping the Lord through songs, we begin forgetting about our troubles and start remembering who we are in God's eyes. We are reminded that God is bigger than our situation and stronger than the devil, who has already been overcome by Jesus.

Singing is only one way to worship and only one way to refocus our minds on God. We may do just as well reading psalms and other uplifting and inspirational readings. Paul does emphasize both private and public ways to stir ourselves. He says to "speak to one another" as well as "make music in your heart". Often it is good to come together with other believers when we are feeling especially "low" in our level of having the Spirit. But sometimes we are unable to come together with others, and we really want to be able to learn how to be filled with the Spirit even when we are apart from our Christian brothers and sisters.

There is something about being thankful to God that builds us up. We often think that we are instructed to be thankful to God so that God will be built up, or perhaps so He won't be angry with us for not being thankful. I do think God appreciates our thankfulness, but we often overlook the benefits of thankfulness on our own lives. In order to be thankful -- and be sincere in it -- we have to think of things for which we are thankful. This mental exercise breaks us out of our ruts of thinking of our problems and instead think of the good things that are in our lives. As we do that, we are reminded of how big God is, and how much we are loved by God. This seems to open up a channel for the inflow of the Holy Spirit -- which is indeed how we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

I am reminded of Paul and Silas (Acts 16) in the Philippian jail, singing and praising God at midnight, after they had been severely beaten for their faith. Everybody in the jail was enjoying their singing, even though when they started singing they might not have felt like doing it. Suddenly, God intervened, and all the prison cell doors flew up. This led to Paul being able to lead the jailer and his whole family to have faith in the Lord and be baptized. Wow!

If, as believers, we can be filled with the Spirit, it must also be true that we can be practically empty of the Spirit. When we feel empty of the Spirit, we can develop a lethargy towards life and towards God. What this passage is saying here is that we can break out of it, but we have to do what is counter-intuitive, and begin praising God.

How full of the Spirit are you now? Would you like to be more full of Him? Then why not try putting Paul's prescription into action?