There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
“Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned.” –Nehemiah 1:6
Perhaps your life, marriage, family, or your business is in shambles. When everything is a disgrace, where do you start? Start with and persist in prayer. Nehemiah got the distressing news of Jerusalem. Why did he fast and pray? Because he knew the LORD would hear his prayers, and was and is able to do more than we can imagine. Nehemiah calls God great and awesome and covenant-keeping. What a reminder for us! God works wonders, not because the person who prays is worthy, but because He is able and He cares. God has promised to hear the prayers that His children bring in humble faith.
Nehemiah’s confession is a striking example for us. You are (I hope) going to church today; don’t come to God pretending you have no sin and are worthy of God’s blessing. No, we must own our sins, all of them: individual sins, corporate sins, and sins of neglect. The years that Judah heaped up punishment from God was before Nehemiah’s time, but Nehemiah did not make excuses; he owned the wrong, confessed the guilt, and asked God to do what He promised: hear the prayers and redeem His people.
Nehemiah came with confidence because He had the covenant promises. Believers today have the covenant and the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. So where do we start when all is a mess? Seek the Lord in faith and prayer. In this book we will see how God answers Nehemiah’s many prayers. Will you persist in humble prayer, seeking the Lord to help you serve Him today?
Suggestions for prayer
Praise God that His greatness and kindness toward us does not depend on our worthiness. Confess your sin, and ask for the Lord’s blessing where it is needed most.
Rev. Simon Lievaart currently serves Bethel United Reformed Church of Smithers BC. Prior to this, he served the United Reformed Church in Doon, IA. Rev. Lievaart grew up in southern Alberta, attended Redeemer University College and Mid-America Reformed Seminary. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, atNTGDevotional.com.
Fruit trees are beautiful. They look very dreary until Spring comes and they burst with leaves and flowers. That’s only the start. As the year progresses, fruit begins to form, and each tree will bring forth delicious, nourishing fruit. Before we come to faith in Jesus, life can be pretty dreary. Each day is just like the previous day, with no true joy. You might have had good things in your life but no true joy. The reason for this is your life was as dreary as a fruit tree in winter. You were following the ways of the world, where there is nothing to look forward to except a dreary lifestyle.
Jesus Christ and the promise of Heaven is joyful, and like a fruit tree in Spring, life becomes beautiful. Life has a purpose when Christ is on the throne of your life.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:1-2).
The Apostle Paul knew what he was talking about. He was a very smart man and a member of the Sanhedrin. His father was a Pharisee, and so was he. The Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect that knew the Law of God but not the grace and love of God. When Jewish people began to follow the teachings of Christ, Paul’s hatred burned. He was feared among the Christians because of his anger. Then, he met Jesus and his life was changed forever.
Paul had been on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians who had fled there to escape persecution, but God intervened. In a miraculous turn of events, Paul met the risen Saviour, and he was given a new outlook on life. It took many years, but eventually, he was called to missionary work. Unlike many modern-day “missionaries,” Paul spread the Gospel and established congregations. He taught God’s truth. His life suddenly had a deeper meaning and a purpose; his anger and hatred were gone.
Not everybody has such a dramatic call to faith as Paul, but everyone has a calling that is important to use for God. Paul urges us to follow God and walk in the love of God.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul addresses spiritual warfare and how to be ready for battle. You cannot be ready to battle the enemy if you are walking hand in hand with his evil.
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:3-4).
Sadly, many churches don’t disciple new Christians in their new-found faith, and preachers don’t want to upset the pew-sitters by addressing sin. That should not stop you from opening your Bible and letting the Holy Spirit guide you in living a Christian life.
“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them” (Ephesians 5:5-7).
This is very important for every Christian to understand. Don’t let yourself be deceived by anyone. There are leaders in the mega-church movement, as well as in small country congregations, that don’t preach Biblically sound truths but try to say that God knows hearts, so it’s not up to us to judge. That’s not what Scripture says.
Sin is clearly listed in Scripture. There is a fine line between being legalistic and living in the light of God. Jesus was harshly judged by the religious leaders for healing a man on the Sabbath. He pointed out that they knew the letter of the Law but not the heart.
“If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:23-24).
Even though circumcision would be “working on the Sabbath,” it was required by law, so deemed as permissible on the Sabbath. Jesus healed a man and was criticized for His compassion. The Pharisees deemed this as works. Judging by appearance is never right, but using Scripture to judge righteously is important. Sin is not acceptable within congregations, so yes, it must be judged with a righteous judgment.
To live a fruitful life in Christ, the fruit we bear is our faithful service to Jesus and, hopefully, soul-winning. If we say we accepted Christ but remain unchanged by our faith, then we will never make a difference to the Kingdom and will remain as dreary as a fruit tree in winter.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
If you say you are a Christian, do you know what that means? We all are subject to our sin nature, passed down through the ages by Adam’s sin. We are separated from God. Jesus entered His creation to give us the only way to be reconciled to God. To be forgiven of our sins, we must turn to Jesus and repent. We cannot say, “I was baptized as a baby, so I’m saved.” You have to make the decision and choose to follow Christ.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Do you know any baby that can do that? A baby can’t, but you can. Confessing to a priest will do you no good. You must confess to Jesus and ask Him to forgive your sin. Then it’s time to start living a new life in Christ. Put off the old way of living. If you are in any sexual relationship other than a one man/one woman marriage, end that relationship immediately. If you are associating with drug users, gang members, or anyone who embraces sin, end those ties immediately.
I don’t know many pastors who disciple new Christians, and that’s sad. You have a Bible; study it. There are many, many good Bible teachers to be found. There are also many poor teachers to be avoided, such as anybody who teaches New Age beliefs or that it’s ok to hold onto your sin as long as you know Christ. If you truly know Christ, you will repent of sin and turn away from it. Read Scripture and memorize it. Then live to honor God.
How do we have a fruit-bearing faith? First, stop living a worldly life. Repent of your sin and pray for God’s help in overcoming the sin you’ve embraced. Ask a Christian friend to help you. All of us have sinned, so every Christian should be understanding about what you’re going through.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
Thank God for His grace. There are quite a few “lists” in Scripture that describe living in a worldly way.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
If there are words you aren’t familiar with, look them up or look in a good modern translation. For instance, the word “witchcraft” comes from the Greek “pharmakeia,” which is drugs. These are things that the world accepts as normal but are considered sins by God. When you repent of your sin, you will find new joy in life, and you will begin to show fruit of the Spirit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
Notice that the worldly things are plural, “works of the flesh,” but the “fruit of the Spirit” is singular. All of the fruit of the Spirit is available to you at once, but you can’t have fruit-bearing faith if you are holding tightly to the works of the flesh.
Isn’t it time for you to begin to bear fruit? Rather than being like a dying fruit tree that is stuck in the cold, dreary winter, start living a fruit-bearing life through faith in Jesus Christ.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Eph 5:18–19). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
Do Not Get Drunk with Wine
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, (5:18a)
The verse which these words introduce is one of the most crucial texts relating to Christian living, to walking “in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (4:1). Being controlled by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for living the Christian life by God’s standards. God’s way cannot be properly understood or faithfully followed apart from the working of the Spirit in the life of a believer.
But before Paul commanded us to “be filled with the Spirit” and gave the characteristics of the Spirit-filled life (vv. 18b–21), he first gave a contrasting and negative command, And do not get drunk with wine. Getting drunk with wine not only is a hindrance to, but a counterfeit of, being filled with the Spirit. In light of the apostle’s preceding contrasts between light and darkness (vv. 8–14) and between wisdom and foolishness (vv. 15–17), his point here is that getting drunk is a mark of darkness and foolishness and that being filled with the Spirit is the source of a believer’s being able to walk in light and wisdom.
There have been few periods of church history in which the drinking of alcoholic beverages has not been an issue of disagreement and debate. Evangelical churches and groups in our own day have widely differing views on the subject. Denominations and missions organizations sometimes have differing views even within their own constituencies from country to country.
We must be clear that drinking or not drinking is not in itself a mark, and certainly not a measure, of spirituality. Spirituality is determined by what we are inside, of which what we do on the outside is but a manifestation.
Many reasons are given for drinking, one of the most common of which is the desire to be happy, or at least to forget a sorrow or problem. The desire for genuine happiness is both God-given and God-fulfilled. In Ecclesiastes we are told there is “a time to laugh” (3:4) and in Proverbs that “a joyful heart is good medicine” (17:22). David proclaimed that in the Lord’s “presence is fulness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). Jesus began each beatitude with the promise of blessedness, or happiness, for those who come to the Lord in the Lord’s way (Matt. 5:3–11). The apostle John wrote his first letter not only to teach and admonish fellow believers but that his own joy might “be made complete” (1:4). Paul twice counselled the Philippian Christians to “rejoice in the Lord” (3:1; 4:4). At Jesus’ birth the angel announced to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for behold I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). God wants all men to be happy and joyful, and one of the great blessings of the gospel is the unmatched joy that Christ brings to the heart of every person who trusts in Him.
The problem with drinking in order to be happy is not the motive but the means. It brings only artificial happiness at best and is counterproductive to spiritual sensitivity. It is a temporary escape that often leads to even worse problems than the ones that prompted the drinking in the first place. Intoxication is never a remedy for the cares of life, but it has few equals in its ability to multiply them.
Scripture Always Condemns Drunkenness
Drinking to the point of drunkenness, of course, has few sane defenders even in the secular world. It has caused the loss of too many battles, the downfall of too many governments, and the moral corruption of too many lives and whole societies to be considered anything less than the total evil that it is. The United States alone presently has over twenty million alcoholics, almost three and a half million of which are teenagers. And alcohol is a killer.
Drunkenness is the clouding or disruption by alcohol of any part of a person’s mind so that it affects his faculties. A person is drunk to the extent that alcohol has restricted or modified any part of his thinking or acting. Drunkenness has many degrees, but it begins when it starts to interrupt the normal functions of the body and mind.
Both the Old and New Testaments unequivocally condemn drunkenness. Every picture of drunkenness in the Bible is a picture of sin and disaster. Shortly after the Flood, Noah became drunk and acted shamelessly. Lot’s daughters caused him to become drunk and to commit incest with them, as a foolish and perverted means of having children. Ben-hadad and his allied kings became drunk and were all slaughtered except Ben-hadad, who was spared only by the disobedience of Israel’s King Ahab (1 Kings 20:16–34). Belshazzar held a drunken feast in which he and his guests praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And during the very midst of the drunken brawl the kingdom was taken from Belshazzar (Dan. 5). Some of the Corinthian Christians became drunk while at the Lord’s table, and God caused some of them to become weak and sick and others to die because of their wicked desecration (1 Cor. 11:27–30).
The book of Proverbs has many warnings about drinking. Speaking as a father, the writer said, “Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags” (Prov. 23:19–21). Our skid rows today are filled with more men clothed in rags because of drunkenness than the ancient writer of Proverbs could ever have imagined. A few verses later he asked, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly” (vv. 29–31). Wine is enticing to look at, with its bright color, sparkling bubbles, and smooth taste—just as modern commercials vividly portray it. What the commercials are careful not to say is that “at last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things” (vv. 32–33).
We also read in Proverbs that “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise” (20:1). Drunkenness mocks a person by making him think he is better off instead of worse off, smarter instead of more foolish, and happier instead of simply dazed. It is a favorite tool of Satan for the very reason that it deceives while it destroys. Surely it presents vulnerability to demons. The drunk does not learn his lesson and is deceived over and over again. Even when he is waylaid, beaten, and finally awakens from his drunken stupor he “will seek another drink” (23:35).
Between those two warnings about drunkenness we are told, “A harlot is a deep pit, and an adulterous woman is a narrow well. Surely she lurks as a robber, and increases the faithless among men” (vv. 27–28). The revered Old Testament scholar Franz Delitzsch commented, “The author passes from the sin of uncleanness to that of drunkenness; they are nearly related, for drunkenness excites fleshly lust; and to wallow with delight in the mire of sensuality, a man created in the image of God must first brutalize himself by intoxication.” (Johann K. F. Keil and Franz Julius Delitzsch, vol. 4 of Old Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids: Associated Publishers and authors, n. d.], 750.)
Isaiah warned, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink; who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!” (Isa. 5:11). An alcoholic characteristically begins drinking in the morning and continues through the day and evening. Again the prophet portrayed a vivid scene when he said, “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; they reel while having visions, they totter when rendering judgment. For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place” (28:7–8).
Scripture shows drunkenness in its full ugliness and tragedy, as always associated with immorality, dissolution, unrestrained behavior, wild, reckless behavior, and every other form of corrupt living. It is one of the sinful deeds of the flesh that are in opposition to the righteous fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:19–23). Drunkenness is first of all a sin. It develops attendant disease as it ravages the mind and body, but it is basically a sin, a manifestation of depravity. It must therefore be confessed and dealt with as sin.
Peter told believers to forsake the way of the Gentiles, who pursued “a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (1 Pet. 4:3). Paul admonished the Thessalonians, “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:6–8; cf. Rom. 13:13). He warned the Corinthian believers that they were not even “to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). In the next chapter he went on to say, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (6:9–10).
It is possible for a Christian to become drunk, just as it is possible for him to fall into other sins. But his life will not be continually characterized by drunkenness or any of the other sins mentioned by Peter and Paul.
In light of the Ephesian situation, however, it must be recognized that Paul’s primary concern in the present passage is religious, not moral. To the Ephesians, as to most pagans and former pagans of that day, drunkenness was closely associated with the idolatrous rites and practices that were an integral part of temple worship. In the mystery religions, which began in ancient Babylon and were copied and modified throughout the Near East and in Greek and Roman cultures, the height of religious experience was communion with the gods through various forms of ecstasy. To achieve an ecstatic experience the participants would use self-hypnosis and frenzied dances designed to work themselves up to a high emotional pitch. Heavy drinking and sexual orgies contributed still further to the sensual stupor that their perverted minds led them to think was creating communion with the gods.
The modern drug and hard rock culture is little different from those pagan rites. Drugs, psychedelic lighting, ear-pounding music, and suggestive lyrics and antics all combine to produce near-hysteria in many of the performers and spectators. It is significant that much of this subculture is directly involved in one or more of the Eastern, mystical religions that teach greater spiritual awareness through escape into supposed higher levels of consciousness induced by drugs, repetition of prescribed names or words, and other such superstitious and demonic means.
The greatest god of ancient mythology was known as Zeus (Greek), Jupiter (Roman), and by other names in various regions and times. In what we can now see as a Satanic counterfeit of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit, myth claimed that Zeus somehow caused the goddess Semele to become pregnant without having contact with her. Semele decided that she had a right to see the father of her child, and while it was still in her womb she approached Zeus, only to be instantly incinerated by his glory. Before it could be destroyed, Zeus snatched the unborn child from her womb and sewed it into his thigh, where it continued to develop until birth. The infant god was named Dionysius and was destined by Zeus to become ruler of the earth.
The legend further told that when the Titans, who then inhabited the earth, heard of Zeus’s plan they stole the baby Dionysius and tore him limb from limb. Again the child was rescued by his father Zeus, who swallowed Dionysius’s heart and miraculously recreated him. Zeus then struck the Titans with lightning, reducing them to ashes from which was raised the human race. As ruler of this new race, Dionysius developed a religion of ascendancy, whereby human beings could rise to a level of divine consciousness. The mystical system he devised was comprised of wild music, frenzied dancing, sexual perversion, bodily mutilation, eating of the raw flesh of sacrificial bulls, and drunkenness. Dionysius became known as the god of wine, the intoxicating drink that was integral to the debauched religion that centered around him. His Roman counterpart was Bacchus, from whose name we get bacchanalia, the Roman festival celebrated with wild dancing, singing, drinking, and revelry that has for over two thousand years been synonymous with drunken debauchery and sexual orgy.
The city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon, contains some of the most fascinating ruins of the ancient world. It is the site of pagan temples first erected in the name of various Canaanite gods, and later rededicated in the names of corresponding Greek and then Roman deities when it was conquered by those empires. The central temple was that of Bacchus, the columns and parapets of which are intricately and profusely decorated with carvings of grapevines—symbolic of the excessive use of wine that characterized their orgiastic worship.
That is precisely the type of pagan worship with which the Ephesians were well acquainted and in which many believers had once been involved. It was also the type of worship and associated immorality and carnality from which many of the Corinthian believers had such a difficult time divorcing themselves and for which Paul rebuked them strongly. “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?… I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:16, 20–21). Later in the letter he gave a similar rebuke: “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk” (11:20–21). Satan is a thief and a liar, and he revels in stealing the most beautiful and sacred things of the Lord and counterfeiting them in sensually attractive perversions that entice men into sin and deceive them about the truth.
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul was therefore not simply making a moral but also a theological contrast. He was not only speaking of the moral and social evils of drunkenness, but of the spiritually perverted use of drunkenness as a means of worship. Christians are not to seek religious fulfillment through such pagan means as getting drunk with wine, but are to find their spiritual fulfillment and enjoyment by being “filled with the Spirit.” The believer has no need for the artificial, counterfeit, degrading, destructive, and idolatrous ways of the world. He has God’s own Spirit indwelling him, the Spirit whose great desire is to give believers the fullest benefits and enjoyment of their high position as children of God.
The context of this passage further indicates that Paul was speaking primarily about the religious implications of drunkenness. The frenzied, immoral, and drunken orgies of pagan ceremonies were accompanied by correspondingly corrupt liturgies. In verses 19–20 Paul showed the kind of liturgy that pleases God: Spirit-filled believers “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”
Scripture Sometimes Commends Wine
Despite its many warnings about the dangers of wine, the drinking of it is not totally forbidden in Scripture and is, in fact, sometimes even commended. Drink offerings of wine accompanied many of the Old Testament sacrifices (Ex. 29:40; Num. 15:5; cf. 28:7). It is likely that a supply of wine was kept in the Temple for that purpose. The psalmist spoke of “wine which makes man’s heart glad” (Ps. 104:15), and the writer of Proverbs advised giving “strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter” (31:6). In speaking of God’s gracious invitation to salvation, Isaiah declared, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isa. 55:1).
Paul advised Timothy, “No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23). Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:6–10). He also spoke favorably of wine in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who poured oil and wine on the wounds of the man he found beaten by the roadside (Luke 10:34).
Like many other things, the kind of wine of which Scripture speaks (discussed below) has the potential either for evil or good. I believe there was a time when the juice of the grape, like every other thing God created, was only good and did not have even the potential for evil. Fermentation, a form of decay, likely was made possible by the corruption of nature at the Fall and actually began with the vast environmental change caused by the Flood and the accompanying removal of the vapor canopy over the earth that had protected it from direct sunlight. It is not unreasonable to believe that in the millennial kingdom the process will again be reversed, when the curse is removed and nature is restored to its original state of perfect goodness.
Guidelines for Christians
In light of the fact that Scripture gives many warnings about drinking wine, yet does not forbid it and even commends it in certain circumstances, how can a believer know what to do? Following are eight suggestions, given in the form of questions, which if answered honestly in light of Scripture will serve as helpful guidelines.
is today’s wine the same as that in bible times?
Our first task in answering this question is to determine exactly what kind of wine is referred to in the Bible, and the second is to determine how that wine compares to what is produced and drunk today. Many sincere, Bible-honoring Christians justify their drinking wine on the basis of its being an acceptable practice both in the Old and New Testaments. But if the kind of wine used then was different from that used today, then application of the biblical teaching concerning wine will also be different.
One kind of wine, called sikera in Greek (see Luke 1:15) and shēkār in Hebrew (see Prov. 20:1; Isa. 5:1), is usually translated “strong drink” because of its high alcohol content and consequent rapid intoxication of those who drank it.
A second kind of wine was called gleukos (from which we get our English term glucose) and referred to new wine, which was especially sweet. Some of the onlookers at Pentecost accused the apostles of being drunk on this kind of wine (Acts 2:13). The corresponding Hebrew word is tîrôsh (see Prov. 3:10; Hos. 9:2; Joel 1:10). Because freshly-squeezed juice would ferment rapidly and could cause intoxication even when not fully aged, it was generally mixed with water before drinking.
A third kind of wine, however, is the one most often referred to in both the Old and New Testaments. The Hebrew word for that wine is yayin, which has the root meaning of bubbling or boiling up. The figure of bubbling did not come from the pouring of the wine but from the boiling of the fresh grape juice to reduce it to a heavy syrup, sometimes even a thick paste, that made it suitable for storage without spoiling. Because boiling removes most of the water and kills all the bacteria, the concentrated state of the juice does not ferment. Yayin most often referred to the syrup or paste mixed with water and used as a drink (cf. Ps. 75:8; Prov. 23:30). Even when the reconstituted mixture was allowed to ferment, its alcohol content was quite low.
The most common New Testament Greek word for this third kind of wine is oinos, and in its most general sense simply refers to the juice of grapes. Any accurate Jewish source will point out that yayin, mixed wine, or oinos, does not refer only to intoxicating liquor made by fermentation, but more often refers to a thick nonintoxicating syrup or jam produced by boiling to make it storable. In Jesus’ illustration of putting new wine (oinos, not gleukos) only into new wineskins, He was possibly saying that it was thereby “preserved” from fermentation as well as from spillage (Matt. 9:17).
The practice of reducing fresh grape juice to a syrup by boiling or evaporation was widespread in the biblical Near East as well as in the Greek and Roman cultures of that day—and is not uncommon in Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon in our own day. In addition to being diluted for use as a beverage, the heavy syrup was used as a flavoring and as a jam-like spread on bread and pastries. Both the syrup and most of the drink made from it were completely nonintoxicating.
The Jewish Mishnah—the ancient oral and later written interpretations of the Mosaic law that preceded the Talmud—states that the Jews regularly used boiled wine, that is, grape juice reduced to a thick consistency by heating. Aristotle described the wine of Arcadia as being so thick that it had to be scraped from the skin bottles in which it was stored and the scrapings diluted with water in order to make a drink. The Roman historian Pliny often referred to nonintoxicating wine. The Roman poet Horace wrote in 35 b.c., “Here you quaff under a shade, cups of unintoxicating wine.” In the ninth book of his Odyssey Homer told of Ullyses putting in his boat a goatskin of sweet black wine that was diluted with twenty parts of water before being drunk. In a.d. 60 the Greek biographer Plutarch commented that “filtered wine neither inflames the brain nor infects the mind and the passions, and is much more pleasant to drink.”
Writing in Christianity Today magazine (June 20, 1975), Robert Stein explains that the ancient Greeks kept their unboiled, unmixed, and therefore highly-alcoholic wine in large jugs called amphorae. Before drinking they would pour it into smaller vessels called kraters and dilute it with water as much as twenty to one. Only then would the wine be poured into killits, the cups from which it was drunk. It was this diluted form that was commonly referred to simply as wine (oinos). The undiluted liquid was called akratesteron, or “unmixed wine,” wine that had not been diluted in a krater. Even among the civilized pagans, drinking unmixed wine was considered stupid and barbaric. Mr. Stein quotes Mnesitheus of Athens:
The gods have revealed wine to mortals, to be the greatest blessing for those who use it aright, but for those who use it without measure, the reverse. For it gives food to them that take it and strength in mind and body. In medicine it is most beneficial; it can be mixed with liquid and drugs and it brings aid to the wounded. In daily intercourse, to those who mix and drink it moderately, it gives good cheer; but if you overstep the bounds, it brings violence. Mix it half and half, and you get madness; unmixed, bodily collapse.
From an early Christian volume called The Apostolic Tradition we learn that the early church followed the custom of using only such mixed wine, whether made from a syrup or from the unmixed liquid.
Naturally fermented wine has an alcoholic content of from nine to eleven percent. For an alcoholic beverage such as brandy to have a higher content, it must be artificially fortified by distilling already-fermented wine. The unmixed wine of the ancients therefore had a maximum alcohol content of eleven percent. Even mixed half and half (a mixture which Mnesitheus said would bring madness), the wine would have had less than five percent alcohol. Since the strongest wine normally drunk was mixed at least with three parts water to one of wine, its alcohol content would have been in a range no higher than 2.25–2.75 percent—well below the 3.2 percent that today is generally considered necessary to classify a beverage as alcoholic.
It is clear, therefore, that whether the yayin or oinos mentioned in Scripture refers to the thick syrup itself, to a mixture of water and syrup, or to a mixture of water and pure wine, the wine was either nonalcoholic or only slightly alcoholic. To get drunk with mixed wine (oinos) would have required consuming a large quantity—as is suggested in other New Testament passages. “Addicted to wine” (1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7) translates one Greek word (paroinos) and literally means “at, or beside, wine,” and carries the idea of sitting beside the wine cup for an extended period of time.
The answer to the first question is clearly no. The wine of Bible times was not the same as the unmixed wine of our own day. Even the more civilized pagans of Bible times would have considered the drinking of modern wines to be barbaric and irresponsible.
is it necessary?
The second question that helps us determine whether or not a believer today should drink wine is, “Is drinking wine necessary for me?” In Bible times, as in many parts of the world today, good drinking water either did not exist or was scarce. The safest drink was wine, and wine that had alcoholic content was especially safe because of the antiseptic effect of the alcohol. It actually purified the water.
Yet it seems hard to believe that the wine Jesus miraculously made at the wedding feast in Cana or that He served at the Lord’s Supper and on other occasions was fermented. How could He have made or served that which had even the potential for making a person drunk? When He made the wine at Cana, He first instructed the servants to fill the jars with water, as if to testify that the wine He was about to create was obviously mixed. The wedding guests commented on the high quality of the wine (John 2:10), and because they called it oinos, it obviously was like the mild drink they were accustomed to making by adding water to boiled-down syrup.
Even though circumstances often required or made advisable the drinking of wine that contained alcohol, the preferred wine even in Bible times had little or none. Modern believers therefore cannot appeal to the biblical practice to justify their own drinking, because so many alternatives are now readily and cheaply available. Drinking alcoholic beverages today is an extremely rare necessity; most often it is simply a matter of preference.
Nor is drinking necessary in order to prevent embarrassing or offending friends, acquaintances, or business associates. A Christian’s witness is sometimes resented and costly, but most people are inclined to respect our abstinence when it is done out of honest conviction and is not flaunted self-righteously or judgmentally. The argument of not wanting to offend others is more likely to be based on concern for our own image and popularity than on genuine concern for their feelings and welfare. Some feel that drinking is sometimes necessary for the sake of establishing a relationship with an unsaved person with a view to bringing him to saving faith. But such a view of evangelism fails miserably in understanding the sovereign work of God and the power of the gospel apart from human devices.
is it the best choice?
Because drinking of wine is not specifically and totally forbidden in Scripture and because it is not a necessity for believers in most parts of the world today, the drinking of it is a matter of choice. The next question is therefore, Is it the best choice?
Throughout the history of God’s people He has given higher standards for those in positions of greater responsibility. Under the sacrificial system instituted under Moses and described in Leviticus 4–5, the ordinary person was required to give a female goat or a lamb as a sin offering—or two pigeons or two doves (5:7), or even a meal (grain) offering (5:11), if he was very poor. But a ruler had to offer a male goat, and the congregation as a whole or the high priest had to offer a bull.
Aaron and all succeeding high priests were also given higher personal standards by which to live. They were commanded, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you may not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations” (Lev. 10:9). Because the high priest was called apart to a higher office, he was also called to a higher commitment to God and to a higher quality of living. Whether their drink restriction pertained to their total living or only to the time while they were actually serving in the Tabernacle or Temple, their ministry for the Lord was to be marked by total abstinence from all alcoholic beverage. Their minds and bodies were to be clear, pure, and fully functional when they ministered in the Lord’s name. There was to be no risk of moral or spiritual compromise in sacred ministry.
The same high standard applied to rulers in Israel. “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink, lest they drink and forget what is ordered, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted” (Prov. 31:4–5). Their judgment was not to be clouded even by the amount of alcohol found in wine (yayin), much less by the much higher amount in strong drink (shēkār). Strong drink was to be given only “to him who is perishing,” as a sedative to ease his pain (v. 6). Any other use of it was not condoned. Normal mixed wine could be given for enjoyment “to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his trouble no more” (vv. 6–7). But the high priests and the rulers of the people were to drink neither yayin nor shekar.
Any person in Israel could choose to set himself apart for God in a special way by taking the Nazirite vow. “When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin” (Num. 6:2–4). A Nazirite also vowed not to shave his head or to ceremonially contaminate himself by touching a dead body as long as his vow was in effect (vv. 5–7).
The name Nazirite comes from the Hebrew nāzîr, which means “separated, or consecrated.” Such separation was voluntary and could last from 30 days to a lifetime. But while the person, man or woman, was set apart in that way for special service to the Lord, his life was to be marked by special purity, including abstention from anything even associated with alcoholic drink. The Nazirite was, in a sense, stepping up to the level of a ruler or high priest by his act of special consecration and separation.
Scripture names only three men who were Nazirites for life—Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. All three were set apart as Nazirites before they were born, Samuel by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11) and Samson and John the Baptist by the Lord Himself (Judg. 13:3–5; Luke 1:15). The mothers of both Samson and Samuel also abstained from wine and strong drink (Judg. 13:4; 1 Sam. 1:15), Samson’s mother by the direct command of the angel.
Though we do not know their identities, many other Nazirites lived in Israel and served the Lord through their specially consecrated lives (see Lam. 4:7, AV, but see also NASB; Amos 2:11). Unfortunately, many of them were forcibly corrupted by their fellow Israelites, who “made the Nazirites drink wine” (Amos 2:12; cf. Lam. 4:8). The world resents those whose high standards are a rebuke to low living. Instead of trying to attain a higher level for themselves, people who are worldly and fleshly—including worldly and carnal Christians—seek to bring those who live purely down to their own corrupt level.
In Jeremiah’s day the entire clan of the Rechabites had taken a vow not to drink wine, and had remained faithful to that vow. Because of their faithfulness, the Lord had Jeremiah set them up as a standard of righteous living, in contrast to the corrupt unfaithfulness of Judah, on whom He was about to bring judgment (Jer. 35:1–19).
The most outstanding Nazirite was John the Baptist, of whom Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater” (Matt. 11:11). Before John was born, the angel said of him, “He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine (oinos) or liquor (sikera); and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).
Yet Jesus went on to say in regard to John the Baptist that “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). In Jesus Christ, every believer is on the spiritual level of a high priest, a ruler, and a Nazirite. Christ loves us and has “released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:5–6). Christians are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. v. 5). Every Christian is specially set apart for God, and every Christian is to be separated from everything that is unclean (2 Cor. 6:17). “Therefore, having these promises, beloved,” Paul continued, “let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (7:1).
God did not lower His standards for New Testament saints, who are greater, Jesus said, even than John the Baptist. In both the Old and New Testaments drinking wine or strong drink disqualified a person from the leadership of God’s people. Christian leaders, like those of the Old Testament, are held to specially high standards. Overseers, or bishops, who are the same as elders and pastors, must not be “addicted to wine,” which, as mentioned above, translates one word (paroinos) and literally means “at, or by, wine.” A leader in the church is not even to be beside wine. “Must” (1 Tim. 3:2) is from the Greek particle dei, and carries the meaning of logical necessity rather than moral ought. Paul is therefore saying that leaders in the church of Jesus Christ not only ought but “must be … not addicted to wine” (vv. 2–3).
James said, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1), and Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much shall much be required” (Luke 12:48). If Old Testament high priests, Nazirites, kings, judges, and other rulers of the people were to be clear-minded at all times, the Lord surely does not have lower standards for leaders in the church, which is the present incarnate Body of His own Son, Jesus Christ. For deacons, whose responsibility is to serve rather than to give leadership, the standard is less stringent. They are allowed to drink wine but are not to be “addicted,” which is from a different Greek word (prosechontas), meaning “to be occupied with.” Such allowance still forbids drunkenness, and it reflects the distinct place of the elder, pastor, bishop, who should totally avoid any possibility of having his thinking clouded. The thrust of Paul’s message here seems to be that, because of the need for clear minds and pure example, the decision-making leaders of the church, are to be held to the highest possible standards of conduct, including abstinence from all alcoholic beverages, and that deacons, who are not in such critical roles, are allowed to drink wine in moderation.
That Paul advised Timothy to “no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23) indicates that, consistent with his leadership abstinence, Timothy previously had drunk no wine at all and that Paul’s recommendation to start drinking “a little wine” was purely for medicinal purposes. Every believer is to present his body “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1), in total consecration to Him.
is it habit forming?
A fourth area of concern for believers should be the matter of addiction. Many things become habitual, and many of the habits we form are beneficial. On the other hand, many other habits are harmful and are difficult to break.
Paul’s principle that though all things for him were lawful, he would “not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12) clearly applies to the danger of alcohol addiction. Alcohol easily produces overpowering dependency. In addition to the alcohol’s direct clouding of the brain and disruption of bodily functions, the dependency itself distracts the attention and interferes with the judgment of the one who is addicted.
A Christian not only must avoid sin but must avoid the potential for sin. We should not allow ourselves to get under the influence or control of anyone or anything that leads us away from the things of God even to a small extent. The safest and wisest choice for a Christian is to avoid even the potential for wrong influence.
Even when something is not habit-forming for us, it may be for someone who is looking at and following our example. Because alcohol is universally acknowledged to be highly addictive, a Christian’s drinking unnecessarily creates the potential for the alcohol addiction of someone else.
is it potentially destructive?
A fifth concern should be for alcohol’s potential destructiveness. The pagan writer Mnesitheus, already quoted, spoke of wine mixed with half water as causing madness and of unmixed wine’s bringing bodily collapse. The mental, physical, and social destructiveness of alcohol is too evident to need much documentation.
Over 40 percent of all violent deaths are alcohol related, and at least 50 percent of all traffic fatalities involve drinking drivers. It is estimated that at least one fourth of all hospitalized psychiatric patients have a problem with alcohol. Heavy consumption of alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver and countless other physical disorders. Alcohol-related problems cost billions of dollars each year in lost income to employers and employees, in settlements by insurance companies and in higher premiums for their customers, and in many other less direct ways.
Dissipation, to which drunkenness inevitably leads, is from asōtia, which literally means “that which is unable to be saved.” It was used of a person who was hopelessly and incurably sick and also was used of loose, profligate living, as in that of the prodigal son (Luke 15:13). Dissipation is therefore a form of self-destruction.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, the Old Testament gives many vivid accounts of the close association of heavy drinking with immorality, rebellion, incest, disobedience to parents, and corrupt living of every sort. Violence is a natural companion of strong drink (Prov. 4:17), and “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler” (20:1).
The prophet Joel cried, “Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth” (Joel 1:5). Later in his message he said, “They have also cast lots for My people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they may drink” (3:3). Habakkuk warned, “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness! You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory” (Hab. 2:15–16).
The Christian must ask himself if it is wise for him to have any part of something that has such great potential for destruction and sin.
will it offend other christians?
In speaking of food sacrificed to idols, Paul said, “We know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.… However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.… For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died” (1 Cor. 8:4, 7–9, 11).
A Christian who himself is perfectly able to drink in moderation is not able to guarantee that his example will not cause a weaker fellow Christian to try drinking and become addicted. Not only that, but just as in Paul’s day, a former drunk who becomes a Christian will often associate many immoral and corrupt activities with drinking, and to see a fellow Christian drink is likely to offend his conscience. Our freedom in Christ stops where it begins to harm others, especially fellow believers. We have no right to “destroy with [our] food [or drink] him for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:15). We cannot be absolutely certain even of our own ability to always drink in moderation, and even less certain that our example will not cause others—including our children—to drink beyond moderation. “Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food,” Paul continued. “All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles” (vv. 20–21). Our own freedom in Christ should not be cherished above the welfare of even one other believer. We are to do those things “which make for peace and the building up of one another” (v. 19).
will it harm my christian testimony?
To exercise our liberty in a way that might harm a brother in Christ cannot possibly enhance our testimony to unbelievers. Drinking might make us more acceptable in some circles, but our lack of concern for fellow Christians would work against any positive witness we might give. It would also hinder our testimony before many other Christians, who, though they might not be concerned about our influence hindering their own living for the Lord, would nevertheless be concerned about how it might harmfully influence other Christians.
Paul’s standard given to the Corinthians indicates that the best testimony is to refuse a pagan host so as not to offend a brother: “If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience’ sake. But if anyone should say to you, ‘This is meat sacrificed to idols,’ do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” (1 Cor. 10:27–29). The witness is most effective if the pagan host can see how much you love and care for your Christian brother.
“Not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7–8). Because everything a Christian is and has is the Lord’s, the apostle also said, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:31–33).
If we want to reach people who are not saved, as well as give an encouraging example to those who are, we will not exercise our liberty to drink or to do anything else that would cause them to be spiritually offended or misled.
is it right?
In light of all the above questions, the Christian should finally ask, Is it right for me to drink at all? We have seen that the answer to the first question is clearly no—the wine drunk in Bible times is not the same as contemporary wine. The answers to the second and third questions are also no for the majority of believers today—it is generally unnecessary to drink wine and is seldom the best choice. The answer to the next four questions is yes in at least some degree. Drinking is clearly habit forming and potentially destructive, and it is likely to offend other Christians and could harm our testimony before unbelievers.
A man once said to me, “I have a beer with the boys sometimes. Is that wrong?” I replied, “What do you think about it?” “Well, I don’t think it’s wrong; but it bothers me.” “Do you like being bothered?” I asked. “No, I don’t,” he said. “You know how to stop being bothered don’t you?” I continued, to which he gave the obvious answer, “Yes. Stop drinking.”
Paul explicitly said, “He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Even if we believe that something is not sinful in itself, if we cannot do it with a completely free conscience, we sin because we do it against our conscience. Going against our conscience will push us into self-condemnation and self-imposed guilt. Conscience is a God-given alarm to guard against sin, and whenever we go against it we weaken it and make it less sensitive and less reliable, thereby training ourselves to reject it. To continually go against conscience is to cause it to become “seared … as with a branding iron” (1 Tim. 4:2) and to become silent. When that happens, we lose a very powerful agent God has given to lead us (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5, 19).
As we ask ourselves questions about drinking, the final one is the most important: Can I do it before others and before God in total faith and confidence that it is right?
19
Be Filled with the Spirit—part 1
but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (5:18b–21)
Apart from the truth in verse 18, which is the heart of Paul’s message, the book of Ephesians would appear to be legalistic. Every exhortation he gives would have to be fulfilled through the power of the flesh. Believers would need to rely on their own resources and strength to follow the great road map of the Christian life that the apostle presents in chapters 4–6—and would, of course, find themselves completely deficient. Christians cannot walk in humility, unity, separation, light, love, and wisdom apart from the energizing of the Holy Spirit. To walk without the Spirit is to walk unwisely and foolishly (see vv. 15–17). We can “be imitators of God, as beloved children” (5:1) only as we are filled with the Spirit (cf. John 15:5).
In 5:18–21 Paul first presents the contrast of the way of the flesh with the way of the Spirit. As seen in the preceding discussion of v. 18a, the way of the flesh is characterized by the pagan religion out of which many of the Ephesian believers had come, a religion that centered around drunken, immoral orgies of supposed ecstasy, in which a person tried to progressively elevate himself into communion with the gods. It is the way of self, pride, immorality, greed, idolatry, confusion, deception, fantasy, falsehood, and even demonism. It is the way of darkness and foolishness (see 5:3–17).
In vv. 18b–21 the apostle gives the other side of the contrast—the godly walk of God’s children that expresses itself in the Spirit-controlled life and worship of beauty and holiness. He first gives the central command of the epistle (which is the focal point of the New Testament for believers) and follows it with an outline of the consequences of obedience to that command.
The Command
but be filled with the Spirit, (5:18b)
Although Paul was not present when the Holy Spirit manifested Himself so powerfully at Pentecost, he must have had that event in mind as he wrote be filled with the Spirit. Pentecost obviously occurred while he was still an unbeliever and before he began persecuting the church. But without Pentecost he and other unbelievers would have had no reason to persecute the church, because it would have been too weak and powerless to threaten Satan’s domain. It was there that the other apostles heard the heavenly “noise like a violent, rushing wind,” saw “tongues as of fire distributing themselves” and resting on “each one of them,” and were “filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance” (Acts 2:2–4). It was also there that some of the crowd accused the apostles of being “full of sweet wine” (v. 13), probably expecting them to break out into the typical frenzied antics of mystical pagan worship.
Though others (such as Moses, Ex. 31:3; 35:31) had been filled with the Spirit for special purposes, it was at Pentecost that all believers in the church were first filled with the Holy Spirit. Every promise that Jesus gave to His disciples on the last night He was with them was fulfilled in some sense by the coming the Holy Spirit on that day. In fact, it was the coming of the Holy Spirit that made real all the promises of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:16–17). The Holy Spirit’s permanently indwelling all believers—rather than only being with some of them, as was true before Pentecost—is one of the great dispensational truths of the New Testament. In the new age, the church age, the Spirit of God would not just be alongside His people but in them all (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19). It is this residence of the Holy Spirit in believers that makes possible the fulfillment of all Jesus’ other promises to His people, and in Ephesians 1:13 He is called “the Holy Spirit of promise.”
The Holy Spirit is our divine pledge and security that Jesus’ promises are fulfilled (2 Cor. 5:5). Among many other things, He guarantees and gives assurance that we will have a heavenly dwelling place in the Father’s house (John 14:2–3); that we will do greater works, not in kind but in extent, even than He did (14:12; cf. Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8); that whatever we ask in His name he will do (John 14:13–14); that we will have Christ’s own peace (14:27); that the fullness of His joy will be in us (15:11). The Holy Spirit assures us that Jesus Christ and the Father are one (14:20); that we are indeed God’s children (Rom. 8:16); that he will intercede for us, making our prayers effective (Rom. 8:26); and that He will bear fruit in our lives (Gal. 5:22–23).
But the work of the Holy Spirit in us and on our behalf can be appropriated only as He fills us. Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and has the potential of receiving the fulfillment of all Christ’s promises to those who belong to Him. But no Christian will have those promises fulfilled who is not under the full control of the Holy Spirit. We have just claim to all Christ’s promises the moment we believe in Him, but we cannot have their fulfillment until we allow His Spirit to fill us and control us. Unless we know what it is to be directed by the Holy Spirit, we will never know the bliss of the assurance of heaven, or the joy of effective work for the Lord, of having our prayers answered constantly, or of indulging in the fullness of God’s own love, joy, and peace within us.
the meaning of being filled
Before we look specifically at what the filling of the Spirit is, we should clarify some of the things it is not. First, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a dramatic, esoteric experience of suddenly being energized and spiritualized into a permanent state of advanced spirituality by a second act of blessing subsequent to salvation. Nor is it some temporary “zap” that results in ecstatic speech or unearthly visions.
Second, being filled with the Spirit is not the notion at the other extreme—simply stoically trying to do what God wants us to do, with the Holy Spirit’s blessing but basically in our own power. It is not an act of the flesh which has God’s approval.
Third, being filled is not the same as possessing, or being indwelt by, the Holy Spirit, because He indwells every believer at the moment of salvation. As Paul plainly states in the book of Romans, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (8:9; cf. John 7:38–39). A person who does not have the Holy Spirit does not have Christ. Even to the immature, worldly Corinthian believers, Paul said, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, … and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). Unlike believers before Pentecost, on whom the Holy Spirit would come temporarily (Judg. 13:25; 16:20; 1 Sam. 16:14; Ps. 51:11), all Christians are permanently indwelt by the Spirit.
Fourth, being filled with the Spirit does not describe a process of progressively receiving Him by degrees or in doses. Every Christian not only possesses the Holy Spirit but possesses Him in His fullness. God does not parcel out the Spirit, as if He could somehow be divided into various segments or parts. “He gives the Spirit without measure,” Jesus said (John 3:34).
Fifth, it is also clear from 1 Corinthians 12:13 that the filling with the Spirit is not the same as the baptism of the Spirit, because every believer has been baptized with and received the Spirit. Although its results are experienced and enjoyed, baptism by and reception of the Spirit are not realities we can feel, and are certainly not experiences reserved only for specially-blessed believers. This miracle is a spiritual reality—whether realized or not—that occurs in every believer the moment he becomes a Christian and is placed by Christ into His Body by the Holy Spirit, who then takes up residence in that life.
Paul did not accuse the Corinthians of being immature and sinful because they did not yet have the Holy Spirit or the baptism in the Body and then exhort them to seek the Spirit in order to remedy the situation. Rather he reminded them that each one of them already possessed the Holy Spirit. Earlier in the letter he had pleaded with them to “flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (6:18–19). They were not sinning because of the Holy Spirit’s absence but in spite of the Holy Spirit’s presence. Even when a Christian sins he is still indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it is that very fact that makes his sin even worse. When a Christian grieves the Spirit (Eph. 4:30) or quenches the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19), he grieves or quenches the Spirit who resides within himself.
Finally, the filling with Spirit is not the same as being sealed, or secured, by Him. That is an accomplished fact (see on 1:13). Nowhere are believers commanded or exhorted to be indwelt, baptized, or sealed by the Holy Spirit. The only command is to be filled.
Be filled translates the present passive imperative of plēroō, and is more literally rendered as “be being kept filled.” It is a command that includes the idea of conscious continuation. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an option for believers but a mandate. No Christian can fulfill God’s will for his life apart from being filled with His Spirit. If we do not obey this command, we cannot obey any other—simply because we cannot do any of God’s will apart from God’s Spirit. Outside of the command for unbelievers to trust in Christ for salvation, there is no more practical and necessary command in Scripture than the one for believers to be filled with the Spirit.
Commands such as this one remind us of the fact that believers are subject to divine authority and are called to obedience as the most basic element of Christian living. In some Christian circles, the manner of living, and even the actual teaching, reflects the notion that just being in the kingdom is all that really matters. Anything one might do in obedience to the Lord after that is considered to be simply a kind of spiritual “extra credit.” Some would say that in Christ there is safety from hell, and that even if all works are burned up and no rewards are given, one will still go to heaven. Even the most obscure corner of heaven will still be heaven, it is argued, and all believers will live there in eternal bliss.
That sort of thinking is totally out of harmony with the teaching of the New Testament. It comes from spiritual hardness of heart and tends to produce a life that is careless and indifferent, and often immoral and idolatrous. The person with such an unscriptural attitude toward the things of God is either walking in direct opposition to the Spirit or else does not possess the Spirit at all—in which case he is not a Christian. Submission to the will of God, to Christ’s lordship, and to the guiding of the Spirit is an essential, not an optional, part of saving faith. A new, untaught believer will understand little of the full implications of such obedience, but the spiritual orientation of his new nature in Christ will bring the desire for submission to God’s Word and God’s Spirit. A person who does not have that desire has no legitimate claim on salvation.
To resist the filling and control of the Holy Spirit is flagrant disobedience, and to deny or minimize its importance is to stand rebelliously against the clear teaching of God’s own Word. Every Christian falls short of God’s standards and will sometimes fall into sin and indifference. But he cannot be continually content in such a state, because the experience of sin and indifference will be in a constant struggle with his new nature (see Rom. 7:14–25). He knows they cannot be justified or in any way reconciled with God’s will.
As we learn from Paul’s dealing with the Christians at Corinth, it is possible that for a time a believer may become and even remain carnal, or fleshly, to some extent (1 Cor. 3:1), but that will never be a true believer’s basic orientation. The terms carnal or fleshly are most often used in the New Testament of unbelievers. “The mind set on the flesh is death,” Paul said, “but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Rom. 8:6–7). A person whose mind is regularly set on the things of the flesh cannot be a Christian, because a Christian is “not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in [him]” (v. 9). A professed Christian who continually longs for the things of the world and the flesh needs to examine his heart carefully to see whether his carnality is that described in 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 or in Romans 8:6–8 (cf. 1 John 2:15–17; James 4:4).
Although every Christian is indwelt, baptized, and sealed by the Spirit, unless he is also filled with the Spirit, he will live in spiritual weakness, retardation, frustration and defeat.
The continuous aspect of being filled (“be being kept filled”) involves day-by-day, moment-by-moment submission to the Spirit’s control. The passive aspect indicates that it is not something we do but that we allow to be done in us. The filling is entirely the work of the Spirit Himself, but He works only through our willing submission. The present aspect of the command indicates that we cannot rely on a past filling nor live in expectation of future filling. We can rejoice in past fillings and hope for future fillings, but we can live only in present filling.
The mark of a good marriage relationship is not the love and devotion the husband and wife have had in the past—as meaningful and lovely as that may have been—nor is it the love and devotion they hope to have in the future. The strength of their marriage is in the love and devotion they have for each other in the present.
Plēroō connotes more than filling something up, as when someone pours water in a glass up the rim. The term was used in three additional senses that have great significance for Paul’s use of it here. First, it was often used of the wind filling a sail and thereby carrying the ship along. To be filled with the Spirit is to be moved along in our Christian life by God Himself, by the same dynamic by which the writers of Scripture were “moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).
Second, plēroō carries the idea of permeation, and was used of salt’s permeating meat in order to flavor and preserve it. God wants His Holy Spirit to so permeate the lives of His children that everything they think, say, and do will reflect His divine presence.
Third, plēroō has the connotation of total control. The person who is filled with sorrow (see John 16:6) is no longer under his own control but is totally under the control of that emotion. In the same way, someone who is filled with fear (Luke 5:26), anger (Luke 6:11), faith (Acts 6:5), or even Satan (Acts 5:3) is no longer under his own control but under the total control of that which dominates him. To be filled in this sense is to be totally dominated and controlled, and it is the most important sense for believers. As we have already seen, to be filled with the Spirit is not to have Him somehow progressively added to our life until we are full of Him. It is to be under His total domination and control. This is in direct contrast to the uncontrolled drunkenness and dissipation in the worship of Dionysius that was alluded to in the first half of the verse.
We see the controlling work of the Holy Spirit even in Jesus’ life while He ministered in the flesh. The Holy Spirit led Him “into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). We learn from the parallel passage in Luke that it was Jesus’ being “full of the Holy Spirit” that prepared Him to be “led about by the Spirit in the wilderness” (4:1). The account in Mark uses an even stronger term, saying that “the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness” (1:12). It was not that Jesus resisted or had to be coerced, because His greatest joy was to do His Father’s will (John 4:34), but that He submitted Himself entirely to the Spirit’s control. Because He was full of the Spirit He was controlled by the Spirit.
The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be compared to a glove. Until it is filled by a hand, a glove is powerless and useless. It is designed to do work, but it can do no work by itself. It works only as the hand controls and uses it. The glove’s only work is the hand’s work. It does not ask the hand to give it an assignment and then try to complete the assignment without the hand. Nor does it gloat or brag about what it is used to do, because it knows the hand deserves all the credit. A Christian can accomplish no more without being filled with the Holy Spirit than a glove can accomplish without being filled with a hand. Anything he manages to do is but wood, hay, and straw that amounts to nothing and will eventually be burned up (1 Cor. 3:12–15). Functioning in the flesh produces absolutely nothing of spiritual value.
When the church at Jerusalem wanted men to free the apostles for the more important work of prayer and ministering the Word, they chose men such as Stephen, who was “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:4–5). Because Stephen continued in the fullness of the Spirit, “he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” even as he was about to be stoned to death (Acts 7:55). Being filled with the Spirit detaches us from the desires, the standards, the objectives, the fears, and the very system of this world and gives us a vision of God that comes in no other way. Being filled with the Spirit makes everything else of secondary importance, and often of no importance at all.
Although Peter was first filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost along with all the other disciples, some while later he spoke to the assembled Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and it is again said that he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8).
Before God could use Saul, who later became Paul, as apostle to the Gentiles, He had Ananias lay his hands on Saul’s head and tell him, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). Without the yieldedness that allowed the filling of the Spirit, Paul would have been of no more use to the Lord than were the worldly members at Corinth among whom he would later minister.
When the church at Jerusalem needed a man to help with the ministry to Gentiles in Antioch, “they sent Barnabas … for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:22, 24). We read that Paul was “filled with the Holy Spirit” as he confronted the deceitful magician named Elymas (Acts 13:9), and that “the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” while being ridiculed and persecuted (13:52).
The concern we often hear about recapturing the dedication, zeal, love, and power of the early church is commendable. But we cannot have the early church’s spiritual power simply by trying to copy its methods of operation. We can experience those believers’ spiritual power only when we are surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s control as they were. It was not their methodology but their Spirit-filled lives that empowered believers to turn the world upside down in the first century (Acts 17:6).
the means of being filled
God commands nothing for which He does not provide the means to obey. And if God commands something of us, we do not need to pray for it, because it is obviously His will and intent for us to do it. It is God’s deepest desire that each of His children be filled with His Spirit. We only need to discover the resources He has provided to carry out that obedience.
To be filled with the Spirit involves confession of sin, surrender of will, intellect, body, time, talent, possessions, and desires. It requires the death of selfishness and the slaying of self-will. When we die to self, the Lord fills with His Spirit. The principle stated by John the Baptist applies to the Spirit as well as to Christ: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Paul’s command to the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,” was followed by a series of subsequent and dependent commands (Col. 3:16–25) that exactly paralleled those Paul gave in Ephesians 5:19–33 as being results of the filling of the Spirit. In both cases we see that singing, giving thanks, and submissiveness follow being filled with the Spirit and letting the word of Christ dwell in us. It is therefore easy to conclude that the filling of the Spirit is not an esoteric, mystical experience bestowed on the spiritual elite through some secret formula or other such means. It is simply taking the Word of Christ (Scripture) and letting it indwell and infuse every part of our being. To be filled with God’s Spirit is to be filled with His Word. And as we are filled with God’s Word, it controls our thinking and action, and we thereby come more and more under the Spirit’s control. As Charles Spurgeon said, the Christian’s blood should be “bibline,” bleeding Scripture wherever he may be pricked or cut.
Peter’s strength lay in his always seeking to be near Jesus. When Jesus walked down a road, Peter was with Him. When He went up to the mountain or out in a boat, Peter went with Him. Peter got into trouble only when he got away from His Lord. When he stayed near the Lord, he did the miraculous, said the miraculous, and had miraculous courage.
When Peter saw Jesus standing on the water some distance from the boat, he stepped out on the water himself when Jesus said, “Come!” and found himself walking on the water just like the Lord—until his attention turned from Jesus to himself and his circumstances (Matt. 14:27–31). On another occasion, when Jesus asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter immediately “answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’ ” (Matt. 16:15–17). Because his mind and spirit were centered on Christ, Peter was used by God to make that great testimony to Jesus’ messiahship and divine sonship. A short while later, however, Peter pitted his own understanding against the Lord’s, and discovered that he then spoke for Satan rather than for God (16:22–23).
When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, they drew back and fell to the ground when Jesus identified Himself as the One they were seeking. Perhaps taking courage from that reaction, Peter took out his sword and cut off the right ear of Malchus, a slave of the high priest, and probably would have continued fighting to the death had not Jesus restrained him (John 18:3–11; cf. Luke 22:47–51). When he was near the Lord, he feared no one. But when a short while later he found himself separated from the Lord, he did not have the courage even to admit knowing Jesus (John 18:15–27).
After the ascended Lord sent His Holy Spirit to indwell and fill His disciples as He had promised, Peter found himself again able to say and do the miraculous and to have miraculous courage. He had the courage to fearlessly proclaim His risen Lord in the place where, a few months earlier, He had been arrested, beaten, and crucified—and found his message miraculously empowered and blessed, with some three thousand coming to salvation from that one sermon (Acts 2:14–41). When the lame man near the Temple asked Peter and John for alms, Peter replied, “ ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!’ And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened” (Acts 3:1–7). When he was arrested by the Sanhedrin and questioned about the healing, Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and proclaimed that he had healed by the power of Jesus Christ, whom they had crucified. Because they could not deny the miracle and were afraid of the many people who glorified God because of it, the Jewish leaders simply commanded Peter and John to no longer preach in Jesus’ name. Peter responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:1–22).
To be filled with the Spirit is to live in the consciousness of the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, as if we were standing next to Him, and to let His mind dominate our life. It is to fill ourselves with God’s Word, so that His thoughts will be our thoughts, His standards our standards, His work our work, and His will our will. As we yield to the truth of Christ, the Holy Spirit will lead us to say, do, and be what God wants us to say, do, and be. “We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). Christ consciousness leads to Christ likeness.
Perhaps the best analogy of moment-by-moment yielding to the Holy Spirit’s control is the figure of walking, the figure Paul introduced in Ephesians 4:1. Walking involves moving one step at a time, and can be done in no other way. Being filled with the Spirit is walking thought by thought, decision by decision, act by act under the Spirit’s control. The Spirit-filled life yields every step to the Spirit of God. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:16–17). Our flesh is the beachhead of sin, the yet unredeemed part of our humanness that is exposed to and inclined toward sin. Even as Christians, as new creatures in Christ, our spiritual and moral Achilles’ heel is the flesh, the remnant of the old self that seeks to drag us down from behavior consistent with our heavenly citizenship. Paul spoke of it as “a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom. 7:23). The only way to override that residual sinfulness, our evil desires, and the temptations of Satan is to function in the Spirit.
Not to be filled with the Spirit is to fall back into “the deeds of the flesh … which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19–21). We do not have to consciously choose to do the deeds of the flesh. If we are not living under the control of God’s Word and Spirit, the deeds of the flesh are the only things we can do, because the flesh is the only resource we have in ourselves.
The sole defense against the negative power of temptation, sin, and Satan is the positive power of the Holy Spirit. We have no power over those evils, and to try to combat them in our own strength is to try to walk on water by our own power. We win spiritual victories only when God’s Holy Spirit does battle for us.
But when we surrender to the control of God’s Spirit, we find Him producing amazing things in us, things which are entirely of His doing. Paul calls these marvelous blessings the fruit of the Spirit, and they are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). The person who is Spirit-controlled and who bears the Spirit’s fruit is the person who belongs to Christ and who has “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit,” Paul continued, “let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:24–25). To walk in the Spirit is to fulfill the ultimate potential and capacity of our life on earth as God’s children.
20
Be Filled with the Spirit—part 2
but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (5:18b–21)
Following His command to be filled with the Spirit, Paul gave a summary of the consequences of obedience to that command.
The Consequences
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (5:19–21)
Consequences of the Spirit-filled life (which greatly enrich our understanding of its nature) are mentioned throughout the remainder of the epistle, and in these verses we are given three of the most significant ones: singing, giving thanks, and submission. When God’s Spirit controls us he will put a song in our own hearts and on our lips, give us thankfulness to God, and make us submissive to others. The first is initially inward, the second upward, and the third outward. The filling of the Holy Spirit makes us rightly related to ourselves, to God, and to others.
the consequence with ourselves: singing
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; (5:19)
The Spirit-filled life produces music. Whether he has a good voice or cannot carry a tune, the Spirit-filled Christian is a singing Christian. Nothing is more indicative of a fulfilled life, a contented soul, and a happy heart than the expression of song.
The first consequence of the Spirit-filled life that Paul mentioned was not mountain-moving faith, an ecstatic spiritual experience, dynamic speaking ability, or any other such thing. It was simply a heart that sings. When the believer walks in the Spirit, he has an inside joy that manifests itself in music. God puts music in the souls and then on the lips of His children who walk in obedience.
When missionaries began evangelistic work among an Indian tribe I visited high in the Andes of Ecuador, they were frustrated for many years by lack of results. Suddenly the Spirit of God began to move and a large number of Indians were converted within a short time. In addition to a hunger for God’s Word, one of the first evidences of their new life in Christ was a great desire to sing His praises. I listened as they stood for hours in their thatched-roof church and sang hymn after hymn. The song from their hearts was the most inescapable characteristic that set those believers apart from everyone else in their pagan village.
The Spirit’s music is not hindered by a monotone or enhanced by a musical degree or magnificent voice. Spiritual joy will shine through a song sung with the raspy, off-pitch voice of a saint who is rejoicing in the Lord, and it will be absent from the song sung with technical skill and accuracy, but with a voice that rejoices only in self.
One of the greatest distinctions of Christianity should be in its music, because the music God gives is not the music the world gives. In Scripture, the word new is used more frequently in relation to song than to any other feature of salvation. God gives His new creatures a new song, a different song, a distinctive song, a purer song, and a more beautiful song than anything the world can produce.
“Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones,” says the psalmist; “praise is becoming to the upright” (Ps. 33:1). It is because we have been made righteous, purified from sin, and have become partakers of God’s own holiness that we sing. No one but a Christian has any legitimate reason to sing. God Himself puts a song in our mouths, “a song of praise to our God” (Ps. 40:3). Because we have salvation we sing songs of salvation. “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day” (Ps. 96:1–2; cf. 149:1).
One day the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders will fall down before Jesus Christ, the Lamb, and sing “a new song, saying, ‘Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:8–9). God’s new song is the song of redemption.
When God delivered Israel out of Egypt, all the people came together and sang a song to the Lord (Ex. 15:1–18). After they finished, Moses’ sister, Miriam, led the women in further singing and dancing (vv. 20–21). After Deborah and Barak delivered Israel from the Canaanites, they “sang on that day” (Judg. 5:1). Of the 38,000 people who ministered at the Temple in Jerusalem, 4,000 were musicians; and in Nehemiah we read of antiphonal choirs (Neh. 12:31, 38). Throughout the Old Testament, and particularly in the Psalms, we read of many kinds of musical instruments that God’s people used to praise Him.
The last thing Jesus and His disciples did after the Last Supper was to sing a hymn before they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested (Matt. 26:30). While they were imprisoned in Philippi, “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). On the heavenly Mount Zion the 144,000 who will have been purchased from the earth will sing “a new song before the throne” of Christ (Rev. 14:3).
In Ephesians 5:19 Paul explains among whom, from where, with what, to whom, and how Spirit-filled believers are to sing.
Among whom do believers sing? The primary audience for our singing is to be fellow believers, one another. Throughout Scripture the singing of God’s people is shown to be within the fellowship of believers. No music in the Bible is ever characterized as being or intended to be evangelistic. God may use the gospel content set to music to bring the truth to the lost and thus lead them to Himself. Since the message is so powerful, the open heart may receive it even though it comes with a melody. But that is not the intent for music, and when emotions are played on without a clear or complete presentation of God’s truth to the mind, such music can be counterproductive by producing a feeling of well-being and contentment that is a counterfeit of God’s peace and that serves to further insulate an unbeliever from the saving gospel.
It should be noted that the many contemporary entertainers who think they are using their rock-style music to evangelize the lost are often doing nothing more than contributing to the weakening of the church. Evangelizing with contemporary music has many serious flaws. It tends to create pride in the musicians rather than humility. It makes the gospel a matter of entertainment when there is not one thing in it that is at all entertaining. It makes the public proclaimers of Christianity those who are popular and talented in the world’s eyes, rather than those who are godly and gifted teachers of God’s truth. In using the world’s genres of music, it blurs the gap between worldly Satanic values and divine ones. It tends to deny the power of the simple gospel and the sovereign saving work of the Holy Spirit. It creates a wide generation gap in the church, thus contributing to the disunity and lack of intimacy in the fellowship of all believers. It leads to the propagation of bad or weak theology and drags the name of the Lord down to the level of the world. The music of the gospel is certainly not a legitimate means for making money or seeking fame, and it must never be allowed to cheapen what is priceless, or trivialize what is profound.
The songs of faith are not for the world to sing or really even to hear. The unsaved person has no comprehension of the praises we sing, because he has no presence of God’s Spirit within him. He cannot sing the song of redemption because he is not redeemed. Christian singing is an expression of individual and corporate worship, of celebrating life together in Jesus Christ.
For over a thousand dark years of its history (c. 500–1500) the church in general did not sing. From shortly after New Testament times until the Reformation, what music the church had was usually performed by professional musicians. The music they presented could not be understood or appreciated by the average church member. In any case, they could only sit and listen, unable to participate. But when the Bible came back into the church during the Reformation, singing came with it. Martin Luther and some of the other Reformation leaders are among the greatest hymn writers of church history. Where the true gospel is known and believed, music is loved and sung. God’s Spirit in the heart puts music in the heart.
How do believers sing? When they are filled with the Spirit, they are to be speaking … in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody. Speaking comes from laleō, is an onomatopoeic word that originated from chatter or babble, probably of little children first learning to talk, saying sounds such as “la, la, la.” It was also used of the chirp of birds or the grunts and other noises of animals. In its most basic sense, the term simply meant to make a sound.
Trumpets (Rev. 4:1) and even peals of thunder (10:4) are said to be speaking. The psalmist called God’s people to join all the earth in shouting “joyfully to God” (Ps. 66:1). Speaking here includes any sound offered to God from a Spirit-filled heart. The music from an organ or choir is no more acceptable to God than the sounds of a guitar or home-made flute. The sound that pleases Him is the sound that comes as a result of a heart submissive to His Spirit and that sings or plays to His glory.
Psalms refers primarily to the Old Testament psalms put to music, but the term was also used of vocal music of any sort, such as solos and anthems. The early church did most of its singing directly from the psaltery, using various tunes familiar to the congregation—a pattern followed for hundreds of years by many European and American churches, and still used in some congregations today. The psalms primarily speak about the nature and work of God, especially in the lives of believers. Above everything else, they magnify and glorify God.
Hymns refers primarily to songs of praise, which in the early church were probably distinguished from the psalms, which exalted God, in that they specifically praised the Lord Jesus Christ. Many biblical scholars believe that various New Testament passages (such as Col. 1:12–16) were used as hymns in the early church. Spiritual songs were probably songs of testimony that covered a broad category that included any music expressing spiritual truth.
In the church today we could classify renditions of Psalms 23 and 84 as psalms, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” and “The Old Rugged Cross” as hymns, and “O How He Loves You and Me” and “I’d Rather Have Jesus” as spiritual songs. The intent of the writer here, however, is simply to give latitude for all kinds of musical expression to exalt the Lord.
Singing is from adō, which simply means to sing with the voice. But in the New Testament it is always used in relation to praising God (see also Col. 3:16; Rev. 5:9; 14:3; 15:3).
The human voice is the most beautiful of all instruments. Its various tones, inflections, and moods seem almost limitless. Because it is itself human, it can speak to us as no other form of music.
Yet the sound God is looking for in His children is the sound made out of a Spirit-filled heart—whether the voice that makes the sound is rough and unpolished or smooth and highly trained. That is why every believer is just as capable as any other believer of singing the praises that God puts in his heart.
The gift of a good voice or of other musical talent does not demand, as many argue, that it should necessarily be used for performing special music in the church. The gift of music no more demands public display than does the gift of carpentry, cooking, medicine, or any other. That which is done to glorify God is done for that purpose alone, and its being noticed or unnoticed is secondary and incidental. Whether we sing alone in our home or car, sing with a few friends around the piano or with guitars, or sing in a large choir leading hundreds of people in worship, we should do it from a Spirit-filled heart that seeks no glory but God’s.
Psallo (making melody) is related to the term from which we get psalm and literally means to pluck on a stringed instrument, particularly a harp, with the fingers. The word, however, came to represent the making of any instrumental music. The Spirit-filled heart expresses itself in any sort of vocal or instrumental music, in both singing and making melody.
Much music in the church today truly honors God and blesses those who hear it. And whether given as psalms about God’s greatness, as hymns of Christ’s redemption, or as spiritual songs of testimony of God’s power, help, or comfort, such music is to be an expression of the Spirit-filled church. Whether given through the voice in singing or through instruments in making melody, that is the music that honors, glorifies, and pleases God.
Our Lord Himself will sing one day, and in our very midst. He said to His Father, “I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Thy praise” (Heb. 2:12). But even now, when our hearts are filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus sings songs of praise to the Father through us. Therefore when we quench the Spirit, we quench the song of Christ to the Father in our life.
From where do believers sing? The songs of salvation originate with your heart. The Greek form of this phrase allows for several meanings. There is no preposition here in the Greek, and in such cases the preposition is determined by the case of the noun—which here has several possibilities, all of which seem appropriate to the context. If the case of heart is taken as an instrumental of cause, the idea is that our hearts cause us to sing and make melody to God. As an instrumental of means, the idea is that our hearts are the channels through which we sing praises. As a locative, the idea is that the singing is centered in our hearts.
A person who does not have a song in his heart cannot sing from his heart or with his heart. He can only sing with his lips, and neither his music nor his message will have the power of the Spirit to bless others in Christ’s name.
Even as Christians we will not have a true song in our hearts unless we are under the Spirit’s control. It is possible to sing for pride, to sing for acclaim and fame, and to sing for money—but such singing is Spiritless singing. A person who comes to worship while bitter toward God, angry with a loved one or friend, or in any other way is out of harmony with God’s Spirit should not participate in singing God’s praises. Hypocrisy can neither praise nor please the Lord. When peoples’ hearts are not right with God, He has a way of turning their “festivals into mourning” and their “songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:10). Through the same prophet God said, “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (5:23–24). “Stop your songs until your hearts are right,” he was saying.
Our music cannot be like the music of the world, because our God is not like their gods. Most of the world’s music reflects the world’s ways, the world’s standards, the world’s attitudes, the world’s gods. To attempt to use such music to reach the world is to lower the gospel in order to spread the gospel. If the world hears that our music is not much different from theirs, it will also be inclined to believe that the Christian way of life is not much different from theirs. Christians cannot honestly sing the world’s philosophies nor can the world honestly sing the Christian’s message, because they sing from utterly different hearts. The Christian’s heart and music belong to God and His righteousness, while the world’s heart and music belong to Satan and his unrighteousness.
Because the Christian’s music is God’s music, it will be sung in heaven throughout all the ages to come. And because the world’s music is Satan’s music, it will one day cease, never to be heard again. The sounds of the world’s “harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard … any longer” (Rev. 18:22). To those who make music that is not His, God declares, “I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more” (Ezek. 26:13). In hell, the ungodly will not even have their own music.
The pulsating rhythms of native African music mimics the restless, superstitious passions of their culture and religion. The music of the Orient is dissonant and unresolved, going from nowhere to nowhere, with no beginning and no end—just as their religions go from cycle to cycle in endless repetitions of meaningless existence. Their music, like their destiny, is without resolution. The music of much of the Western world is the music of seduction and suggestiveness, a musical counterpart of the immoral, lustful society that produces, sings, and enjoys it.
Rock music, with its bombastic atonality and dissonance, is the musical mirror of the hopeless, standardless, purposeless philosophy that rejects both God and reason and floats without orientation in a sea of relativity and unrestrained self-expression. The music has no logical progression because it comes from a philosophy that renounces logic. It violates the brain because its philosophy violates reason. It violates the spirit, because its philosophy violates truth and goodness. And it violates God, because its philosophy violates all authority outside of self.
Not only the titles and lyrics of many rock songs but the names of many rock groups shamelessly flaunt a godless, immoral, and often demonic orientation. The association of hard rock with violence, blasphemy, sadomasochism, sexual immorality and perversion, alcohol and drugs, and Eastern mysticism and the occult are not accidental. They are fed from the same ungodly stream. A leading rock singer once said, “Rock has always been the devil’s music. It lets in the baser elements.” Another testified, “I find myself evil. I believe in the devil as much as God. You can use either to get things done.” Putting a Christian message in such musical form does not elevate the form but degrades the message to the level already established in the culture by that form.
A great majority of young people in modern Western society are continually assaulted with a philosophy set to music that simultaneously destroys their bodies, short-circuits their minds, and perverts their spirits. A young man who was converted out of that involvement once said to me, “Whenever I hear rock music, I feel a tremendous urge to get drunk or go back on drugs.” The association was so strong that simply hearing the music triggered his old addictions.
Many of the physical and emotional effects of rock music can be demonstrated scientifically. Howard Hansen of the Eastman School of Music once wrote, “First, everything else being equal, the further the tempo is accelerated in music from the pulse rate toward the upper limit of practical tempo, the greater becomes the emotional tension.” He says further that “as long as the subdivisions of the metric units are regular and the accents remain strictly in conformity with the basic patterns, the effect may be accelerated but will not be disturbing. Rhythmic tension is heightened by increase in dynamic power.”
Several years ago a college in Colorado made a study of the effects of music on plants. Plants exposed to beautiful, soothing music thrived and turned toward the speaker. In an otherwise identical environment, another group of the same type of plant was exposed to acid rock. Those plants turned away from the speaker and within three days had shriveled and died. Further experimentation proved that the sound waves of the rock music had actually destroyed the plants’ cells.
Whether or not human cells are destroyed by rock music, things of even greater value are destroyed. When fast tempo, unrhythmical beat, high volume, and dissonance are coupled with wild shrieks, blasphemous and lewd lyrics, and suggestive body movements, the brain is bypassed, the emotions are mangled, the conscience is hardened, and Satan has an open door. Even the ancient pagan Aristotle wisely observed: “Music represents the passions of the soul, and if one listens to the wrong music he will become the wrong kind of person.”
Scripture’s admonition that “all things be done properly and in an orderly manner” (1 Cor. 14:40) applies to music as well as to everything else. God created an orderly universe, and anything that is confused and disorderly is out of harmony with the universe and with its Maker. “Watch over your heart with diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). Paul commanded believers: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8).
The Spirit-filled Christian is happy, peaceful, assured, and productive regardless of the circumstances. Whether he is freely worshiping among fellow believers on Sunday morning or sitting in painful stocks in a dungeon at midnight like Paul and Silas (Acts 16:24–25), his heart will always be singing and making melody.
In his great allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan pictured the pilgrim, Christian, falling into the slough of despond, straying into doubting castle, and enduring many other hardships, frustrations, and failures. And though the expression “filled with the Spirit” is not used in the story, each time Christian is delivered we see him going on his way singing. Every time he came back under the Spirit’s control he had a song in his heart.
To whom do believers sing? Although believers sing among themselves, their songs are to be directed to the Lord. Our singing and making melody is not for the purpose of drawing attention to ourselves or of entertaining others but of rejoicing in and praising God. Whether we are singing a solo, singing with a choir, or singing with the congregation, our focus should be on the Lord, not on ourselves or other people. He is the audience to whom we sing.
At the dedication of the first Temple, “all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord” (2 Chron. 5:12–13). Because the Lord was pleased with their heart-felt and harmonious worship, “the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (vv. 13–14). It should be the heart desire of all Christians that their praise of God in music, and in every other way, be “in unison” and that they “make themselves heard with one voice to praise and glorify the Lord”—because that is the only way God’s people can acceptably praise and glorify Him.
Johann Sebastian Bach, probably the greatest musician of all time, said, “The aim of all music is the glory of God.” In his own life and work the great composer and organist sought to live out that aim, and through the music he dedicated solely to God countless generations of believers have been blessed.
The words of every Christian song should be biblical—distinctly, clearly, and accurately reflecting the teaching of God’s Word. It is tragic that much music that goes under the name of Christian is a theological mishmash, often reflecting as much of the world’s philosophy as of God’s truth. Much is little more than personal sentimentality colored with Christian words.
Music that honors the Lord also blesses his people. A beautiful, soothing piece of music can calm nerves, remove fear and anxiety, reduce bitterness and anger, and help turn our attention from ourselves and the cares and problems of the world to God.
David not only was a man of God but a skillful musician. We are told that “whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him” (1 Sam. 16:23). The music blessed Saul emotionally (he was “refreshed”), physically (he was made “well”), and spiritually (“the evil spirit would depart from him”).
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century physicians often prescribed music for mentally disturbed patients. They even recommended certain types of music to treat certain types of disorders. Music does have “charms to soothe a savage breast.” Working from a more scientific basis, modern behaviorists have proved those ideas to be sound. They have determined what kind of music makes a person more relaxed in a dentist’s chair, what kind helps production in an office or assembly plant, what kind helps reduce impatience in an elevator, and so on. Music has been found to affect the muscles, nerves, and the flow of body fluids, including blood, saliva, and lymph. It can influence metabolism, heart rate, and pulse for either benefit or harm.
It is not possible to submit the spiritual effects of music to scientific testing, but it is beyond question that music that focuses the heart on praising God can help heal the spiritual ills of His people.[1]
18 “Do not be intoxicated with wine” is yet another OT quotation—from Prov. 23:31 (LXX).55 It is introduced here not so much for its own sake (although such a warning is never untimely) as for the sake of its antithesis: “be filled with the Spirit.” Overindulgence in wine leads to dissipation, which is good neither for the winebibber nor for others; the fullness of the Spirit is helpful both for those who are filled with him and for those with whom they associate. The noun rendered “dissipation” appears also in Tit. 1:6 (where the children of church elders must not be chargeable with dissipation) and 1 Pet. 4:4 (in reference to the profligacy which marked the former lives of people recently converted from paganism to Christianity); the corresponding adverb is used of the “riotous living” in which the prodigal son wasted his substance (Luke 15:13).
“Be filled with the Spirit” is literally “Be filled in spirit”; this has given rise to the question whether the human spirit of the believer or the Spirit of God is meant. The same phrase, “in spirit,” occurs in three other places in this letter—in Eph. 2:22, with regard to the new community of believers as the dwelling-place of God; in 3:5, with regard to the revelation of the “mystery” of the new community to God’s “holy apostles and prophets”; and in 6:18, with regard to the prayer life of Christians. In those three places the Holy Spirit is certainly intended, and equally certainly it is he that is intended here. The Holy Spirit is given to believers to fill them with his presence and power. The choice of drunkenness as an antithesis to the fullness of the Spirit is not unparalleled: when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost the resultant phenomena moved some of the spectators to say in derision that they were “filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13), and Paul had to warn the Corinthians that a stranger, coming into their company when they were all exercising the spiritual gift of tongues, would conclude that they were mad (1 Cor. 14:23). But the Spirit given by God to his children is the Spirit “of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7); the normal exercise of intelligence is not eclipsed but enhanced when he is in control.
The antithesis between wine and the Spirit does not suggest that the Spirit is a sort of fluid with which one may be filled, any more than the collocation of baptism in water with baptism in the Spirit suggests that the Spirit is a sort of fluid in which one may be dipped. Whatever grammatical constructions are used, the Spirit operates as a personal subject—“the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
19 If the Spirit is the source of their fullness, then, instead of songs which celebrate the joys of Bacchus, their mouths will be filled with words which build up the lives of others and bring glory to the living and true God. The reference to “psalms, hymns, and Spirit-inspired songs” is reproduced from Col. 3:16. The construction of the clauses is rather different, but the general tenor is the same. The meetings of those early Christians must have been musical occasions, as they not only sang and made melody to the Lord, in their hearts as well as with their tongues, but addressed one another for mutual help and blessing in compositions already known to the community or in songs improvised under immediate inspiration. Testimonies to the prevalence of music in their fellowship and worship have been cited in the exposition and notes on Col. 3:16. One of these testimonies—Pliny’s report of antiphonal singing “to Christ as God”—has a bearing on both clauses in this verse, where the singing is antiphonal (“addressing one another”) and is offered “to the Lord.” The hymn quoted in v. 14 could serve as one example of their “addressing one another.” If “singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” in the present context has as its parallel in Col. 3:16 “singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God,” it reminds us that in the church, from the earliest days, praise has been offered alike to God and to Christ. Thus in the Apocalypse, where the worship presented by the holy ones before the heavenly throne is echoed by the church on earth, “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, … for thou didst create all things” (Rev. 4:11) has as its counterpart the “new song”: “Worthy art thou, … for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst accomplish redemption” (Rev. 5:9), while both God and Christ are conjoined in the doxology: “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13).[2]
Emptied of the World (5:18a)
To keep our faith from being merely about human doing and thinking, the apostle says, “Do not get drunk on wine.” This command is a synecdoche (a part for the whole), referring to emptying our lives of excess wine but also—in contrast to the filling of the Spirit—emptying ourselves of anything in this world that would hold us under its influence. Such influence, whether by wine or other intoxicants, leads to reckless living that would darken the very life of light the apostle has been advocating.
Filled with the Spirit (5:18b–21)
Not only are we to be emptied of the control of worldly intoxicants, we are to be filled with the Spirit. The play on words is striking, for just as Paul warns against worldly inebriation, he wants to charge us with L.U.I. (living under the influence) of the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? To answer we must first remember the context that already indicates those filled with the Spirit are radiating the presence of Christ to the world around them. Four sets of participles in the Greek text then describe the characteristic activities of those who are Spirit-filled (i.e., under his influence): (1) speaking, (2) singing (and making music), (3) thanking, and (4) submitting.
1–2. Speaking and singing (5:19). Seemingly entering right into the heart of contemporary worship discussions, Paul exhorts us to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19a). The instruction first endorses gathering our expressions of worship from numerous sources: the psalms of the Old Testament; hymns (i.e., the songs of the New Testament church, presumably such as the one he has just quoted in verse 8); and spiritual songs (i.e., personal songs of the heart that in this Spirit-filling context are apparently an expression of the Spirit’s ministry in the individual). But these worship expressions are not simply for the individual. The musical expression of the church involves “speaking to one another.” In contrast to some contemporary teaching that says that our worship is to be directed entirely to God, Paul presumes that there is a horizontal dimension to our worship. In praising God we consciously should be directing our worship to the edification of others. As Christ ministers to others by extending himself for them, when we worship with the needs of others as our concern, then we are ministering Christ and consequently being filled with his indwelling Spirit.
But the music of our worship is not exclusively a horizontal ministry. To be filled with the Spirit, Paul also says, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19b). Our worship is not to be merely formulaic and perfunctory, but a true expression from the heart of our love for God. We are singing to the Lord. We are honoring him in our worship. He is the audience and object of our praise and, thus, we are filled with his Spirit in our worship. This understanding of being filled with God’s Spirit in worship, however, creates an additional glorious perspective of our privileged vessels. Since in true worship we are filled with the Spirit, our God is both the audience and the voice of our praise. We are the instrument by which God becomes present in praise to himself, a concept that brings rich meaning to the psalmist’s observation that God inhabits the praise of his people (Ps. 22:3 KJV). This realization that we are generating the voice of God for the praise of God in our worship makes our praise more glorious than we normally imagine, and should give our sinful hearts much hope in the realization of the spiritual power by which he can use us to praise him as well as speak to his people.
The power of praise both to glorify God and to minister to his people recently shined brilliantly in our town. We faced the tragic and, as yet, unexplained death of a dear young woman. Her college and high school friends packed the largest church in our town for her funeral. During the service a young couple sang to us of their abiding faith through the words of a contemporary song: “the valley of the shadow will lead to the river of joy.” As the couple sang, a row of the deceased woman’s friends rose from their seats at the front of the church and stood together as a stirring affirmation that this song was their faith, too. At one point, one of these young women even raised her fist as if to say in defiance of death, “We will not let even this darkness conquer the light of our faith or the testimony of our friend who is now with the Lord.”
I wept then at their courage and faith made so evident, knowing that the young people who joined in the presentation of that song were speaking to the rest of us of the beauty of faith and, at the same time, were praising God for the eternal promises that made their faith so precious. But the young friends were not the only ones speaking and singing. As they spoke to us and sang to God, they were being filled with God’s Spirit, so that he himself was ministering to us and glorifying his name. One glory reflected a greater glory, as our God filled the praises of these young people to speak comfort to the rest of us and to make his name great so that we would all know the light of heaven that we so desperately needed in the darkness of that tragedy.
3. Giving thanks (Eph. 5:20). Thanksgiving is another natural outflow of hearts made melodious by God’s great grace. We have been redeemed from the darkness and made a part of the eternal song. God himself sings through us to himself. This is cause for much thanksgiving. Because abundant thanksgiving is a natural response to such supernatural grace, the apostle says that we are to be “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything” (Eph. 5:20a). Doing this is completely unnatural to us. It may even strike us as wrong.
How can we always give thanks for everything? We easily understand how and why we should express godly gratitude for the blessings in our lives, but apparent blessings are not the only things that enter our lives. Are we to give thanks for murder and abuse, for cruelty and hate? Despite the contrary insistence of some well-meaning commentators and churches, the answer must be, No. We cannot speak with God’s Spirit and at the same time praise him for what he hates. Yes, the extent of our praise is to be expansive: “always” and “for everything,” but there is a context for this thanksgiving. It is to be “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20b). We are filled with the Spirit when we praise God for everything that hallows and magnifies the name of our Savior.
To the extent that tragedy makes us dependent on our Lord, and enables others to see his comfort and seek his eternal promises, we can give thanks. As stars shine brighter in the desert and a diamond is more beautiful on black velvet, so the name of our Savior—his glory, honor, and redemption—beacons more brightly and intensely in the darkness of the world. We give thanks even for the darkness that makes the glory of Christ’s name more evident. The thanksgiving, however, is not for the horrors of a fallen world but for the name of the Savior that alone can answer and redeem those horrors.
My friend John Dozier, the one who wrote about the snow and the geese at the beginning of this chapter, wrote of another experience in the snow that occurred one Christmas:
The time was about 8:30 p.m., Christmas night, 2002. As I stood up to walk away from my Dad’s body lying in the snow, and dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, [in my mind] I heard some very familiar words from the Bible that I had clung to for many years before this most dreadful night: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25), and “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). [It was as though] the voice inside me said, “Have faith, John, this night too I will redeem. Have faith, my beloved.” And for me, God began to fulfill His promise that very evening last Christmas as I stepped into the police station and began a conversation with a young police officer that ended in the affirmation of his faith.… Then and there God gave me the gift of a down payment on his redemptive promise.…
Even the darkest darkness God will redeem by his light. In my friend’s recognition of the promise and need of the Lord’s redeeming the darkness of that Christmas night is seen the source of thanksgiving that we can offer always and for everything. God promises to redeem all things in Jesus’ name. Because he shall stand upon the earth as the Lord of all things for all time, we can thank him always for all things as all will be made glorious by him. We can praise him now for the down payments of the fulfillment of his promised kingdom even in this present darkness, in Jesus’ name.
4. Submitting (Eph. 5:21). In addition to offering praise to God on that awful Christmas night, my friend John also submitted his pain in faith for the eternal well-being of a young policeman he did not even know. By so shining the light of Jesus, the babe that was born on a Christmas night two thousand years ago was made present again on that Christmas night in 2002.
In submitting ourselves for the good of others, our crucified and risen Savior shines powerfully through us and we are filled with his Spirit. Perhaps that is why the apostle finishes his definition of what it means to be filled with the Spirit with the encouragement to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21), a phrase that sets the stage for the rest of this epistle’s instructions about human relationships (see chapters 5 and 6 on husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants).
The natural and simplest reading of the final words of this passage is that we should honor the command to submit to others out of reverence for Christ’s authority over our lives. Unquestionably this is part of the meaning, but there is an additional richness in these words in light of what has already been said. When we perceive the Spirit of God as present in his children, then submitting to them is submitting to Christ in them. And when we submit to them as Christ submitted himself for us, then we are Christ to them.
When we submit ourselves for the good of others by the Spirit of Christ in us, we do not merely reflect the glory of the Son; we become the glory of the Son to them. As we minister in his name, submitting to one another—not out of anyone’s deserving—out of reverence for Christ, then we are filled with his Spirit and so is the marriage, or the home, or the workplace, or the church in which such submitting occurs.
Subsequent chapters of this commentary explore the connection between this verse and home life (Eph. 5:22–6:9). At this stage it is important to note that this verse is also applicable to church relations as a whole, for this verse (and the participle verb it contains) clearly is connected to the command to “be filled with the Spirit” and to that command’s application in the worship and life of the church (Eph. 5:18–21). Equally critical to note is the use of the verb hypotassō, with its meaning of subjection to an appointed order (see the extended discussion in the notes of chapter 19). Here the word emphasizes that church members are especially to subject themselves to those who are deemed of more authority in the church and in the family (even if all are to interact humbly and sacrificially with one another; see Eph. 5:1–2; Phil. 2:1–11; 1 Peter 5:5–6). Thus, with this verb, “one another” designates each member’s responsibility to submit to those with appointed authority in the church (1 Cor. 16:16; 1 Peter 5:5) rather than an indiscriminate submission of every person to everyone else. Such submissive sacrifice is powerful reverence for, reflection of, and expression of our Savior. By such presentation of him, his indwelling Spirit is demonstrated and he is present.
Many times in the course of my preaching, I have told the account of my first trip to college. I was going to a school that I had never visited in a town that I had never seen. My father drove me the five hours to the campus. As we approached the college, our conversation became increasingly difficult. I became more and more quiet. Finally, my father looked directly at me and said, “You are frightened, aren’t you?” I confessed that I certainly was. Immediately my father pulled to the side of the highway and stopped the car. He turned toward me with words that I pray I will never forget. He said, “I do not know if things will go well or poorly for you. I do not know if you will succeed or fail. But I want you always to remember that you are my son, and nothing will ever change that. No matter what happens, I will love you and there is a place for you in my home.” The words did not take away all the challenges of college, or remove all the darkness of some events, but my father’s words were a beacon of light and hope through it all. They were strength to me, as his willingness to submit his heart and home to the assurance of my welfare became Christ’s own witness of care for me.
Much more recently my own son faced intense struggles at college because of the untimely death of a close friend. My son’s loving heart kept him from sleeping at night and being able to focus on his studies. When he came home for the funeral of the friend, the funeral activities and arrangements kept my son’s energies and thoughts occupied for a few days. Then the time came to pack the car and return to school. I sensed his concern beginning to grow again, but other traveling companions were soon to arrive and we were running out of time to talk. Desperate to offer some help, I followed my son into the garage as he packed the last load of books and clothes into the car. “Jordan,” I said, “I do not know how things will go for you back at school—whether you will do well, or whether you will not be able to continue. But whether you finish or flunk, I want you to remember that I am your father, you are my son, and nothing will change that. There will always be a place for you here, no matter what.” As I said the words, they had a familiar sound in my ears and later I recognized that I was echoing the words of my own father to me. I was reflecting my father’s love in my life to my son. Still, my words were more than a reflection. At the same moment that they reflected my father’s love, my words were also an original, real, and authentic expression of my own love and, by his Spirit in me, of my Savior’s love to my son. As I submitted all that was in my heart to try to be light in my son’s darkness—in ways beyond my full understanding—Christ was present to my son through his Spirit in me. God made me Christ to my son.
Such ministry of the Savior is the ultimate aim of our lives that we must never forget. We are not put in relationship with others primarily to tell them something to do, or to teach them something to know, although each of these is vitally important. Ultimately the aim of all our doing and all of our knowing is to bring to God’s people the person, ministry, and glory of our Savior. May he who fills us with his Spirit so that we might know him and make him known fill each heart with his light so that even in this dark world his glory would shine in us and through us for the sake of his people and his glory.[3]
5:18 / Ephesians 5:18–21 is an exhortation directed toward the worshiping community and stands in sharp contrast to the attitudes and actions of those who live in darkness (5:8–12). Instead of prohibiting certain conduct and conversation, the believers are encouraged to express their spiritual joy with song and thanksgiving. In 5:15–17, they are reminded to be wise and learn God’s will; in 5:18–21 they are shown how that is accomplished.
These verses are adapted from Colossians 3:16, but here the main emphasis is upon the Spirit rather than on Christ’s message (the word of Christ). The admonition—do not get drunk on wine—leads one to suspect that the author was thinking about religious cults, such as the worship of Dionysus, in which intoxication manifested itself in wild frenzies and ecstatic behavior that were interpreted in religious terms. Christians have a better way of experiencing spiritual elation—it is by being filled with the Spirit.
It should be noted that this is not a prohibition against the use of wine but against the excessive use of any alcoholic beverage leading to drunkenness (1 Tim. 3:3, 8; Titus 1:7; 2:3; asōtia, “debauchery,” “profligacy,” “waste”). The contrast is not between wine and the Spirit but between the two states that they produce: Intoxication with wine has a degrading effect; intoxication with the Spirit (cf. Acts 2:13) can have an uplifting effect upon the Christian community.
5:19 / This uplifting effect manifests itself in several ways. One is in worship: This verse suggests that early Christian worship had a spontaneity about it and had not become fixed by liturgical order. Psalms (psalmos), hymns (hymnos) and spiritual songs (ōdais pneumatikais) are listed as ways believers can praise the Lord. Though it is impossible to make any real distinctions between these categories (cf. disc. on Col. 3:16), some authors think that psalms are ot musical pieces accompanied by the plucking of strings, as on a harp; hymns are songs of praise to God; and spiritual songs are more spontaneous pieces of inspired music or words of exhortation. The important thing is that such worship is a corporate, not an individual, experience. Believers are to speak to one another as they praise the Lord.[4]
18. A particular and indeed prominent manifestation of the folly of the old life is drunkenness. Right down the ages, as literature from the earliest period onwards bears testimony, people have sought to rise above their cares and gain a sense of exhilaration and gaiety through intoxicants. Scripture never demands total abstinence from intoxicants (except for those who had taken special vows). That must be a question left to the individual conscience, but the Bible often speaks against drunkenness. It was a danger in the church of New Testament days, even among those who might be chosen as leaders, as 1 Timothy 3:3, 8 and Titus 1:7 and 2:3 show. The specific objection here to being drunk with wine is that it involves debauchery. The word asōtia involves not only the uncontrolled action of the drunken man (cf. the use of the word in Titus 1:6 and 1 Pet. 4:4), but also the idea of wastefulness. Hence neb ‘dissipation’. The corresponding adverb is used in the familiar phrase ‘riotous living’ in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:13, av). Both the wastefulness and the lack of self-control implied by this word are things which should not be seen in the lives of those who have found in Christ the source and the way of wisdom.
But again the apostle is not merely negative. He does not seek simply to take away joys and pleasures from people’s lives. He would replace them by higher joys and better pleasures. It is no mere coincidence that in Acts 2 also the fullness of wine and the fullness of the Spirit are set side by side. There is the implication there, repeated here, that the Christian knows a better way than by wine of being lifted above the depression and the joyless monotony of life, a better way of removing self-consciousness and quickening thought and word and action than by the use of intoxicants. It is by being filled with the Spirit.
There is a certain strangeness about the construction in the Greek here that led the rv to give the alternative translation in the margin, ‘be filled in spirit’. Usually the Greek New Testament has the genitive case after the verb or adjective used to describe the filling of the Holy Spirit. (This is the case in Acts 2:4; 4:31; 9:17; 11:24 and 13:52.) The preposition ‘in’ (Gk. en) is unusual, though not impossible, as Acts 1:5 shows when it speaks of being baptized ‘in the Holy Ghost’ (rv mg.). Romans 8:9 speaks of being ‘in the Spirit’ to describe the Christian’s experience, as against the non-Christian’s life which is still ‘in the flesh’. Ephesians, moreover, gives a special significance to this phrase ‘in the Spirit’ (see also 2:18, 22; 3:5; 6:18, in the Gk.) as well as to ‘in Christ’. It is as if the two thoughts of being filled with the Spirit, and living a life ‘in the Spirit’ (see on 2:18), are being expressed at the same time; and this may be assisted by the fact that the little preposition en in the New Testament can often have a meaning equivalent to with, and also by en being used with the relative in the preceding clause. To take the expression as meaning merely to be filled in spirit would be to deprive it of the force of meaning that it clearly has in the context, and indeed how can the Christian be filled in spirit but by the Holy Spirit of God? Finally the tense of the verb, present imperative in the Greek, should be noted, implying as it does that the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit so that every part of life is permeated and controlled by him is not a ‘once for all’ experience. In the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles it is repeated a number of times that the same apostles were ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (e.g. Acts 2:4; 4:31). The practical implication is that Christians are to keep their lives open to be filled constantly and repeatedly by the divine Spirit. So neb ‘let the Holy Spirit fill you’.
19. Instead of the expression of drunkenness in asōtia, there should be an exhilaration of the Spirit expressed in song and praise. In the light of the sequence of this verse it has been suggested that the drunkenness referred to was a feature even of Christian assemblies (1 Cor. 11:20–21 is compared). But neither the drunkenness nor the use of song need be given such a limitation. When the verse speaks of Christians addressing one another in such a way the thought is that the fullness of the Spirit will find manifestation in fellowship whenever Christians are found together, and will be given joyful expression in song and praise. The psalmos was originally that which was sung to the harp, and here perhaps includes not only the psalms of the Old Testament, but those (like Luke 1:46–55, 68–79 and 2:29–32) which were songs of the new, but in the spirit and manner of the old psalms. The hymnos in classical Greek was a festive lyric in praise of a god or hero. We have already seen in this letter possible evidence of early Christian hymns (4:4–6 and 5:14), and we may have other such fragments in 1 Timothy 1:17; 2:5–6; 6:15–16; 2 Timothy 2:11–13; and Revelation 4:11; 5:13 and 7:12. It is doubtful whether we should press a distinction between the hymns and spiritual songs. Every expression of Christian joy is welcomed, and all should come from the heart—in fact the melody may sometimes be in the heart and not expressed in sound—and go forth addressed to the Lord. A number of New Testament passages like this (e.g. Acts 16:25; 1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16; Jas 5:13) indicate the place of song in the early church; in the second century Pliny and Tertullian give the same testimony. Singing has always had a great place in the church’s life and worship, and every new movement of the Spirit has brought a fresh outburst of song.[5]
18. So what should control believers and drive our lives? Not what we drink; that can take control of us and cause us to have poor judgment. Rather, it is the Spirit of God: And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit. A person should draw on what the Spirit provides. That person will be wise and do the right thing, following the will of God.
Paul negatively warns about vice and positively speaks of virtue, the third time this structure appears in this section. The negative exhortation involves not getting drunk with drink. Sometimes there is discussion about how much alcohol ancient wine possessed compared with wine today. The argument is that wine was more diluted then, but a key thing this exhortation shows is that ancient wine still could get people drunk and take control of them so that they did destructive things. To fall under the control of wine is described as debauchery (Prov. 20:1; 23:31–34; Sir. 31:29). The term used, asōtia, refers to something that leads to recklessness or wild living that brings nothing of value (Titus 1:6; 1 Pet. 4:4). A picture of the term’s force is found in 2 Maccabees 6:4, which describes a wild party. The prodigal son was said to have been guilty of this kind of life (Luke 15:13). These kinds of scenes were common in the ancient world.
Instead of being controlled by a drink, believers should be directed by God’s Spirit. The passive be filled implies that God does the filling. They are permitting this filling to take place by pursuing God’s will and drawing on God’s enablement. Just as one consciously takes a drink, so they are to take in the Spirit, letting him work from the inside out. The idea of filling in this context describes an effective, controlling presence. Again, the present imperative speaks of a habit of life (Rom. 13:12–13). This exhortation probably refers back to being filled with God’s power in Ephesians 1:23 and the call to be filled with God’s power in 3:19. Another way to say the same thing appears in Colossians 3:16 where the ‘word of Christ’ is said to ‘dwell’ in us ‘richly’. In Colossians 3, it is the content that is stressed (the word of Christ), while here it is the agent who makes that word effective (the Spirit himself). The sharing of roles between Christ and the Spirit in this kind of language reflects the intermix of activity within the Godhead, where roles are shared, not so much differentiated. For Paul, the Spirit of God is a key enabler of the spiritual life (Rom. 5:5; 8:4, 9–11; 1 Cor. 2:12; 3:16–17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 5:5; 6:16 [God living in them]; Gal. 3:14; 4:6; 5:13–18, 22–25; Eph. 2:22; 2 Tim. 1:7). Filling goes beyond indwelling by the Spirit. Indwelling refers to the Spirit taking residence within a believer, while filling is the direction or control the indwelling Spirit possesses as the believer draws on his presence. The expression by the Spirit is governed by the preposition en and refers to the means by or sphere in which this activity takes place, but the contrast with wine shows that this is not an abstract comparison. It is a contrast with the Spirit active in the environment in which the believer resides. We are to draw on the enablement God has placed within us. The presence and power of the Spirit of God is what the promise of the new covenant was all about, as it leads into doing God’s will from the heart (Jer. 31:31–35). As the next verses show, the opportunity to draw on such power is often tied to the worship of the community and the way that draws us near to God in reflection and teaching. In contrast to the drunken feasts of the culture, believers are to draw on the Spirit in the context of their gathering together for encouragement and the pursuit of unity Paul stressed in 4:1–6.
19. There is an environment conducive to drawing on the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord. These participles that follow the exhortation to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ probably communicate what is called ‘attendant circumstances’, in this case the kinds of situations that can spur a spiritual response. In other words, it is these kinds of situations that can encourage the heart to draw near to God. They are not the means by which one is filled with the Spirit, as that is too mechanical a way to read the exhortation; rather, the passage is more likely about the kind of environment where access to the Spirit is encouraged. Means is the next most likely possibility for what is meant here, but one cannot mechanically be filled with the Spirit. Paul is not giving us a formula that says that if you do these things in this way, spirituality will follow automatically. Spirituality requires an open heart and is not solely dictated by outside circumstances. Against the idea of attendant circumstances it is sometimes contended that aorist verbs and participles are normally used in such a construction, but in these exhortations the present tense has dominated throughout, so an exception, using the present, is quite possible here. The difference between the two options is very slight, being the nature of the connection—whether direct (means) or indirect (attendant circumstance). Participles of result are also possible, whereby the meaning would be that the filling of the Spirit would result in what the participles describe. However, that category for a participle is rare, making that sense unlikely. More than that, the result Paul is after in urging filling is not merely about worship but about behaviour in the world. So the praise and worship of God, a spirit of gratitude, and relational humility and well-being contribute to a setting in which we can draw near to God and, by doing so, live differently.
The list psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs parallels Colossians 3:16. Music and praise in song were a part of the earliest worship in the new community. Pliny the Younger spoke of the church singing a ‘hymn to Christ as to God’ when writing to the emperor Trajan in the very early second century from Bithynia, in what is now northern Turkey (Epistle 96). Singing also appears in heaven in Revelation 4–5, as it did in the Jewish temple. It suggests that singing is appropriate in sacred space. This musical address to God acknowledges his goodness and opens the heart to appreciate all that God has done. It is part of a context that causes one to turn to and respond to him. Its corporate nature means we share in this approach to God, as the spiritual life was never meant to be a strictly private affair. There is probably little difference between the three terms psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, given the author’s tendency to pile up related words in places (e.g. 1:21). Josephus used songs and hymns together to describe David’s compositions (Ant. 7.305; also 12.323 of Jewish worship in the Maccabean period). These involved poetic and lyrical praise. So the listing likely includes a reference to the psalms of the Psalter and also hymns or songs sung with or without some form of musical accompaniment. Instruments much like a harp were used in the period. This music is characterized as spiritual because of its content and goal: to bring one’s spirit closer to God. We see examples here and there in Paul of what the wording might have been like (5:14; Phil. 2:5–11; Col. 1:15–20).
The result is congregational singing, making music in [their] hearts to the Lord. Worship is an offer of the self to God of the group’s awareness of his presence, goodness and power. It comes from deep within. In contrast to the drunkenness noted earlier, it is done in full consciousness. It is done together as the community affirms its connection to God.[6]
Ver. 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.—
The sin and folly of drunkenness:—This precept follows very naturally what he has said about the necessity of wisdom. For even a wise man when he is drunk becomes a fool; the light of reason and of conscience is quenched, and the blind impulses of his physical nature are left without control. Some men take drink in excess to deaden their sensibility to trouble, to lessen the pain of distressing memories or distressing fears. With them it acts as a opiate. But Paul was thinking of those who drink to excess because intoxication, at least in its early stages, gives them excitement. It exalts the activity both of their intellect and of their emotion. Thought becomes more vivid and more rapid. The colours of imagination become more brilliant. Their whole physical nature becomes more animated. The river of life, which had sunk low and had been moving sluggishly, suddenly rises, becomes a rushing flood, and overflows its banks. This is the kind of drinking which betrays men into violence and profligacy. “Be not drunken with wine,” for in drunkenness there is “riot,” dissoluteness, release from all moral restraint. The craving for a fuller, richer life, for hours in which we rise above ourselves, and pass the normal and customary limitations of our powers, is a natural craving. Paul indicates how it should be satisfied: “Be not drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.” Forsake the sins which render it impossible for the pure and righteous Spirit of God to grant you the fulness of His inspiration; keep the channels open through which the streams that flow from Divine and eternal fountains may find their way into your nature; and then the dull monotony of life will be broken, and hours of generous excitement will come. The gray clouds will break, and the splendours of heaven will be revealed; the common earth will be filled for a little time with a great glory. Harmonies such as never fell on mortal ear will reach the soul. The limitations which are imposed upon us in this mortal condition will for a time seem to disappear. Your vision of eternal things will have a preternatural keenness. Your joy in God will be an anticipation of the blessed life beyond the grave. And, looking back upon these perfect hours, you will say, whether we were in the body or out of the body we cannot tell. But some men drink, not so much for the sake of personal excitement, as for the sake of good fellowship. They never drink much when they are alone; and when they are in company they drink to excess because, as the heat of intoxication increases, it seems to thaw and dissolve all reserve; conversation flows more freely and becomes more frank; mind touches mind more closely; lives which had been isolated from each other blend and flow in a common channel. Perpetual isolation is as intolerable as perpetual monotony. We were not made to live a separate and lonely life. This is the secret of our delight in listening to a great orator addressing a great assembly. If it were possible for him to touch the same heights of eloquence when speaking to us alone, we should be less moved. We like to lose our individuality in the crowd; sharing their thought, our own thought becomes more vivid; sharing their passions, our own passion becomes more intense. It is hard to explain the mystery; but we are conscious of it; the poor and narrow stream of our own life flows into the open sea, and the large horizon, and the free winds, and the mighty tides become ours. We have all known the same delight while listening in a crowd to a great singer or a great chorus. The craving for this larger life in the society of other men is as natural as the craving for excitement; and Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that instead of trying to satisfy it by drinking with other men they should satisfy it by common worship and by sacred song. (R. W. Dale, LL.D.)
Drunkenness:—Drunkenness, though in general disallowed among the heathens, was admitted in their Bacchanalia, as an expression of gratitude to the god who gave them wine. This pagan rite the apostle seems to have in his mind here.
I. The nature and extent of this vice. Various degrees of intemperance: the highest degree is such an indulgence as suspends the exercise of the mental and bodily powers. But there is sin in lesser degrees also. If by the indulgence of your appetite, you unfit your body for the service of the mind, or your mind for the service of God; so waste your substance, as to defraud your family of a maintenance, or your creditors of their dues; become enslaved to a sensual habit, and fascinated to dissolute company; are diverted from the duties of religion, or the business of your worldly calling; awaken criminal desires and excite guilty passions; stupify your conscience, extinguish the sentiments of honour and banish the thoughts of futurity; you are chargeable with a criminal excess.
II. The guilt and danger of this vice. 1. It is an ungrateful abuse of God’s bounty. 2. It divests the man of his native dignity, and sinks him below the brutes. 3. It is injurious to the body, as well as the mind. 4. It consumes men’s substance. 5. It destroys conscience. 6. It generates other vices—impure lustings, angry passions, profane language, insolent manners, obstinacy of heart, and contempt of reproof. 7. It has most lamentable effects on families. (1) It subverts order and government. (2) It discourages devotion. (3) It destroys domestic peace and tranquillity. (4) It brings family distress. 8. The Scripture abounds in the most solemn warnings against this sin. 9. This sin must be renounced, or the end of it will be death. (J. Lathrop, D.D.)
To be filled with the Spirit, the best defence against a besetting sin:—
I. The solemn caution. Those here addressed were the saints of God. Yet they needed this exhortation. The best of saints need to be cautioned against the worst of sins. There are the seeds of all evil in them. No previous consistency of walk, no deep experience, no holy acquaintance with God, no near walking with God, can give them the least security. But besides this, there are constitutional temptations. Some persons are constitutionally tempted to anger, some are tempted to vanity, some are tempted to worldliness in its excess of folly, some are tempted to untruthfulness, and oh! there are some who are tempted to drunkenness constitutionally. But besides this also, there are circumstances that oftentimes throw a man in danger here. Noah was, for aught I know, weary and tired as a husbandman; and by his inexperience, too, of the effects, he was overcome with drunkenness. We find in the case of Lot, in his secret retirement, there was in his circumstances that which exposed him to danger.
II. Observe now, secondly, the exhortation, the encouraging exhortation: “be filled with the Spirit.” I conceive there is in the expression that which would imply the power of the Spirit to fill the soul of man. Or rather the expression is—“Seek to be filled in your understandings, in your memories, in your consciences, in your will, in your affections, seek to be ‘filled with the Spirit.’ ” Now let me point out some few of the blessings that result from this communication of the “fulness of the Spirit,” in all His holy influences, to our souls. First of all, let us look at Him as the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. So I read in the first of Ephesians, and the seventeenth verse. Look at the Apostle Peter before the day of Pentecost. How dark his perception of the Atonement, how little did he see of what Jesus came into the world for! I talk with some men, many of whom, I doubt not, are truly converted to God; yet Christ is in the background, I see so little of Him. They talk of God; there is something about their creed that is so Jewish; they speak so much more of God, than of God in Christ. There is so little of the great work of the incarnate One, so little of realizing the strength of the covenant “ordered in all things and sure.” Oh! beloved, to be filled with the Spirit of wisdom is the highest wisdom. But let us look at the subject in another point of view. I find in the eleventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and the twenty-fourth verse, it is said of Barnabas, “he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith.” So, when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we are filled with faith. Ah! who can describe the blessing of being filled with faith? To see everything in the light of God’s countenance; to see everything in the light of a Saviour’s fulness. (J. H. Evans, M.A.)
The wine Divine:—In saying: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit,” St. Paul recognizes a pressing human appetite, or want. He not only perceives the necessity for wholesome gladness of heart in his disciples, but admits the encouragement of special moods or seasons of cheerfulness. It is impossible for anyone to stand always at the same spiritual level. There are mysterious risings and fallings of the mental barometer. The soul has its periods of high and low pressure. We are the subjects of many influences which we cannot command. And yet there are some at our disposal. The apostle indicates an “elevation” of which we are the conscious agents, when we set ourselves to counteract depression or to kindle a fresher thrill of cheerfulness. That is a legitimate desire. It is recognized by the Church itself in the appointment of thanksgiving days and special services—when we are summoned to show our gladness in a livelier strain. There are seemingly two distinct means for inducing cheerfulness. One is material, or bodily: the other mental, or spiritual; and the lesson before us is that one is temporary, imperfect; the other finally effective, being eternal. St. Paul instances wine as an example of the former. It is either a transitory stimulant, legitimate in its temperate use, or it overshoots the mark, leading to excess, or riot. There are several kinds of “material” relief which excite, deaden, regulate our bodily functions. And this affords the most obvious illustration of what the apostle here means to teach. It cannot, e.g., really drown dull care. Care dies hard. A material stimulant may do much, may help nature over a crisis. But man has troubles of mind as well as of body. And these constantly present difficulties, complications, which baffle the prescriber of drugs. Who shall minister to a soul diseased? Beneath the surface of beneficent science are sores and sorrows which have been caused by no grave offence against, or neglect of, the laws of health. They have come from a perception that the conscience has been defied, or perhaps they have grown from some seeds of distracting doubt, from some seemingly insoluble difficulties, social, intellectual, which makes him who feels them go mourning all the day long. Who shall tell the trouble and the hindrances over which we want to be helped, or above which we want to be lifted by some kindly and exhilarating influence? It is in meeting this desire that we must come to realize the two great sources of cheerfulness. The Spirit of God alone can fit the needs of the spirit of man. There is something special in this strengthening, healing, and cheering gift. It is the juice of the true vine, the new wine of the kingdom of heaven. Here we reach the great transforming power in the world. The knowledge of this is the support and recovery of man’s life. He does not refuse, nor affect to despise, the material adjuncts of this existence. He does not put aside the flour of wheat because Christ is the true Bread. He sees no wrong in a right use of every creature of God. But his innermost and safe joy, his secure and trusted moods of exultation, come from the Spirit, the mysterious Spirit of God, which is our Father’s special gift to us His children upon earth. In that is the true buoyancy of life. (Harry Jones, M.A.)
Not wine, but the Spirit:—
I. The prohibition. I know it requires much courage, and much firmness of purpose in many cases to refuse the inducements, and to give a denial to the temptation to indulge in excess in drink. For instance, we are told it is fashionable to drink; if you don’t drink freely you are not a man of the world; you are a strange, unsocial misanthrope; you are not fit for blending with society. I am not going to say that fashion has no place; I know fashion has a place; but fashion has no right to meddle with morals. Besides, I say, after all, it is not fashionable to be drunk: I say, after all, that although instances of intoxication are lamentably numerous, the instances of sobriety, thank God, are a vast deal more so. Then, again, it is said that to drink freely is almost a necessary passport to a knowledge of the world. How people abuse language!
II. The injunction. 1. In order to our being “filled with the Spirit,” we must be aware of the magnitude of this blessing. (1) The Spirit is the great promise of the New Testament dispensation. (2) The gift of the Spirit more than compensates for the absence of the bodily presence of Christ. 2. This supposes, also, that we have a relish for the blessing. 3. In order to being “filled with the Spirit,” you must make room for Him. 4. In order to be “filled with the Spirit,” you must be the subject of the same ardent desire which is expressed in many parts of Scripture. 5. In order to be “filled with the Spirit,” we must yield ourselves to His influence—we must give ourselves up to the guiding of His agency. (J. E. Beaumont, D.D.)
A warning against intemperance:—I. The matters put in opposition to each other, which are both things and actions. The things are “wine” and the “Spirit”: the actions, being “drunk with wine,” and “filled with the Spirit.” First: The things: these two are put in opposition—1. To check the temptation. The sensual pleasure which men find in wine enticeth them to excess. There are higher pleasures men should be taken up with, namely, the joy of faith and a delight in holiness. 2. To show the difference between the holy societies or meetings of the faithful, and the dissolute feasts of the heathens in honour of their idols. 3. Because of the analogy between wine and the Spirit; they are often proposed in Scripture as correspondent, or as having some likeness in their operations; as wine cheereth and exhilarateth the spirits: “It maketh glad the heart of man” (Psa. 104:15); so the Spirit filleth the soul, and exhilarateth it. Only in this fulness there is no excess: “Drink abundantly, O beloved” (cant. 5:1). And in this mirth there is no dissoluteness; when we are filled with the Spirit, it is no corruptive joy, but perfective, such as strengtheneth the heart: “The joy of the Lord is your strength “(Neh 8:10). But what is it to be filled with the Spirit? The phrase is taken two ways—(1) Either to be filled with the gifts of the Spirit; or (2) with the graces of the Spirit. (1) The gifts of the Spirit: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). (2) To be filled with the graces of the Spirit. And here we must consider His three offices—as He is our guide, sanctifier, and comforter. II. The inconsistency of the one with the other; to be drunk with wine is inconsistent with being filled with the Spirit. 1. They that are filled by the one are acted by a contrary principle. 2. This contrary principle hath such an influence on them, that the Spirit of the gospel hath no place in them. (1) Their sight is blinded (2 Cor. 4:4). (2) The delight and relish of the soul is corrupted (Phil. 3:19). (3) Their strength is weakened, that they cannot resist any temptation. (T. Manton, D.D.)
The sin of intemperance:—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 hopeless and helpless ruin. This tremendous sin is all the more to be shunned as its hold is so great on its victims, that with periodical remorse there is periodical inebriety, and when the revulsion of a throbbing head and a sickening depression passes away; new temptation excites fresh desires, and the fatal cup is again coveted and drained, while character, fortune, and life are risked and lost in the gratification of an appetite of all others the most brutal in form and brutifying in result. There are few vices out of which there is less hope of recovery—its haunts are so numerous, and its hold is so tremendous. As Ephesus was a commercial town and busy seaport, its wealth led to excessive luxury, and Bacchus was the rival of Diana. The women of Ephesus as the priestesses of Bacchus danced round Mark Antony’s chariot on his entrance into the city. Drunkenness was indeed an epidemic in those times and lands. Alexander the Great, who died a sacrifice to Bacchus, and not to Mars, offered a prize to him who could drink most wine, and thirty of the rivals died in the act of competition. Plato boasts of the immense quantities of liquor which Socrates could swill uninjured; and the philosopher Xenocrates got a golden crown from Dionysius for swallowing a gallon at a draught. Cato often lost his senses over his choice Falernian. (J. Eadie, D.D.)
Drunkenness to be avoided:—
I. I am to enter upon the apostle’s dehortation, or prohibition—“Be not drunk with wine.” For the right understanding of which I premise this, that wine is one of the good creatures of God which He hath given for the use of men. And He hath given it for these three considerable purposes. 1. To the inhabitants of those places where it grows, for part of their ordinary drink. For God hath so constituted the nature of man’s body that he stands in need of drink as well as of meat. 2. Wine was given to cherish and refresh us when we are weak and languishing. 3. As wine is given to cure the infirm and fainting, so likewise to cheer and delight the sound and healthy. It is lawful to drink it not only for necessity, but sometimes for pleasure. Wine, without doubt, was given us by our gracious Benefactor to delight the taste, and refresh the palate, especially when sorrow and trouble clog the mind, and begin to oppress and weigh it down. As drinking, so sobriety may be abused. Men may effect those mischiefs by their abstaining from immoderate drinking, which they could never be able to do if they drank extravagantly. Generally the shrewdest contrivers and executors of mischief are those who are not addicted to intemperance: and their very sobriety renders them the more able to do harm. And yet I cannot say that this sort of men are wholly free from drunkenness; for it is possible they may be drunk even with their sobriety, i.e., with the conceit of it; they may be intoxicated with pride and arrogance, or with spite and malice, or with a heady confidence of success in their evil enterprizes. They may, as the prophet speaks, “stagger, but not with strong drink, and be drunken, but not with wine.” That which makes this sin is, first, the not restraining of our extravagant desire and appetite, which I mentioned before, and, secondly, the actual gratifying and satisfying of our desires. Which brings me to the next thing observable, viz., the reason of the apostolical dehortation, expressed in those words, “wherein is excess”: as much as to say, Be not drunk with wine, because there is a strange excess attends it. This is the genuine meaning of this clause of the text. Now, in drunkenness there is excess not only formally, but causally (to speak in the language of the schools). It is both excess in itself, and the cause and origin of many other excesses. 1. The first evil of drunkenness is that injury which is done to the body by it. 2. This is a vice which injures not only the bodies but the estates of men. A drunkard is a spendthrift: the extravagant drinker is profuse and lavish. 3. A sottish course of drinking injures the name and reputation, no less than the bodies and estates of men. 4. The intemperance of the tongue usually attends that of the brain. Drunkenness first sets the tongue a going, and then soon makes it run too fast. 5. Wrath and fury, slaughter and bloodshed, are the cursed fruits of drunkenness. “Strong drink is raging,” saith Solomon (Prov. 20:21). 6. Lust and lewdness, whoredom and fornication, are the frequent attendants of extraordinary drinking. 7. Among the direful effects and consequences of extravagant drinking this must not be omitted, that the soul and all its faculties are corrupted and debauched by it. False notions are drunk in with the wine: undue and unbecoming apprehensions are entertained. Let us hear what men say for drink. 1. It is good nature and friendship, they say, to sit and drink, even till they can drink no more. 2. They say that it is for company and good fellowship’s sake that they drink sometimes to immoderation. 3. Others defend their immoderate draughts after this manner; We are persons well bred, we cannot be so rude and unmannerly as to refuse our glass when it comes to our turn. 4. Some excuse their drunkenness by saying, “It is to put away melancholy.” 5. There are those who defend their immoderate drinking, especially of wine, by the serviceableness of it, to exalt their parts, and to make them witty. 6. There is another excuse made by some men, which, though it be not worth the answering, yet that I may remove all the pretences of drinking men, I will say something to it. They are no common drunkards, they say, and when they exceed in drink, they do not, like others, spend their money, but are drunk gratis. They cannot afford to indulge so costly a vice, but they only take these opportunities when they may have wine at others’ charges. 7. There is another great objection or pretence of drunkards yet behind, which is this, they happen to be in the company of these persons who engage them to drink healths, and these going often round, and there being an obligation on them to pledge their next neighbour, and to drink cup for cup, they are sometimes unhappily overcome of the liquor which presents itself so fast to them. In the last place, I am to offer to you some proper means and helps whereby you may effectually extirpate this odious vice. They are such as these: 1. Weigh this express command of God in the text, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.” 2. Consider the dreadful woes that are denounced against this sin. Read with trembling (Isa. 5:11). 3. Consider that this vice is condemned even by those that are guilty of it. There is not a drunkard that breathes but at one time or other is cast by his own verdict, he passes sentence against himself. 4. That you may do so, learn to relish the pleasures of religion and holiness. Be acquainted with the excellency of virtue and goodness, understand the intrinsic worth of these. 5. That you may cast off this abominable vice, and stifle your excessive delight in intemperate drinking, and in that mirth which attends it, sit down, and seriously think of the distresses and miseries which your brethren labour under, in one part or other of the world. 6. That you may effectually abandon this vice, be careful to avoid all the occasions of it. (John Edwards, D.D.) Christians invited to partake of the Spirit freely:—
I. What we are to understand by being “filled with the spirit.” 1. By “the Spirit, the Spirit of truth, of life, of grace, of might, of wisdom and revelation, of Father and the Son, we are baptized, often termed the Holy Spirit, the eternal Spirit” here, is meant that Divine Agent, in whose name, as well as in those of the holiness, the Comforter, the Spirit of God, of Christ. But observe, not His extraordinary gifts, which in no age are necessary to salvation, and were chiefly bestowed in the early ages, for the good of others, are here meant; but His ordinary influences, which are necessary to salvation (see vers. 19–21; Gal. 5:22, 23). 2. The expression, “filled with,” or by, “the Spirit,” supposes there to be a sufficiency in the blessed Spirit, and His influences, to fill our souls, to supply all our wants, to satisfy our desires, and help our infirmities. We are in darkness, and need illumination, instruction, and direction; He is the Spirit of light, truth, wisdom. We are in want of consolation; He is the comforter. It imports our partaking of His influences and fruits in a large and plentiful manner; not indeed “without measure”; in this tense Christ only had the Spirit: nor so as to admit of no increase; thus we shall hardly have the Spirit in heaven. But so as to have every power and faculty of the soul subject to the authority, and under the influence of the Spirit; to have His influences rendered more mighty and operative in us, producing their proper and genuine effects; as greater light, life, power, purity, comfort, strong faith, a fully assured and confirmed hope, fervent love, an uniform meekness and patience, a full conformity to God, and close and constant communion with Him; filling us with all his fulness (Col. 1:9–11; Eph. 3:14–21; John 7:37); making us taste great sweetness and delight in Him, so as to aspire after full perfection (Phil. 3:13, 14).
II. Why this is made a matter of exhortation to us. Because of—1. The desirableness of being filled with the Spirit. 2. The attainableness of it. 3. Something being incumbent on us, in order to it. We must make use of the appointed means.
III. The obligations which lie upon us, as Christians, to aim at being filled with the spirit. The clear revelation we have concerning His agency, beyond all which was given in former ages of the Church, lays us under strong obligations to desire to be filled with His influences. The dignity of His person should make us ambitious of such a guest, when He is willing to dwell with us. He is no less than the Spirit of God, as our soul is the spirit of man (1 Cor. 2:11). His relation to Christ obliges us (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6). Our relation to Christ will be most clearly proved and manifested by His Spirit dwelling with us (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13). Thus we shall be vessels of honour, sanctified and made meet for the Master’s use. (Anon.)
Filled with the Spirit:—The command, “be filled with the Spirit,” is virtually an injunction to pray more fervently for enlarged spiritual communication, and to cherish those influences already enjoyed. Not only were they to possess the Spirit, but they were to be filled with the Spirit, as vessels filled to overflowing, with the Holy Ghost. This is the contrast. Men are intoxicated with wine, and they attempt to “fill” themselves with it: but they cannot. Wine cannot fulfil their expectation—they cannot live habitually under its power; its fumes are slept away, and new indulgences are craved. The exhilaration which they covet can only be felt periodically, and again and again must they drain the wine cup to relieve themselves of despondency. But Christians are “filled” with the Spirit, whose influences are not only powerful, but replete with satisfaction to the heart of man. It is a sensation of want—a desire to fly from himself, a craving after something which is felt to be out of reach, an eager and restless thirst to enjoy, if at all possible, some happiness and enlargement of heart, that usually leads to intemperance. But the Spirit fills Christians, and gives them all the elements of cheerfulness and peace—genuine elevation and mental freedom—superiority to all depressing influences, and refined and permanent enjoyment. Of course, if they are so filled with the Spirit, they feel no appetite for debasing and material stimulants. (J. Eadie, D.D.)
Grace expels vice:—If there is any single vice which a man desires to eject from his character, or from another’s, he can accomplish the end finally and completely, and only, by letting in the corresponding grace. Sin, in every form of its indulgence, is to be looked upon as an intoxication. Let him therefore introduce into the blood-vessels of his soul a counter-stimulant. Let him intoxicate himself with love, and joy, and peace, the fruit, as it were, of the True Vine, and there will be no possibility of intrusion from lower sources, because no room will remain for them. And it follows from the same principle that a Christian must apply more and more to spiritual sources as life goes on. The spiritual capacities enlarge with time. And the same amount of devotion will not fill them now as filled them a year ago. He must pray more, seek after godliness more, covet the best gifts more. The tendency of the experienced Christian often is to relax devotional habits and live on a grace that is past. He has reached a high level and his religion has become, as it seems to him, self-acting. But stagnation is all the more perilous because it is high. There is no smaller measure for the grace that is to be in him than this—he is to be filled with the Spirit. He defrauds himself of what he might possess and imperils all he has by seeking to live on less. The surplus must be made up from earth. And every minutest crevice left unfilled by good must, by the law against vacuum, be filled by something worse, something which must adulterate and may ruin at last the whole. (H. Drummond.)
Not spirits, but “the Spirit”:—The human mind cannot be void. If it have not the light of true wisdom, it will have the light of fallacies. Fleshly baits are not the temptations by which superior men are caught. Their understandings must be flattered. They must be decoyed by facts, and the science of things patent to their senses. You shall be leaders in the world of thought, “you shall be as gods,” you shall open men’s eyes to the reality of things. Beware of the strong drink of sense-bound intellectuality. Neither be drunk with the soul-bewitching magnetic ether of spiritualism. “The Spirit” will fortify both your understanding and your heart against all spirits, whether of the visible or the invisible world. “The Spirit” is our only safe inspiration. There is, moreover, not only a calmer power, but a greater variety in the one Spirit of God, than in all the spirits which lead captive the human soul. God is not sparing in the ministration of wholesome excitement. Every new morning is a genial, delightful excitement. The seasons are an ever-changing round of excitement. Lore and marriage are joy from heaven, in earthly cups. Family-life is God’s wine of fellowship all the year round. Every meal is a pleasurable excitement. Birth-days and feasts are special indulgences and celebrations of the excitement of home-life. The verdant glory of the earth, the tranquil heavens, and the works of our divine poets and musicians, are excitements worthy of heaven. The gospel of our eternal hopes is the feast which crowns all; and the congregation in church, made up equally of friends and strangers, is a wonder of fellowship and a most pure joy of love. What a depth of sweetness, what serene gladness, what a variety of inspiration there must be in that One Spirit, whence all our innocent and noble excitements spring. The martyrs found an intensity of spirit quickening on the boundary between life on earth and life in heaven; not only proving that “death is abolished,” but that all the joys of our earthly life are but poor shadows going before our eternal human delights. Drop your burdens, forget your labours and sorrows, and soar above the dull plains of mortality, in a Divine exhilaration. (J. Pulsford.)
Christians must be filled with the Spirit:—I. The reasons why Christians are so strictly bound to be filled with the Spirit. 1. That we may answer the great and rich preparations of grace which the infinite love of God hath made for us by the merit of Christ and the promises of the gospel. 2. Because of their necessity. (1) If it be those that only profess Christianity, but are not yet really converted to God, they are in danger to be filled with a worse spirit, if not filled with the Spirit of God. (2) For those that are regenerated, and have received the spirit of the gospel and not of the world, there needeth a further supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). 3. That the glory and excellency of our religion may appear. II. The means how we come to be filled with the Spirit. Certainly—1. It is from God, who is the author of all grace: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ “(2 Cor. 5:18). 2. That God doth it through Christ the Scripture also witnesseth: “Which He hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Tit. 3:6). 3. That this frame of heart is wrought in us by the Spirit or Holy Ghost that came down from heaven, is evident also in Scripture. 4, It is given us by the gospel, for that is called “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). 5. The gospel worketh two ways—(1) Morally; (2) Powerfully. 6. If any have this power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus, it is the mere favour of God: if any want it, it is long of themselves. 7. One of the means is prayer. Christ hath taught us to pray for the Spirit (Luke 11:1–13). None so fatherly as God; no gift so necessary as the Spirit. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Ver. 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.—
Sacred music:—
I. The design of music in general. Singing is no less natural to mankind than speaking. They are naturally disposed to speak, because they wish to communicate their thoughts, and they are naturally disposed to sing, because they wish to communicate their feelings. Speaking is the natural language of the understanding, and singing is the natural language of the heart. We always use words to express our thoughts, but we do not always use words to express our feelings. These we can clearly and forcibly express by simple sounds. How often do we see this exemplified in the case of little children! Before they are capable of speaking, or even understanding a single word, they can express their joy and sorrow, their love and hatred, and all the variety of their feelings, by merely varying the tones of their voice. This language of the heart grows up with every person, and would be as commonly used as the language of the understanding, were it not restrained by the force of example, or by the sense of propriety. Accordingly we find that music has always been much more in use among those people, who have been left to follow the mere dictates of nature, than among others who have been governed by the customs and manners of civil society.
II. The design of sacred music in particular. General music becomes particular when it is applied to one particular purpose. The first purpose to which mankind naturally apply music is to cheer and exhilarate their spirits. The design of another kind of music is to inspire men with a spirit of courage, fortitude, and patriotism. This is the music of the army. But the great design of sacred music is to awaken and express every holy affection of the heart towards God.
III. Let us next inquire, what is necessary to render sacred music the most useful in religious worship. 1. That sacred music should be constructed with great simplicity. 2. It is highly proper that sacred music should be connected with poetry, in order to promote private and public devotion. Melodious sounds have only a mechanical operation on the mind; but when they are united with appropriate language, they produce a moral effect. The apostle directs Christians not only to sing, but to sing in psalms, or hymns, or spiritual songs. This is always proper in devotional music, which has immediate reference to God, who is the only proper object of religious worship. How absurd would it be, for instance, to celebrate the birth-day of Washington by mere music, without any ode or hymn adapted to the occasion! And how much more absurd would it be to celebrate the character, the works, and the ways of God, by mere music, without using any psalm or spiritual song, to bring those great and glorious objects into view! There can be no religious affection without the perception of some religious object. Some part of the Divine character or the Divine conduct must be seen, in order to exercise any right affection towards God. And since it is the sole design of sacred music to excite or express devout and holy affections towards the Divine Being, it should always be connected with some significant and appropriate language, either in prose or poetry. 3. Sacred music should not only be connected with words, but adapted to their sense, rather than to their sound. When music is adapted to the mere sound of words, it can serve no other purpose than to please the ear; but when it is adapted to the proper meaning of a psalm or hymn, it not only pleases the ear, but affects the heart. It is here that both composers and performers of sacred music are most apt to fail. How often do composers appear to pay more regard to the sound than to the sense of the words which they set to music! 4. Sacred music can never produce its best effect unless it be performed with true sincerity. There ought to be a perfect concord between the music, the words, and the heart. (N. Emmons, D.D.)
How we may make melody in our hearts to God in singing of psalms:—1. The singers. Christians. 2. The song itself. Three divisions. (1) Psalms.—They are the composures of holy David. (2) Hymns.—They are the songs of some other excellent men recorded in Scripture, as Moses, Heman, Asaph, &c. (3) Spiritual songs.—They are odes of some other holy and good men not mentioned in Scripture, as the song of Ambrose, Nepos, and others. 3. Some aver that these several speeches mentioned in the text, answer the Hebrew distinction of psalms. But I may add, Are not all these several species mentioned to prefigure the plenty and the joy which is reserved for the saints within the veil, when they shall join in concert with the glorious angels in singing their perpetual hallelujahs to their glorious Creator? 3. The manner of singing. Our text saith, “making melody”; with inward joy and tripudiation of soul; if the tongue make the pause, the heart must make the elevation. 4. The master of the choir, the preceptor. That is, the “heart.” 5. The end of the duty—“To the Lord.” Our singing must not serve our gain, or our luxury, or our fancy; but our Lord. The several parts of the text being thus opened, they may be set together again in this Divine and excellent truth: In the ordinance of singing, we must not make noise, but music; and the heart must make melody to the Lord. In this service we must study more to act the Christian than the musician. We must sing David’s psalms with David’s spirit. I. We will show the Divine authority of this ordinance. II. We will show the sweetness of it. III. The universal practice of it. IV. We shall show the honours God hath put upon this ordinance. V. And then come to the main case. VI. And make application. I. For the first: We shall show the Divine authority of this ordinance. 1. From Scripture precept And here we have divers commands laid upon us, both in the Old and New Testament. David, who among his honourable titles obtains this, to be called “the sweet singer of Israel” (2 Sam. 23:1)—he frequently calls upon himself: “I will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high” (Psa. 7:17). And sometimes he calls upon others: “Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works” (1 Chronicles 16:9). Nay, sometimes He summons the whole earth to join in this duty: “Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; show forth from day to day His salvation “(1 Chronicles 16:23; Psa. 68:32). And holy Hezekiah—he propagated this service (2 Chronicles 29:30). Nay, in their times when the royal majesty was lodged in Judah, singers were a peculiar office enjoined constantly to sing the praises of the Lord (1 Kings 10:12). And Jehoshaphat “appointed singers “(2 Chronicles 20:21). Nay, and Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and Ethan, men eminent and holy, were employed in this holy service (2 Chronicles 5:12). But why should I light a candle at noon-day? Thus this harmonious service was most usual and most acceptable in the times of the law. 2. From Scripture-argument. And I shall only take out one shaft out of the whole quiver. I shall use one argument among many, which is this, namely, we always find this duty of singing psalms linked to and joined with other moral duties (Psa. 95:1, 6; James 5:13). 3. From Scripture-pattern. Moses both pens a psalm, namely, the ninetieth; and sings a holy song, and Exod. 15 is the record of it. So David tripudiates in the practice of this delightful service (Psa. 104:33). 4. From Scripture-prophecy. Divers prophecies in the Old Testament concerning this ordinance in the New. So in Psa. 108:3; upon which Mollerus observes, that in that text David pours forth ardent prayers and wishes for the kingdom of Christ. And so divines observe that the first and second verses of Psa. 100 are prophetical: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.” To which may be added that pregnant prophecy recorded in Isa. 52:8.
II. We may take notice of the sweetness of this duty. Singing is the soul’s jubilee, our spiritual recreation, the shout of the heart, our tuning of our hallelujahs, the sweetest solace of a sanctified soul. 1. Singing is the music of nature (Isa. 44:23; Psa. 65:13). 2. Singing is the music of ordinances. Augustine reports of himself, that when he came to Milan and heard the people sing, he wept for joy. 3. Singing is the music of saints. (1) They have performed this duty in their greatest numbers (Psa. 149:2). (2) In their greatest straits (Isa. 26:19). (3) In their greatest flight (Isa. 42:10, 11). (4) In their greatest deliverances (Isa. 65:14. (5) In their greatest plenties. 4. Singing is the music of angels (Job 38:7; Luke 2:13). 5. Singing is the music of heaven (Rev. 15:8).
III. The universal practice of this duty. It has been practised—1. By all varieties of persons. (1) By Christ and His apostles (Matt. 26:30). (2) By godly princes (2 Chron. 29:30). (3) Worthy governors (2 Chron. 5:12). (4) Holy prophets (Psa. 146:2; Deut. 32). (5) The body of the people. As singing is not too low for kings, so not too choice for subjects. The whole multitude sometimes engaged in the harmony: “Then Israel sang this song” (Numb. 21:17). The people’s voice may make melody, as the lesser birds contribute to the music of the grove, their chirping notes filling up the harmony. 2. In all ages. This service of singing to God was soon started in the world. Moses, the first penman of Scripture—he both sung a song and penned a psalm, as we hinted before. In the Judges’ times, Deborah and Barak sang a triumphant song (Judges 5:1, 2, &c.). During the time of the kings of Judah, the Levites sang the praises of God in the sanctuary. A little before the captivity, we find the Church praising God in singing (Isa. 35:2). In the time of the captivity, Israel did not forget the songs of Zion, though they were in Babylon (Psa. 126:2). After their return from captivity, we soon find them return to this joyous service (Neh. 7:1). Their long exile had not banished this duty. Towards the close of their prophet’s prophesying, the Church is again engaged in this part of God’s worship (Zeph. 3:15, 17). 3. In all places. Moses praiseth God by singing in the wilderness, throughout Exod. 15. David practises this duty in the tabernacle (Psa. 47:6); Solomon in the temple (1 Kings 10:12); Jehoshaphat in the camp (2 Chronicles 20:21); Christ and His apostles in a particular chamber (Matt. 26:30); and Paul and Silas in an uncomfortable prison (Acts 16:25). We may say of singing, as the apostle speaks of prayer: “I will,” saith he, “that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands” (1 Tim. 2:8). 4. In all conditions. (1) In a time of cheerfulness and inward joy. The Apostle James commands us then to take the advantage of singing psalms (James 5:13). Joy may excite, must not stifle, this duty. (2) In a time of affliction. Paul and Silas sang in prison, a place of sorrow and confinement (Acts 16:25). A chain might bind their feet, but not their tongue; while others sleep, they sing, and turn their dungeon into a chapel. (3) In a time of fear. When some would press Luther with the dangers the Church was in, and what a black cloud hung over Zion, he would call for Psalm 46 to be sung; and he thought that psalm was a charm against all fears whatsoever. And since, this psalm is called “Luther’s psalm,” his sacred spell against invading fears. 5. By all sexes. Miriam sings a song to God, as well as Moses (Exod. 15:21). Rivet well observes, “God is the Lord of both sexes.” Women, though they are removed by apostolical command from the desk or pulpit, yet they are not debarred the choir, to join in that harmony where God’s praises are elevated.
IV. And now we come to speak of that honour which God hath put upon this heavenly duty. And this will appear in three things; namely—1. God hath honoured this duty with glorious appearances. This we find upon record in 2 Chron. 5:13. 2. With eminent victories (2 Chron. 20:21, 22). 3. With evident miracles (Acts 16:25, 26). V. And now I come to the main case, how we may make melody in our hearts to God in singing of psalms. 1. We must sing with understanding. We must not be guided by the tune, but the words, of the psalm; we must mind the matter more than the music, and consider what we sing, as well as how we sing. 2. We must sing with affection. Love is the fulfilling of this law. It is a notable saying of St. Augustine: “It is not crying, but loving, that sounds in the ears of God.” The pretty child sings a mean song; but it delights the mother, because there is love on both sides. 3. We must sing with real grace. This the apostle admonishes us (Col. 3:16). It is grace, not nature, sweetens the voice to sing. We must draw out our spices, our graces, in this duty. 4. We must slug with excited grace. Not only with grace habitual, but with excited and actual. The musical instrument delights not but when it is played upon. The clock must be plucked up before it can guide our time; the bird pleaseth not in her nest, but in her notes; the chimes only make music while they are going. Let us therefore beg the Spirit to “blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out,” when we set upon this joyous service (Song of Solomon 4:16). God loves active grace in duty; that the soul should be ready trimmed, when it presents itself to God in any worship. 5. We must sing with spiritual joy. Indeed, singing only makes joy articulate; it is only the turning of bullion into coin; as the prophet speaks to this purpose (Isa. 65:14). Singing is only the triumphant gladness of a gracious heart, a softer rapture. 6. We must sing with faith. 7. We must sing in the Spirit. 8. Purify thy heart. 9. Neglect not preparatory prayer. 1. Those who despise this ordinance do not consider the holy ends of this duty; namely—(1) Psalms are sung for instruction. (2) Psalms are sung for admonition. (3) Psalms are sung for praise and thanksgiving. 2. Nor do such consider the rare effects of this duty, namely, of singing to the Lord: and they are—(1) Singing can sweeten a prison. Thus Paul and Silas indulcorated their bondage by this service (Acts 16:25). (2) Singing can prepare us for sufferings. When Christ was ready to be offered up, He sang an hymn with His disciples: Christ sups and sings, then dies. (3) Singing lightens and exhilarates the soul. 3. Nor do such consider the sweet allurements which draw us to this duty. And if we inquire what it is that puts us upon rejoicing in God by singing, I shall tell you—(1) The good Spirit. That heavenly principle both leads us to this duty, and helps us in it. (2) The joyous heart. Holy singing is both the sign and vent of joy. The little child is pained, and then it cries; the saint is surprised with joy, and then it breaks out into singing. (3) A sense of obedience. To sing praises to the Lord is a duty which the saints know not how to wave or respite. I. This checks those who scruple this ordinance. Surely this must proceed from the evil one, turning himself into an angel of light. II. Let this check those who suspend and neglect this heavenly ordinance. III. This likewise checks those who formalize in this duty; who act a part, not a duty. They make a noise, and not music; and more provoke the eyes, than please the ears, of God. Bernard makes two conditions of grateful singing. 1. We must sing purely, minding what we sing; nor must we act or think anything besides; there must be no vain or vagrant thoughts; no dissonancy between the mind and the tongue. 2. “We must sing strenuously, not idly, not sleepily or perfunctorily.” IV. Let us get an interest in Christ. If we are not in Christ, we are certainly out of tune. The singing of a sinner is natural, like the singing of a bird. But the singing of a saint is musical, like the singing of a child. We are accepted in Christ in this offer of love. Therefore let us get into Christ: He can raise our voice in singing to a pleasing elevation. V. Let us sometimes raise our hearts in holy contemplation. Let us think of the music of the bride-chamber. There shall be no cracked strings, displeasing sounds, harsh voices, nothing to abate or remit our melody; there shall be no willows to hang up our harps upon. (J. Wells, M.A.)
Music in the Bible:—This is but one of hundreds of passages in which the inspired writers, both of the Old and the New Testaments, dwell on the sacredness of music. “Joy and gladness shall be found therein,” says David of the redeemed Zion, “thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” Music is in our Lord’s parable the fit sign of joy for the returning prodigal. “Is any merry,” says St. James, “let him sing psalms.” Not only the psalms which we have just been singing, but it is not too much to say that even the whole Bible rings with music. There is an heavenly music in it and an earthly music. For in the very beginning when the earth was made we are told that “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” And in the very beginning of the gospel also, when the gospel was revealed, there was with the herald angel “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill towards men.” And as music is the earliest, so is it the last glimpse we have of heaven, when, before its azure curtain was closed for ever to mortal eyes, we see myriads of angels shouting Hallelujah; and “harpers harping with their harps,” and the redeemed in their countless multitudes as with “the sound of many waters, and as with the voice of great thunder,” “singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.” And so, too, from first to last, there is in the Bible an abundance of earthly music. In the fourth chapter of Genesis, you have the first instruments invented by Jubal—“the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” In the thirty-first chapter of Genesis you have the first choir, when Laban says that he would have sent Jacob away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp. And after that the whole Bible thrills with song. There is Miriam with her timbrels shaken over the rolling waves which have drowned the enemies of God. There are the silver trumpets of the new moons and the solemn feast-days. There is David with his psalms, now sad as the wail over Saul, and Jonathan lost upon the mountains of Gilboa; now rapturous as the pæans which tell of the triumph of the Lord. There are the Levites in their white robes on the temple steps, the one choir singing aloud, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,” and the other replying as with thunderous antiphone—“for His mercy endureth for ever.” The exiles march home from Babylon with rivers of music; the disciples break forth into hymns after Pentecost; our Lord and His apostles sing a hymn before that last walk under the olive-trees to the Garden of Gethsemane; Paul and Silas, their backs bleeding with Roman rods, turn their prison into an odeum, and God gives them songs in the night. Even in the Epistles, as far back as these early days of Christianity, we find more than one fragment of the earliest Christian hymns. And lastly, the Apocalypse, as Milton said, “shuts up the stately acts of its awful tragedy, and fitly concludes the whole volume of Scripture with a seven-fold chorus of Hallelujahs and harping symphonies.” (Archdeacon Farrar.)
Music in nature:—There is, indeed, little of what can be accurately called music in nature, for music is the Divine prerogative of human and angelic beings, and nature furnishes only the rude elements of music, the uncut diamonds, as it were, of sound. We may, indeed, say that the winds of God make music under the blue dome of His temple, “not made with hands”; music, sweet sometimes and soft as the waving of angel wings, or weird as when it sweeps the wild moors and mingles the multitudinous murmurs of the withered heather-bells, or awful as when it roars among the mountain pines. And you may say that the sea makes music; now in the ripples that flash upon the shore, and now in the bursting of its stormy billows. And you may say that the thrush and the nightingale make music, or the lark when it becomes a singing speck in the summer heaven. And so the poets have sung of the music of nature; but, my brethren, the music is not in these outward things; where they sound to us like music it is because we are “making melody” of them in our hearts; happy for us if that melody be always “to the Lord.” It is thus that David says, “Praise the Lord upon earth: ye dragons, and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapours: wind and storm, fulfilling His word,” &c. Yet David knew that the music of heaven and earth was in itself deep silence. It was only the music of the cosmos, the music which the beauty and order of the universe awaken in the heart of man, and none had ever heard it, though the Jewish legend said that Moses was solely sustained by that music of the spheres when he spent those forty days upon the mount of God. (Ibid.)
Music in the life:—The man who makes melody in his heart to the Lord will make it in his life. “Making melody.” What is melody? Is it not the arrangement of notes, the sequence of the same or different sounds, so following one another as to give us pleasure? Unless there be melody in your hearts there will be no true music, neither Christmas music, nor Lenten music, nor Easter music, in your worship. Believe me, we may be able to make little music, or none at all, with our hands or our voices; but oh! what music we can make of the sweet, solemn, sacred human life of every one of us! And how beautiful is a musical life; but how many of us spoil it!
“How sour sweet music is when time is broke
And no proportion kept.”
So is it with the music of men’s lives. When do we “break the time”? When there is no rhythm, no due order, no regulated sequence in our lives; when “reckless youth makes rueful age”; when we waste, squander, defile, throw away our early years, and are never able to be again what once we might have been; when we have sudden pauses and backslidings, and breaks and stoppings short in the wholesome continuity of righteous purposes and righteous actions; above all, when we sacrifice the vast future to the fleeting present; when we sell our eternity for a little hour—ah! then we ruin the melody; for we “break the time.” And when is there “no proportion kept”? Is it not when some evil passion or some base desire utterly subdues and masters us, raises above the rest its dominant and screaming voice, makes of our lives a foolish and fussy egotism, or a harsh and agonizing jar? Ah! what broken music there is in the individual character of many of us. When the unruly wills and affections of sinful men snatch up in their lives each its several instrument, or when they lay their tainted and raging hands upon the sacred strings; pleasure, with its corrupt under-song; pride, with its jangling cymbals; hate, with its fierce trumpet; malice, with its ear-piercing fife. What horrible discord there is in the lives of the drunkard, the cheat, the gambler, the debauchee! You have all heard of that point on the strings of the violin, which, if touched, produces a harsh and grating dissonance called the wolf-note. Alas! how often do we hear in our own lives, and in the lives of others, that hideous jarring wolf-note—the wolf-note of envy, of virulent hatred, of vile, selfish lust, from the stringed instrument of what should be a man’s sacred life! Only, my brethren, if there be melody in your hearts to the Lord can you make life and death and the for ever one grand, sweet, song. For the potentiality of music is everywhere. The heart of every one of you is a harp of God. Yield it to the music of furious passions, and it will disgust and horrify; but let it be swept by the Holy Spirit of God, and it will give forth Divine and solemn sounds. Then, lastly, for the music of life harmony is no less necessary than melody. We must learn the united chorus no less than the individual hymn. The sounds of our lives must not only be sweet in themselves, but they must be subordinated to each other. If melody be the due sequence, is not harmony the due inter-relation of sounds? the combination of different sounds uttered at the same time, but so related to each other as to give us pleasure? A self-willed musician, one who only cares to hear his own voice, one who from carelessness or from vanity will introduce his own eccentric or special variation, one whose voice is always ringing false or falling flat, does not he ruin the harmony and so spoil the chorus? Where there is not God’s peace in the life, where selfishness rules in place of self-denial, where pride asserts itself at the expense of considerateness, where violence overleaps the barriers of law, there, for the music of life’s sweet and solemn chorus, you have got the screeching discords of anarchy and an anticipated hell. As the hideous sounds of war break up the unity and spoil the chorus of nations, so the quarrels, hatreds, envies, selfishness of individual men, spoil God’s choir of human society. These it is which keep us out of tune with heaven. When the breath of the Holy Spirit of God breathes through the organ of noble natures, then, indeed, the world hears music as Divine as it is rare; but when a man has nothing to offer to that high influence of the Holy Spirit of God but the “scrannel pipes” of an individuality which he has degraded by egotism and by mean aims, then all his life becomes a “lean and flashy song.” There can be no harmony in ourselves, no harmony in societies where there is no melody in our individual lives. Only by self-repression, by obedience, by humility, by purity, by common sympathy, can we get that music which one day shall be when the sound of every several voice, of every several instrument in God’s great orchestra of human communities is dominated over by the Divine keynote—shall I sadly say by the last chord of heavenly love. So, and so only, can any one of us hope to be joined to that choir, visible and invisible—
“The noble living and th’ immortal dead.
Whose music is the gladness of the world.”
But we can all strive to be like Christ, and Christ is the music of the world. In Him only do music, chorus, worship find their meaning. Only in unison with Him can you hope for individual melody or for harmony. The time for perfect music, the time when these discords which we hear all around us shall cease to be in all the world—that time is not yet. We may hope that at some day it shall be. We may hope that He who died for the world will, we know not how, in some way or other, at last make life’s broken music whole. It is the nature of evil to perish, it is the nature of good to live for ever; it partakes, and it alone partakes, of God’s eternity. (Ibid.)
Let joy overflow in song:—Joy in God opens a thousand gates at once. There are gates in the heart, gates in the mind, gates in the nerves and muscles of the body, and gates in the atmosphere, which may be either open to Heaven’s tide of sweet influence, or shut against it. Unbelief and gloom shut the gates: hope and joy open them. But the gates are very secret, and when heaven is pouring itself in, whether upon souls in their closets, or upon congregations, no one suspects how, or by what channels, the tide has come. The joy in God, of a single soul in private, may let loose a blessing that shall run round the whole earth in its mission of comfort, and carry in its glance the break of day to numberless sad hearts. In the world, the Divine life finds prose enough; but in himself, every child of God is a new Divine poem and temple of psalmody. The understanding is not able always to appreciate the melody which is made unto the Lord, in the inmost chambers of the soul. The understanding misjudges it, and calls it groaning, because it has no ear to hear the purest music of the heart. “Blessed are they that mourn.” God joys with singing, and rests in His love, over His mourners. In the bitterest cry of His best beloved: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” the Father hears the midnight singing in the morning to all broken hearts. (J. Pulsford.)
Thomas Fuller on his voice:—Old Thomas Fuller, who was as noted for his quaintness as for the wisdom of his remarks, had a defective voice; but he did not refuse to praise on this account. “Lord,” he said, “my voice by nature is harsh and untunable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to Thine ears, which is unpleasant to my own? Yet, though I cannot chant with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow than be altogether silent. Now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense. Yea, Lord, create in me a new heart, therein to make melody, and I will be contented with my old voice, until in due time, being admitted into the choir of heaven, I shall have another voice more harmonious bestowed upon me.” So let it be with us. Let us ever sing in the same spirit and in the same joy and hope.
Psalm-singing a gospel ordinance:—1. A duty prescribed, and that is, “singing of psalms.” 2. It is amplified, and set forth in its parts or necessary branches, outward and reward. (1) The outward part; there we have—(a) The subject matter, “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” (b) The actions conversant about it—(i) Speaking; (ii) singing. (2) The inward part, “Making melody in your hearts to the Lord.” Doctrine: That singing of psalms is an ordinance of God’s worship under the gospel. I. Before I come to prove it, let me observe something out of the words, to fix and state the duty. Observe that singing of psalms is made to be a fruit of being filled with the Spirit. II. Having thus stated the duty as it is here recommended to us, I shall here prove—1. That it is a clear and unquestionable duty. 2. That it is a delectable duty. 3. That it is a very profitable duty. It is a profitable ordinance. (1) It subdueth the lusts and passions of the flesh by diversion, or directing us to a purer and safer delight. Spiritual joy is the best cure of carnal, for we keep our joy pure, and our delights are safe and healthful. (2) It inspireth us with fortitude, courage, and constancy in wrestling for the truth; for singing of psalms is our exultation in God. (3) It is profitable, as the psalm not only holdeth forth what the word read doth, but it stayeth and fixeth the heart upon the sweet and lively meditation of what we sing. Use 1. To show us what a good God we serve, who hath made our delight a great part of our work. God is much for His people’s pleasure and holy joy. Use 2. To show how much we overlook our profit when we deal slightly in this ordinance. It is a means, as other duties are, not a task; and a means to make our lives both holy and comfortable; therefore let us not contemn it. The same graces which are necessary for other parts of worship, which we make greater reckoning of, are necessary here also. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Nature and office of sacred music:—
I. The design of public worship may be learned from the word “worship” itself. Good etymologists are agreed that it is composed of the noun “worth” and the suffix “ship,” forming worth-ship; contracted, “worship.” The verb “to worship,” accordingly, signifies to ascribe worth. John describes an act of worship, when he represents the elders falling down before the throne and saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power.” Worship essentially consists of holy emotions inspired in the soul by the contemplation of God. Worship is complete when these emotions are expressed in the most natural and suitable form. 1. There is in the constitution of our nature a necessity for the expression of emotion. We cannot subdue expression any more than we can subdue emotion. 2. Audible worship is enjoined. 3. We have Divine example. Jesus prayed audibly. He sang with His disciples at the Holy Supper. 4. We have example furnished by the apostles in their writings, and in the records of early Church historians, and profane writers. 5. We have the continued example of the early Church for centuries, and the unbroken observance of vocal worship by the universal Church unto this day. 6. There is, however, a reason for audible worship that is alone decisive. Without audible prayer and praise, there can be no social worship.
II. What part does music perform in this worship? We have seen that worship is the expression to God of holy affections. Music is the highest form of emotional utterance, and therefore becomes a necessary instrument of worship. The child sings as naturally as it talks—it often sings before it can speak. Man everywhere has made for himself the art of song, however rude and imperfect. Religious emotion is the highest that fills the soul. Its inspiring source is the grandest, the sublimest, the only perfect, the infinite object of contemplation. Religious feeling, therefore, demands the most expressive form of utterance. The worship which consists of the speaking forth to God of our highest and holiest affections, must have the service of song.
III. Social worship is the expression to God of common affections by united worshippers, and the utterance of feeling by one to another. 1. Preparation is needful to the proper employment of this part of worship. If you do not meditate upon God as He is revealed, your soul will. 2. The psalms and hymns that we sing should express correct thought and true feeling, and we should use such of these as truthfully express our own sentiments and emotions. To remedy the evil of untruthful singing, the hymn-book should be made a study. 3. Sacred music should be simple and familiar. 4. All the worshippers should unite in the singing. (J. T. Duryea.)
The song of the heart:—But whilst we believe that there is some expression of joy and praise which God peculiarly desires, and which in His Word is called “singing,” yet we shall fall into most serious and fatal errors, unless we strictly understand what is principally meant by the term. And here our text will altogether assist us. It must, first, be an expression of joy having the heart as its source of utterance. “Making melody in your heart,” says Paul. But this “singing” must not only come from the heart, and a new heart too, but it must also come from a believing heart in a particular state—a state of joy. The very term indicates the required temperament of the soul. Singing implies gladness. “The ransomed of the Lord,” says the prophet, “shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” True, there are such things as dirges; but the Christian must never attempt them. His work is “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” But, yet further, this song of the heart must have for its constant and invariable theme its Lord and Redeemer. Music is often very varied. You will often find page after page of notes all as different and widely distinguished each from each as possible. There are a thousand chords, and runs, and combinations, and movements; and yet all are variations on one short air, included perhaps in two or three lines. Just so with your Redeemer. He must be your theme, running through all the variations of business, or pleasure, or domestic cares. But, lastly, in this song you must remember, that it is only the Spirit who can teach you either the love of spiritual music, or its true expression. “Man is born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward.” So many tears, so many evils, so many sins around us—oh! what a place for song! Not Babel’s stream, all lined with willows, was half so unsuitable a place as this wilderness of a world, Not they that led the chained captive of Judah from his dear home were half so unreasonable in their demand for melody, as are men who can expect songs from the sin and trouble-choked sons of Adam. How can we sing the Lord’s song? We are in a strange land, and a land of darkness and sorrow. Yea, we ourselves are voiceless and tuneless as the dull clay itself. Sin has taken away our faculty of song, and sorrow has put us out of heart for music. What can we sing? We can mock song it is true; we can excite ourselves to an unnatural and bacchanalian imitation of melody. Paul alludes to something of this kind, when he says, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” As though he had said, “Go to the true source of joy; drink in the spirit of song from Him who is the Lord of bliss; be filled with the Spirit; and avoid the false, excited, drunken mirth of the world. It is only music created by the fumes of wine, and doomed to expire in weeping and wailing.” What a delusion is such mere noise! What a counterfeit of the heart’s music! We had intended to show you that this music must not be confined to the heart, though it must commence there. You must let others hear it, and be cheered by its cadence. “Speaking to” or among “yourselves,” says Paul, “in psalms.” He makes his meaning still clearer in a parallel passage. “Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Your singing must always be designed to influence others. (D. F. Jarman, M.A.)[7]
Being Filled With the Spirit (vss. 18–21). Verse 18 contains both a negative and a positive command: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Drunkenness is alluded to as a concrete example of the heedless folly referred to in verse 17. It is forbidden because it leads to “excess,” “dissipation,” or “ruin.” John Eadie’s words, written long ago, are still all too true. Speaking of intemperance, he declared that there is in it
that kind of dissoluteness which brooks no restraint, which defies all efforts to reform it, and which sinks lower and lower into hopeless and helpless ruin.… This tremendous sin … is all the more to be shunned as its hold is so great on its victims, for with periodical remorse there is periodical inebriety; the fatal cup is again coveted and drained; while character, fortune, and life are risked and lost in the gratification of an appetite of all others the most brutal in form and brutifying in result. There are few vices out of which there is less hope of recovery—its haunts are so numerous and its hold is so tremendous (p. 397).
The emphasis of the verse, however, falls on the positive command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” The Greek text, which may read, “Be filled in spirit,” suggests to some interpreters that spirit (as opposed to the physical part of our being) is the sphere in which we are to be filled. It is much better, however, to understand the reference to be to the Holy Spirit. Viewed in this manner, the injunction may be translated, “Be filled through [or by] the Spirit.” But it seems preferable to follow the rendering of kjv, asv, rsv, nasb, and others (“be filled with the Spirit”) or that of neb (“let the Holy Spirit fill you”). Robinson feels that the language combines the ideas of a “fulness which comes through the Spirit” and a “fulness which consists in being full of the Spirit” (p. 204). To be full of the Spirit is to possess as much of the Spirit as one can contain. Perhaps there is the added notion of being permeated by His presence and power, being brought under his gracious control.
Anyone desiring to grasp the meaning of this passage should study the writings of Luke, for whom the idea of a “filling” was a favorite (cf. Luke 1:15; 41, 67; 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52).
In the present passage the subject of the verb is plural, indicating that the experience should not be looked upon as exceptional, nor as the prerogative of only a select few. The tense of the verb is present, pointing up either an action that is to be repeated from time to time or an action that is continuous. In this respect, the “filling” is different from the baptism in/with/by the Spirit. The latter is experienced by all believers and is never repeated (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). Moreover, the New Testament contains not a single command to be baptized in/with/by the Spirit. The voice of the verb is passive, indicating that we are acted upon by the Spirit (cf. neb).
Carnal intoxication leads to ruin, but the fullness wrought by the Spirit of God issues in joyfulness (vs. 19), thankfulness (vs. 20), and mutual submission (vs. 21). These are the qualities that mark the Spirit-filled life.
(1) Joyfulness. “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” is a general expression of glad and cheerful discourse, defined more precisely by the phrase “singing and making melody in [with] your heart to the Lord” (vs. 19). Those who are filled with the Spirit express among themselves their joyous emotions in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The reference may be both to social conversation and to meetings of divine worship. Both are to be marked by hallowed and joyful praise.
Too sharp a distinction between “psalms,” “hymns,” and “songs” should not be drawn. The language is intended to emphasize rich variety of sacred song, not to give instruction in ancient hymnology. If any differentiation is made, “psalms” may be taken to refer to Old Testament psalms, while “hymns” and “spiritual songs” both refer to distinctively Christian compositions, the latter possibly being impromptu rhythmic utterances produced under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
“In your heart” is the reading of kjv, tcnt, Weymouth, Knox, neb, and others. “With your heart” is the translation of asv and nasb. A variant of this, “with all your heart,” is found in Goodspeed, rsv, and Williams. The phrase indicates that these joyful expressions are not to be merely mechanical productions of lip and finger. Unless our praise springs from the heart, it is not acceptable to the Lord.
(2) Thankfulness. The mention of joyful praise leads naturally to the mention of thanksgiving as another expression of the fullness of the Spirit. Four things are said: It is to be constant—“always.” It is “for all things.” It is “unto God.” It is “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 20). This note of thanksgiving recurs again and again in Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians.
(3) Mutual submission. “Submitting yourselves one to another” (vs. 21) denotes that attitude of reciprocal deference that becomes and marks out those who are filled with the Spirit. It is opposed to rudeness, haughtiness, selfish preference for one’s own opinions, and stubborn insistence on one’s own rights. Paul expressed much the same thought in Romans 12:10, “in honour preferring one another.” It is an attitude that rests on the example of Him who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6, 7).
In verse 21 the general rule of mutual submission is stated; in 5:22–6:9 the principle is applied to specific relations. The verse thus concludes the present section and forms the connecting link with the next paragraph.[8]
Paul writes: 18. And do not get drunk on wine, which is associated with unrestrained living, but be filled with the Spirit. There are times when exhilaration of heart and mind is entirely proper. Scripture makes mention of shouting for joy (Ps. 5:11; 32:11; 35:27; etc.), fulness of joy (Ps. 16:11), good tidings of great joy (Luke 2:10), joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). Exhilaration is wrong, however, when the method of inducing it is wrong. Thus it is improper to seek excitement from the excessive use of wine. It is the abuse of wine that is forbidden, not the use (1 Tim. 5:23). That such abuse was a real danger in the early church, as it certainly is also today, appears from such restrictions as the following: “The overseer therefore must be above reproach … not (one who lingers) beside (his) wine” (1 Tim. 3:3; cf. Titus 1:7); “Deacons similarly (must be) dignified, not … addicted to much wine” (1 Tim. 3:8); and “Urge aged women similarly (to be) reverent in demeanor … not enslaved to much wine” (Titus 2:3).
Intoxication is not the effective remedy for the cares and worries of this life. The so-called “uplift” it provides is not real. It is the devil’s poor substitute for the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” which God provides. Satan is ever substituting the bad for the good. Has he not been called “the ape of God”? Getting drunk on wine is “associated with unrestrained living” or “dissolute behavior,” “recklessness” (Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4). It marks the person who, if he so continues, cannot be saved. But he need not so continue. The prodigal son of the unforgettable parable lived recklessly (an adverb cognate with the noun recklessness or unrestrained living occurring here in Eph. 5:18). Extravagance and lack of self-control were combined in his behavior, just as in all likelihood they are combined in the meaning of the word “unrestrained living” used in this passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Nevertheless, there was salvation for him when he repented. Let anyone who may read this take courage (Isa. 1:18; Ezek. 33:11; 1 John 1:9).
The real remedy for sinful inebriation is pointed out by Paul. The Ephesians are urged to seek a higher, far better, source of exhilaration. Instead of getting drunk let them be filled. Instead of getting drunk on wine let them be filled with the Spirit. Note the double contrast. Although it is true that the apostle makes use of a word, namely, pneúma, which in the translation should at times be spelled with, at other times without, a capital letter (hence “Spirit” or “spirit”), it should be capitalized in this instance, as is often the case. Paul was undoubtedly thinking of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Evidence in support of this view: a. the expression “filled with” or “full of” the pneúma, when the reference is to the Holy Spirit, is very common in Scripture (Luke 1:15, 41, 67; 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3; 7:55; 9:17; 13:9); and b. the very contrast here in 5:18 between getting drunk on wine and being filled with the pneúma occurs also, though in a slightly different form, in Acts 2:4, 13, where the reference can only be to the Holy Spirit.
By the ancients, moreover, an overdose of wine was often used not only to rid oneself of care and to gain a sense of mirth but also to induce communion with the gods and, by means of this communion, to receive ecstatic knowledge, not otherwise obtainable. Such foolishness, often associated with Dionysiac orgies, is by the apostle contrasted with the serene ecstasy and sweet fellowship with Christ which he himself was experiencing in the Spirit when he wrote this letter to the Ephesians (see on 1:3; 3:20). What he is saying therefore is this: getting drunk on wine leads to nothing better than debauchery, will not place you in possession of worthwhile pleasure, usable knowledge, and perfect contentment. It will not help you but hurt you. It leaves a bad taste and produces no end of woe (cf. Prov. 23:29–32). On the other hand, being filled with the Spirit will enrich you with the precious treasures of lasting joy, deep insight, and inner satisfaction. It will sharpenyour faculties for the perception of the divine will. Note the immediate context, verse 17. So, “do not get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Spirit.”
Being thus filled with the Spirit believers will not only be enlightened and joyful but will also give jubilant expression to their refreshing knowledge of the will of God. They will reveal their discoveries and their feelings of gratitude. Hence Paul continues: 19. speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. The term psalms in all probability has reference, at least mainly, to the Old Testament Psalter; hymns, mainly to New Testament songs of praise to God and to Christ (verse 14 above, in which Christ is praised as the Source of light, containing perhaps lines from one of these hymns); and finally, spiritual songs, mainly to sacred lyrics dwelling on themes other than direct praise to God or to Christ. There may, however, be some overlapping in the meaning of these three terms as used here by Paul.
The point to note is that by means of these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, Spirit-filled believers must speak to each other. They are not merely reciting what they have committed to memory. “Daughter, do you know that your Redeemer lives?” said the director to the soloist. After an affirmative answer he continued, “Then sing it again, and this time tell us about it.” She did, and there were tears of joy and thanksgiving in every eye. Continued: singing and making melody from your heart to the Lord. The idea of some that in the two parts of this one verse the apostle has reference to two kinds of singing: a. audible (“speaking”) and b. inaudible (“in the stillness of the heart”), must be dismissed. If that had been his intention, he would have inserted the conjunction and or and also between the two parts. The two are clearly parallel. The second explains and completes the first: when believers get together they should not be having wild parties but should edify each other, speaking to one another in Christian song, and doing so from the heart, to the praise and honor of their blessed Lord. They should make music with the voice (“singing”) or in any proper way whatever, whether with voice or instrument (“making melody”). Cf. Rom. 15:9); 1 Cor. 14:15; James 5:13. For further details of interpretation see N.T.C. on Colossians and Philemon, pp. 160–163 where a closely similar passage (Col. 3:16) is discussed more at length.[9]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1986). Ephesians (pp. 229–263). Moody Press.
When the Christian faith began spreading among the gentiles in Antioch, a man named Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to investigate. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul sets the scene of this historic moment, discussing the important roles that Barnabas and Saul played in the missionary outreach of the early church.
This sermon was preached by R.C. Sproul at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, FL. Hear sermons from his series in the book of Acts:
Galatians 6:15 — In this sermon on Galatians 6:15 titled “What is Christianity?” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones challenges Christians to regain a proper understanding of what the life of a follower of Jesus truly is. He asks a central question to help gauge spiritual health: “is Christianity central to everything in our lives, or is it small and narrow?” In the passage, Paul is addressing a false teaching in the church that did not hold Christianity up as a worldview around which the lives of people should revolve. Dr. Lloyd-Jones also shows how and why people need to come to Jesus in the first place. Before becoming followers of Jesus, anything that one has or has done avails to nothing. Good deeds, intellect, and even baptism does not secure an eternal future. In and of themselves, they are useless in bringing anyone closer to Christ. This relates to why all need to be born again. As Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds, salvation is humanity’s most fundamental need. Listen as he preaches on the Christian life and why all are in need of being saved.
2 Samuel 22:4 — Does this verse sound familiar? Actually, this whole chapter is very similar to Psalm 18! Psalm 18:3 says “call upon”, while 2 Samuel 22:4 says “call on.” But let’s enjoy the song based on this verse and 2 Samuel 22:47.
Note the structure of this proto-Psalm:
Attributes of the LORD (vv. 2-3)
Deliverance of the LORD (vv. 4-7)
Awesome power of the LORD (vv. 8-16)
Deliverance of the LORD (vv. 17-20)
Characteristics of a follower of the LORD (vv. 21-28)
Enabling power of the LORD (vv. 29-46)
Conclusion: Praise the LORD! (vv. 47-51)
2 Samuel 23:3-4 — The classic choral work “The Last Words of David” features this verse. From Diane Bish:
2 Samuel 23:5 — “Although my house be not so with God” – what a great reminder that God’s mercies are greater than our failures!
2 Samuel 23:16 — David inspired not just loyalty but love from his men.
Acts 2:21 — The culmination is not the prophecies, the visions, the dreams, the wonders, the signs, the darkened sun, or the blood moon, but that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved! The message is not kept within the bounds of the Israelite kingdom; it is spread to the uttermost ends of the earth!
Acts 2:38 — Peter is preaching from Joel and David and leading the call to repent! What is Peter saying about baptism? It’s the result of the remission of sins, not the antecedent. From GotQuestions.org:
One example of how this preposition is used in other Scriptures is seen in Matthew 12:41 where the word eis communicates the “result” of an action. In this case it is said that the people of Nineveh “repented at the preaching of Jonah” (the word translated “at” is the same Greek word eis). Clearly, the meaning of this passage is that they repented “because of’” or “as the result of” Jonah’s preaching. In the same way, it would be possible that Acts 2:38 is indeed communicating the fact that they were to be baptized “as the result of” or “because” they already had believed and in doing so had already received forgiveness of their sins (John 1:12; John 3:14-18; John 5:24; John 11:25-26; Acts 10:43; Acts 13:39; Acts 16:31; Acts 26:18; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 1:12-14). This interpretation of the passage is also consistent with the message recorded in Peter’s next two sermons to unbelievers where he associates the forgiveness of sins with the act of repentance and faith in Christ without even mentioning baptism (Acts 3:17-26; Acts 4:8-12).
Psalm 122:1 — The choral work based on this verse was the processional march of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton:
Psalm 122:6 — Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Proverbs 16:20 — How can you find happiness?
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord. (Hosea 2:19-20)
Betrothment unto the Lord! What an honor and a joy! My soul, is Jesus indeed thine by His own condescending betrothal? Then, mark it is forever. He will never break His engagement, much less sue out a divorce against a soul joined to Himself in marriage bonds.
Three times the Lord says, “I will betroth thee.” What words He heaps together to set forth the betrothal! Righteousness comes in to make the covenant legal; none can forbid these lawful bans. Judgment sanctions the alliance with its decree: none can see folly or error in the match. Lovingkindness warrants that this is a love union, for without love betrothal is bondage and not blessedness. Meanwhile, mercy smiles and even sings; yea, she multiplies herself into “mercies” because of the abounding grace of this holy union.
Faithfulness is the registrar and records the marriage, and the Holy Spirit says “Amen” to it as He promises to teach the betrothal heart all the sacred knowledge needful for its high destiny, What a promise!
Louisiana Reaffirms Gold And Silver As Legal Tender Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has signed a new law reaffirming gold and silver as legal tender, making a symbolic statement in favor of sound money principles.
Trump’s ‘Coal Country’ Could Supply Nation With 40% Of Lithium Demand One unlikely area where 40% of the nation’s lithium supply could be sourced from is ‘Trump’s coal country,’ otherwise known as good ole’ Appalachia. … wastewater from oil/gas rigs across the Marcellus Shale formation could supply the nation with 40% of its lithium needs.
Elevated Risk Of Epilepsy, Appendicitis In Children After COVID-19 Vaccination: Study Children who received the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines faced an elevated risk of epilepsy and appendicitis, according to a new study. Pfizer recipients were also more likely to suffer from demyelinating disease or heart inflammation, researchers found.
Exclusive footage: unexploded Burkan missile ‘Capable of causing severe damage’ Hezbollah launches missiles capable of penetrating bomb shelters which caused significant damage to a military base in Kiryat Shemona; Meanwhile, the Shiite terrorist organization has also developed Burkan rockets with over a ton of explosive material
Constant rocket fire rattles northern Israel Furthermore, in response to the launches to northern Israel throughout yesterday, last night IAF fighter jets struck significant Hezbollah assets in the areas of Qana, Hmaileh, and Aadloun in Lebanon.””Simultaneously, IAF fighter jets struck an observation post in the area of Tayr Harfa and two military structures in the areas of Jibbain and Khiam.
Iranian general dies following illness Vajihollah Moradi, one of the commanders and a key figure of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s foreign wing, died following an illness, Iranian state TV reported Saturday. Moradi’s death comes less than two weeks after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
AOC: Abraham Accords, moving US embassy to blame for Oct. 7 attack Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the so-called progressive “Squad” in Congress, agreed with a far-left streamer that the Abraham Accords and former President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem were responsible for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.
1 million-member regional body leaves UMC over LGBT stance A regional body of the United Methodist Church with approximately 1 million members has voted to leave the mainline denomination over its acceptance of gay marriage and noncelibate gay clergy.
Chinese, Jordanian, Turkish illegal immigrants caught in large numbers at southern border The number of Chinese nationals crossing the border illegally has skyrocketed over the past several years. Over 3,500 Chinese nationals were encountered crossing the southern border illegally in May, along with hundreds of Jordanian, Turkish and Mauritanian nationals, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP)…
It’s Official, We Are Now a Banana Republic We live in a strange time. The law in many states, cities, and jurisdictions in this country, especially in Democrat strongholds, has been laid low. In Chicago, a judge acquits an attacker who stole a police car, ran over a Chicago cop, and crashed into four vehicles. In California, shoplifting is now de facto legal.
The US has a history of testing biological weapons on the public – were infected ticks used too? The House of Representatives has instructed the Pentagon to disclose whether it used ticks to infect the American public with Lyme disease between 1950 and 1975. The allegation comes from Chris Smith, the Republican representative for New Jersey. A long-standing campaigner on Lyme disease, Smith says the claims are from a new book about the illness and the man who discovered it – a bioweapons scientist called Willy Burgdofer.
Are climate scientists becoming slaves to a system designed to prevent science? …over the last 100 years, temperatures have risen by 1oC and agricultural productivity has skyrocketed, the global population has increased by 400%, fewer people live in poverty and there are fewer deaths from extreme weather and climate events. Since 2021, the UN is predicting that global temperatures will rise by another 1oC by 2100. Based on the effects of the last 100 years, is this really a problem?
Climate change cultists want the UN to include reducing meat consumption in its plans to combat world hunger The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (“FAO”) has published an agri-food road map to combat hunger and climate change. But it has drawn criticism from some for not going far enough. Some want the FAO to state in its plans that high-income countries should reduce meat consumption or increase the use of “alternative” proteins.
Former acting ICE director Tom Homan joins ‘Fox News Live’ to weigh in on an alarming new report that terrorist concerns at the southern border are at an all-time high. #foxnews
On May 17, 2024, Joel C. Rosenberg (author, speaker, editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS) posted an article about his recent interview of former Israeli Prime Min. Naftali Bennett (one hour long; recorded by a TBN television crew for THE ROSENBERG REPORT).
Rosenberg’s first question for Bennett was do you believe that modern-day Israel is a fulfillment of ancient Biblical prophecies?
Here is Bennett’s interesting reply:
I absolutely see a connection between our ancient past, our biblical past, and our present and future as an ‘eternal chain’ to the Jewish people and the land of the Jewish people.
I see a continuity between Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, Joshua, King David.
And then during the First and Second Temple, later in the diaspora for 2,000 years, we were praying for our home three times a day. All the Jews prayed to come back to Jerusalem. And then, indeed, the return of Jews from all across the world. That’s precisely what’s in the Bible.
I think that modern-day Israel is the beauty of both modernity that gets intertwined with our biblical roots and our destiny.
Later in the interview, Bennett told Rosenberg he believes Israel is specifically the fulfillment of the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the “Valley of Dry Bones,” found in Ezekiel 37.
This writer has long known that:
God promised to give Abraham much more land than Israel possesses today (Gen. 15:18).
That God promised to make an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants after him in their generations to be their God and to give them all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:7-8).
That God said His everlasting covenant would go through Isaac not Ishmael (Gen. 17: 18-21).
That normally God’s everlasting covenant would have gone through Jacob’s firstborn son, Esau, but Esau sold his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:29-34).
That God said His everlasting covenant would go through Jacob (Gen. 28:13; 35:10:12).
That in the days of Isaiah, God said Israel would seek their Messiah after they have been off the land and returned twice (Isa. 11:11).
That despite Israel’s rebellion, God said He would never break His everlasting covenant (Jer. 31:35-37).
That God would eventually cause Israel to return to the Promised Land, and they would never be put off again (Amos 9:15; Jer. 30:11, 46:28; Ezek. 37:25; Psa. 89:30-37).
Even though I have known these things about Israel’s past, present, and prophesied future, I have never heard it referred to as an ‘eternal chain,’ but that is what it is.
Today, radical Muslims are denying the permanent nature of God’s eternal chain.
They think it is a chain that Allah can break, but God’s eternal chain is unbreakable.
The UN, EU, US, and others also deny the reality of that eternal chain (by ordering the Two-State Solution), but God will feed the bodies of their soldiers to the fowls of the air at the Battle of Armageddon (Joel 3:2; Rev. 19:17-18).
Prophecy expert Amir Tsarfati said, “The push for a Palestinian state illustrates the spiritual blindness of our days.”
I agree and will add that God will intervene in global affairs at the end of the age.
He will destroy the armies of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and their Islamic allies with in-fighting, a great shaking, fire, and brimstone on the mountains of Israel (Ezek. 38-39).
The archangel Michael will stand up for Israel at the time of the end (Dan. 12:1).
Michael and his angels will cast Satan and his angels out of heaven (Rev. 12:7-10).
Jesus will personally come out of heaven to defeat the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and their earthly army at the Battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).
An angel will come out of heaven with a great chain, bind Satan, and cast him into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:1-3).
Hear the Word of God:
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed,saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
“Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thouartmy Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall givetheethe heathenforthine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earthforthy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perishfromthe way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessedareall they that put their trust in him” (Psa. 2:1-12).
Perhaps God used Netanyahu to give a prophetic message to the world (I don’t know), but on May 23, 2024, Netanyahu said:
The days when Jews are slaughtered and are defenseless are gone. They’re not going to repeat. That’s because we always say no more, never again. Well, never again is now.
The heathen (unsaved; campus mobs; paid agitators; godless world leaders; lost Muslims) rage; they are thinking worthless thoughts and planning to do the impossible because the days of a defenseless Israel are gone and never again is now; and Israel’s past, present, and prophesied future is an eternal chain that can never be broken.
(More: On May 29, 2024, it was reported that pro-Hamas groups are calling for an Intifada (uprising; demonstrations; rage) in every capital and city around the world).
Here are current events that seem to indicate that we are close to the end of the age.
One, concerning the coming world government and efforts to break the eternal chain (what God said about Israel’s past, present, and future): on May 24, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive and other activity in Rafah.
In essence, the court, which has no authority to enforce its edicts, told Israel it must obey the UN.
CNBC asked Israel’s government for a comment on this, and Israel’s finance minister said, “Those who demand that the State of Israel stop the war demand that it decree itself to cease to exist. We will not agree to that.”
(My opinion: The Bible teaches that the Church will be removed by the Rapture before the Antichrist is handed control of a world government, and there is now a world court that thinks it can order a nation to obey the UN. Incidentally, I believe Israel’s finance minister is right: The court is trying to destroy Israel, but the eternal chain cannot be broken.)
Two, concerning deception: on May 27, 2024, the great Hal Lindsey wrote:
For the people of Gaza, the present war is a total disaster. But for top-level leaders of Hamas, it is going extremely well. While their people suffer, the highest-ranking Hamas leaders sit in luxurious accommodations far from the violence in Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, has been living in Qatar since 2016. He hasn’t set foot in Gaza since 2019. Yet, from Gaza, he has accumulated a net worth of $4 billion.
Take a second to let that sink in. The terrorist leader of Hamas is a billionaire four times over. How did he accumulate such wealth? He leads some of the poorest people in the world. Other nations, including the United States, see the Gazan’s great need, and they send money. Hamas leaders use that money to strengthen their military infrastructure and to line their own pockets.
Three, concerning world government: on May 22, 2024, it was reported that 2 dozen governors of Republican states in the U.S. sent a letter to Pres. Biden, saying they are opposed to the International Pandemic Treaty because:
It could undermine national sovereignty and states’ rights.
It seeks to elevate the WHO from an advisory body to a global authority in public health.
It allows the WHO to establish a global surveillance infrastructure and force participants to censor free speech.
(Update: The WHO has admitted that it could not get enough votes to approve the International Pandemic Treaty. Passage of amendments to the International Health Regulations also appears to be in trouble. This is great news, but we are living in evil times, and there is fear that there could be another created pandemic to revive these issues.)
Four, concerning the willful ignorance of world leaders, hatred, and false accusations against Israel at the end of the age: on May 21, 2024, it was reported that a veteran analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy reported that Hamas has taken in the equivalent of about $500 million since attacking Israel on Oct. 7, by seizing and selling humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
According to the analyst, “We (the Biden administration) need to start creating reality instead of this fruitless discussion about what will happen the day after” (the day after the war with Hamas ends).
(My opinion: Just days after Iranian Pres. Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash, the UN General Assembly is preparing to pay tribute to him, but it ignores the fact that many called him the Butcher of Tehran, that he headed a death commission that killed thousands of Iranians, that he supported Hamas’ kidnapping, torturing, and killing of Jews on Oct. 7, 2023, etc. The UN remains silent about Raisi attacking Israel with about 400 drones, rockets, and missiles. The UN makes it easy to believe that world leaders will select a Satan worshipper – the Antichrist – to head up the coming wicked world government.)
(More: Following Raisi’s funeral on May 23, 2024, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei vowed to keep his promise to destroy Israel.)
(More: On May 27, 2024, it was reported that Hezbollah said it does not intend to stop attacking Israel from Lebanon because they believe the Biden administration will force Israel to stop the war before the upcoming U.S. presidential election.)
Five, concerning the Biden administration’s betrayal of Israel, on May 23, 2024, prophecy expert Amir Tsarfati wrote:
From various sources, we’ve received confirmation that the US administration gave a green light to the ICC to move forward with asking for an arrest warrant against Hamas and Israeli leaders as if they are equal. If that’s not enough, the US administration is conducting talks with Iran in Oman where both sides agree that Netanyahu must be removed. The most failed US administration is causing internal chaos and outside attacks on its best ally in the Middle East. Insane!
(My opinion: Insane, yes, but also unchristian, evil and hypocritical.)
Six, concerning who the land of Israel really belongs to, a pro-Israel group recently held a meeting (called the Israel Summit) at the Dave Ramsey Center in Franklin, TN, to show support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
Many in the media were present, and several Jewish politicians, entertainers, orthodox Jews, and Messianic Jews participated.
Some attendees were given 2 patches that Israeli soldiers are wearing on their uniforms in this current war.
One patch has a crown on it and the word “Messiah” in Hebrew (the crown represents the King of Israel; some Jews believe their Messiah will be their King).
The other patch has a portion of a building on it and the word “Temple” in Hebrew (the building is a symbol of the rebuilt third temple).
The Jewish soldiers are showing a lot of religious fervor as they fight for their coming Messiah and the right to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount.
(My opinion: I love the fact that Israeli soldiers are willing to fight for the Messiah and to gain full control of the Temple Mount, but I am also saddened by this because I believe the Jews will accept the Antichrist and resume the animal sacrifices at the rebuilt temple before they realize that their Messiah and King is Jesus who was crucified on the cross for all who believe. Nevertheless, it is a significant move along God’s eternal chain.)
Seven, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on May 27, 2024, it was reported that Hezbollah expects to soon have new long-range precision missiles that have been made in Russia and modified in Iran.
They also expect to receive new surface-to-air missiles to shoot down Israeli planes.
(Note: No weapon that is formed against Israel shall prosper; Isa. 54:17.)
Eight, concerning wars and rumors of wars: on May 26, 2024, it was reported that the U.S. is planning to lift its ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks (to help Saudi Arabia in its war with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen).
Nine, concerning a potential Psa. 83 war, Egypt is one of the nations mentioned as an enemy of Israel in Psa. 83.
Some prophecy teachers reject the idea that Egypt is an enemy of Israel because they have a peace treaty.
On May 26, 2024, highly respected commentator Carolyn Glick wrote:
It has become clear that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has been playing Israel for a fool.
Since Oct. 7, Egypt’s role in Hamas’s build-up of its forces and military capabilities has come into sharp relief. Indeed, as the months have passed, the conclusion has become unavoidable that far from acting as a restraint on Hamas’s military and economic power as it did a decade ago, Egypt in recent years, and still today, is a major state sponsor of Hamas.
Beginning in February, el-Sisi began a practice of repeatedly threatening to cancel Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. He threatened to end Egypt’s peace with Israel and rejoin the pan-Arab war to annihilate the Jewish state if the IDF seized Rafah or took other measures required to defeat Hamas. In other words, el-Sisi has tied Egypt’s peace with Israel and its posture in the region to the survival of the Hamas regime in Gaza and Israel’s defeat in the war.
(More: On May 27, 2024, there was an exchange of fire between Israeli and Egyptian troops near the border crossing at Rafah. A member of Egypt’s security forces was killed. Israel is investigating the incident.)
Ten, concerning a digital ID, a digital currency, tracking all buying and selling, etc., the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to block the Federal Reserve from creating a CBDC.
But it may not pass in the U.S. Senate, and if it does, Pres. Biden may veto it.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 (Day 230): The one hundred-seventy-fourth day of the resumed war. Day 16 of the attack on Rafah.
Israeli troops have reached the outskirts of a refugee camp in central Rafah, and the Biden administration is unhappy.
Israel said its troops have killed another Hamas commander.
Israel agreed to resume the stalemated Hostage release talks.
Egypt threatened to withdraw from being a negotiator in the Hostage release talks.
Thursday, May 23, 2024 (Day 231): The one hundred-seventy-fifth day of the resumed war. Day 17 of the attack on Rafah.
With approval from the families, Israel released video of 5 females that Hamas took for hostages from an Israeli base on Oct. 7, 2023. The women can be seen handcuffed, bleeding, and being questioned by the hostages. The bodies of male Israeli soldiers can be seen at the base.
Israel found a terror tunnel with living quarters beneath a cemetery in Rafah.
Israel assassinated the man in charge of several Hezbollah drone production sites in Lebanon.
Israel assassinated the deputy commander of Hamas security forces in Gaza.
Friday, May 24, 2024 (Day 232): The one hundred-seventy-sixth day of the resumed war. Day 18 of the attack on Rafah.
Israel told the U.S. it will continue to attack Hamas in Rafah despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering them to stop.
Saturday, May 25, 2024 (Day 233): The one hundred-seventy-seventh day of the resumed war. Day 19 of the attack on Rafah.
A missile fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon made a direct hit on a Messianic Jewish congregation building and destroyed almost everything in it, but there were no people in it at that time.
Sunday, May 26, 2024 (Day 234): The one hundred-seventy-eighth day of the resumed war. Day 20 of the attack on Rafah.
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Two people were injured.
8 rockets were fired at Tel Aviv from Rafah.
Israel launched an attack that killed several Hamas commanders at the UNRWA compound in Rafah. Palestinian sources claimed that Israel killed about 45 people, including civilians. 2 of the commanders headed up Hamas terrorist groups inside Israel.
Monday, May 27, 2024 (Day 235): The one hundred seventy-ninth day of the resumed war. Day 21 of the attack on Rafah.
Israel located and destroyed a tunnel about 6,000 feet long and 60 feet deep in the Gaza Strip.
S. jets shot down two Iranian-backed Houthi drones over the Red Sea that appeared to be headed toward Israel.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 (Day 236): The one hundred eightieth day of the resumed war. Day 22 of the attack on Rafah.
Several Israeli tanks rolled into the center of Rafah today.
Israel said the explosions that killed dozens of civilians in Rafah on May 26, 2024, came from secondary explosions of Hamas munitions near the people.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 (Day 237): The one hundred eighty-first day of the resumed war. Day 23 of the attack on Rafah.
Turkey’s pres. Erdogan called Israel a threat to all humanity and urged the Islamic world to unite and act against Israel.
A preliminary vote on a bill to designate the UNRWA as a terrorist group and strip it of all immunities easily passed in the Israeli Knesset.
Israel said it now controls the entire border between Gaza and Egypt; it continues to find tunnels and entrances into tunnels to Egypt.
FYI: God does not send anyone to Hell (all of us are born with a sin nature and destined to go to Hell because we sin), but God has provided a way (Jesus) for everyone to go to Heaven (and He is the only way to get there; John 14:6).
Finally, are you Rapture Ready?
If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.
Former President Trump’s legal spokesperson Alina Habba warns Americans ‘cannot survive’ another four years under President Biden on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’#Fo…
As Dr. Fauci wraps five decades in government having become its highest-paid bureaucrat, he should consider ticking those boxes again. For old times’ sake.
Noted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Glenn Beck, took to the stage at the Fearless Roll Call 2.0 conference yesterday morning, regaling hundreds of men with tales of George Washington’s escapades while sharing an extended personal testimony that urged his audience to “surrender to Jesus Christ.”
During his message, Beck positioned himself as a true believer who is part of the family of God, and not a single person attending shared a word of rebuke or repudiation otherwise.
Yet our concerns have been simple: of what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What does light have with polytheist cultists? We appreciate much of what the Blaze founder does as much as the next person, recognizing the heavy price he’s paid for exposing the evil in our nation, but what does welcoming Beck and platforming him as a Christian brother say about the truth and exclusivity of the gospel to Christians and Mormons alike?
What message does it send to Mormons, who in recent years have been desperate and insistent on being seen as just another Christian denomination, rather than a blasphemous, heretical cult of damned and deluded false converts that are leading millions upon millions to hell?
We seek to minister to and save Mormons from their sins, snatching them from the flames. We don’t send them soul comforts and false assurances that they are part of the family of God.
If Fearless were a generic men’s conference that Beck was speaking at, that would be one thing. But this event was specifically and intentionally marketed as a conference for Christians and has every hallmark of being one. Public prayers, praise and worship, times of confessions, rousing speeches and messages, several sermons by well-known preachers, and tons of scripture quoted throughout.
We were told that while prominent preachers like Voddie Baucham and E.W Jackson would be preaching sermons, Beck would simply be giving a history lesson with nary an involvement in the spiritual discourse.
How wrong that turned out to be.
The event kicked off with a presentation from Preborn, the headline sponsor, then Jason Whitlock invited Anthony Walker to open up the event in prayer:
“Father God we thank you for today. We thank you for all of your many blessings. Father you tell us in your word ‘how good and pleasant it is for men to dwell together in unity‘.
We’re thankful for all these men who have come from all over to unite to be called together, but to be called by Your word…In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, and all the men said (in union) “AMEN”
Voddie Baucham spoke first, giving a sermon on manhood and masculinity, quoting the scriptures to demonstrate that the war against men and marriage is ultimately a war against God and his church, which marriage is an image of. Following the sermon, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson spoke, and then Beck, who, just as we called it, used his time to give an extended testimony while repeatedly framing himself as a believer.
All the while, not one person got up and rebuked him, shouted him down, or apologized later from the stage for allowing Beck to speak.
The irony of this happening at a Men’s conference on the theme of being fearless is not lost on us.
Beck shared:
“I just have to start with my testimony of Jesus Christ. I am an alcoholic. I grew up in an abusive family- Mark’s story and my story are kind of similar….
But you can break the cycle. My mother committed suicide when I was 13 years old. She was an alcoholic. My father was an alcoholic when he died. And child abuse happened in our family and in his family and in his family-for generations it happened.
And it was my decision after I sobered up: we’re gonna break this in our family once and for all. And it is hard to do, and there’s only one way to do it. Surrender to Jesus Christ. That’s it.
And that’s what our country needs to do. And unfortunately, the only way you can do that is if you’re driven to your knees. I had no other place, I was on my carpet. I was living in an apartment complex, I had lost my family and my children and my job and everything else. And I was on the carpet in this little apartment that I called the ‘United Nations building’ because I was the only one that lived there that spoke any English.
And I remember being on the ground feeling sorry for myself. And I realized I was either going to repeat my mother’s life or I was gonna get up, and get up every day after, and beg the Lord for help.Three years later, I was baptized, and my life changed overnight. Whatever is happening in your life, shed it. Shed it. You are so much more powerful.”
He continues:
Believe me, I wouldn’t be able to be here today. Mark (Robinson) knows about the media. He wouldn’t make it. I wouldn’t have made it if I had something to hide. You terrify people when you have nothing to hide. You’re like, ‘Well, we’re gonna be looking into you.’ ‘Go ahead.’ And you terrify them.
…Well, this has been a slow impact. We won’t make it through the next New Year’s if men don’t stand up, men of God and peace, people who understand the full armor of God. That’s not sending you into a war with a gun, that’s sending you into battle with God and the truth and peace and the sword of that truth, His word.
They are afraid. Why do you think they’re silencing everybody? They are terrified of the truth. Speak the truth. If you don’t know how to find the truth, get your face back into the scriptures; the only thing that will be your compass now in these confusing times, because remember ‘even the very elect will be deceived.’
You must be one with the spirit of God.You must have the ever-present spirit of the Holy Spirit with you. And when It says turn around, go back, head the other way, you better do it. And it’s a muscle. The more you obey, the stronger the Voice gets…
The morning sessions concluded with a prayer from Virgil Walker (Of G3 Ministries) saying a prayer over the meal, thanking the Lord for the “opportunity to join together as brothers and under the message of the gospel.”
“Let me pray for you. Father God, we give you thanks and praise for today for the opportunity to join together as brothers and under the message of the gospel, we’re grateful for your word, your truth that we’re standing here on that truth. Pray that you bless the food that we’re about to receive. Pray that you bless the conversations that will be had. We ask all this in Jesus’ name, amen. Enjoy your lunch.
Fox News host Mark Levin explains why he’ll press Donald Trump, should he be elected to the White House, to indict President Biden on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin….
For those of us who have raised children, you might remember the question. There was a commercial, as I recall, that used the question to emphasize one product or the other in a humorous way.
Children in the back seat of the car in the commercial kept asking “Are we there yet?”
We who transported our young kids on those times–especially on longer trips to Grandma’s or other destinations–have heard that question, often in whining tones as time went on during the longer trips. I certainly remember hearing it. And I’m sure my parents heard it on those trips from Pekin, Illinois, where we lived when I was a child, on the road to Hampton, my grandparent’s home in south Arkansas.
At this late moment of the Church Age I, myself, seem to be whining this question, and I’m hearing it from others on a growing basis.
“Are we there yet?”
It is coming from God’s children–believers in Jesus Christ who, like myself, sometimes grow weary,or vexed—as ol’ Lot might have put it while enduring to the end his time in Sodom.
“Are we there yet?” That is, how long before we reach the end of our Lord’s tolerance for the evil flourishing all around us while we keep “looking up,” as my friend, the late J.R. Church, used to put it at the close of his Prophecy In the News TV program each week?
Each and every day–actually, each and every news cycle—we’re inundated with end-times storm warnings. And it seems as if the words of warning from the chief prophetic meteorologist of all history is speaking directly to those who, as commanded by Him—are “watching” in order to discern where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
Jesus gave the signals to look for as earth’s inhabitants near the outbreak of history’s most virulent turbulence–that of the Tribulation era. The following is that storm warning.
“Are we there yet?” Is that great storm of the ages about to invade at this particular time? Let’s listen again to that Heaven-sent forecast that we can rely on as 100% accurate, because it was issued by God Himself.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matt 24: 6-13)
Heaven’s forecast, of course, covers a broad scope of history, so many parts of this Olivet Discourse prophecy by Jesus apply to much of history that has already unscrolled. Let us very briefly dissect this warning first in terms of its broad, historical sense.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars…”
Hundreds of wars have afflicted humanity since Jesus spoke these words. The greatest wars of all time, World Wars I and II, have caused the deaths of millions. The Romans waged war on the Jews, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jewish people scattered to all the world.
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…”
As a matter of fact, it has been the ethnic disputes and warfare that have wrought the deaths of millions across the world.
“And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places…”
Earthquakes have continued to rumble throughout history, while the wars have brought famine and disease to countless generations. We have seen lately in our brief time on the planet lately a tremendous increase in these things.
“All these are the beginning of sorrows…”
These great troubles have been accumulative, indeed been like birth pangs, growing more intense and coming in greater frequency.
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”
The history of hatred of the Jews is in full view of the eyes of the world. The Nazi Holocaust is the number-one sign of history that highlights the satanic hatred God’s chosen people have endured. Their rejection of the very name of Jesus Christ and their being blamed for His crucifixion have been the basis Satan has used to incite the world against Israel.
So history has proven the absolute accuracy of Jesus’ forecast. But it is the question ”Are we there yet?” I wish to address with regard to whether this generation has reached the moment when the Lord will say “enough is enough” and call believers to Himself so the greatest storm of all history can rage upon a world ripe for judgment.
We must place the same template over what is going on at this very moment to try to help answer: “Are we there yet?”
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars…”
The most profound threat of nuclear conflict might now be in the offing. Even the Cold War could not match the danger. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was effective, as the world’s two greatest superpowers were able to control escalation into man’s final war.
Not so now. There seems no control, as the power centers with the nuclear weapons are scattered around the globe and many decision-makers among the most diabolical of their leaders seem bent on having their way, regardless of possible ramifications of all-out nuclear war.
The primary cause of the conflict again centers around ethnic differences and demands. Greatest among these conflicts is the hatred of the Jews and of Israel by their neighboring countries.
And that hatred has expanded to include many within nations of Europe and even the United States of America.
The seas and waves of peoples are roaring, in that the protests against the Jews and Israel are front and center in even what is generally considered the civilized west.
At this very moment, even some among the Jewish people themselves are shouting along with the Israel-haters, “Stop the genocide” and “From the river to the sea.”
As Jesus forewarned, these Jews on the politically ideological left are “betraying one another.” The genocidal rage is building swiftly toward another holocaust. Jesus also had a forecast about this evil that will mark the very end of the age.
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
And hatred is building, too, against the Church–all believers in Jesus Christ and His message of being the one and only way to salvation (John 14: 6).
The comment by a legal defense fund for Christian persecution states the following:
Biden is empowering the radical Left to wage a surreptitious war on our Christian faith – prayer, churches, the Bible, and even Christian kids sharing their faith in school are all under attack. The Biden FBI has even placed spies in churches and targeted “radical traditionalist” Christians for investigation…
We’re in court right now defending a teacher who was banned from praying anywhere a student might see her.
I’ve never seen anything like it. (Jordan Seckulow, ACLJ Executive Director)
While unbelieving Jews must undergo the Tribulation storm to bring forth a remnant that will bring about God’s great promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, believers of this Church Age (Age of Grace) will be taken (paralambano) to be with Jesus in the clouds of Glory–in the Rapture. All indicators are that we have come to be right smack in the breaking turbulence of Jesus’ forecast of the end-times storm.
And this is why I believe we can answer with a resounding “YES!” the question: “Are we there yet?”
President Donald J. Trump disembarks Air Force One Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, at Steward International Airport in Orange County, N.Y., where President Trump will attend the Army-Navy football game nearby at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. (Official White House photo by. Shealah Craighead)
Jason Cohen
Daily Caller News Foundation
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on Friday criticized television anchors and legal commentators for celebrating the guilty verdict of former President Donald Trump.
A Manhattan jury on ThursdayconvictedTrump in the case brought by Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. Turley said it was disheartening for him to witness this “celebration” after “Outnumbered” aired a compilation including MSNBC host Joy Reid, former U.S. attorney Harry Litman and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, as well as Democratic politicians, with the law professor saying he would never celebrate a conviction.
“Some of the comments, they basically say, ‘this has completed me,’” Turley said. “You had one anchor that said, ‘I’ve been covering him for nine years and finally this has come.’ And you want to say, ‘if you were waiting to be completed by this conviction, that is a particularly a sad moment in your life.’”
“There is a dehumanizing aspect of talking about someone. I’m a criminal defense attorney and you will never ever see me celebrating a conviction, no matter who it is,” he added. “My kids would always joke on sentencing day when I would come back from the courts I would sit ’em all down and lecture them, ‘never get into a car with someone you don’t know, never get into a car with drugs’ and they’d say, ‘oh, it’s sentencing day’ because I would watch these young people going to jail. It’s a sick sort of fascination. People like to see people fall from great heights, but these are human beings and even if you don’t like Trump, it’s a pretty sad thing to celebrate.”
Weissmann on Wednesdaysaidhe had a “man crush” on Judge Juan Merchan.“With respect to Judge Merchan, I mean, I am, like, now — you know, I have like a man crush on him,” he said.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy on Thursdayreactedto the verdict more somberly, saying the case was “political” and that Trump was unfairly targeted. McCarthy also expressed hope that the former president’s appeal will be more just than the trial.
“It’s a historic trial of a former president of the United States by his partisan adversaries. Whatever you think of the results, it’s inconceivable in New York that anyone else other than Donald Trump would ever have been indicted in this way by Alvin Bragg, the elected progressive democratic district attorney who campaigned on the fact that he would go after Donald Trump, that he had a history of going after Donald Trump,” he said. “This is a very political exercise.”
Featured image credit: Screenshot/Rumble/Fox News
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
WORLD — Banana republics from across the globe have begun to feel a bit bad for the United States, and wondering if perhaps they ought to do something to help.
“It’s sad. I mean we have sham trials here too, but at least we have bananas,” said dictator Omar Carrillo. “I just really feel for them, you know?”
According to sources, several banana republics have begun to express concern that the corruption in America has gotten out of hand. “When we do show trials to destroy opposition candidates, we still charge them with crimes that at least exist. I mean, come on,” said General Jose Cavazos. “We also at least pretend that justice was done, instead of just smirking at the press and walking away. That’s so mean-spirited, right? We at least give our population false hope instead of just spitting in their faces.”
At publishing time, the banana republics had decided to help America by sending troops to help monitor the election for fairness, and also a bunch of bananas.
We asked Trump to narrate 7 more famous historic battles, and the result was tremendous and magnificent. Everyone says so.
Evangelist Ray Comfort was “horrified” by Pope Francis’ recent proclamation that human beings are “fundamentally good,” telling CBN News he believes the pontiff missed a significant opportunity to share the Gospel with a watching world.
“[I was] horrified, because the pope’s got a wonderful platform,” Comfort said. “I mean, here’s an opportunity to … tell people how they can find everlasting life.”
Watch Comfort react to the pontiff’s comments:
Comfort’s statements came after an intense debate erupted earlier this month over Pope Francis’ response to journalist Norah O’Donnell’s question about what gives the pontiff hope.
“Everything,” the pope said during the “60 Minutes” appearance. “You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things. You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead.”
But it’s what the pope said next that ignited a firestorm.
“And people are fundamentally good,” he added. “We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.”
Some fact-checkers on X attempted to clarify what they saw as a mistranslation of part of the pontiff’s statement. Thus, a caveat on the platform reads, “Pope Francis said ‘somos un poco pícaros y pecadores,’ meaning literally ‘we are a little bit rogue and sinners,’ speaking to some sinfulness within each of us. This is not the same as saying ‘there are some rogues and sinners.’”
Regardless, this doesn’t address the critiques that people like Comfort have over Pope Francis’ statements about the heart and general human goodness.
Pushing back on the quote, Comfort said it’s “a basic fundamental to believe what Jesus said” — that “there is none good but God.” Comfort said the main problem with the entire conversation about the human heart is the metric many people choose to gauge it.
“We measure ourselves by man’s standards rather than God’s,” he said. “When God says ‘good,’ He means moral perfection, and thought, word, and deed.”
Comfort continued, “And that’s why the Bible says, ‘There is none good,’ and the problem is, if you tell people they’re good, they don’t see their need of a Savior.”
Listen to the latest episode of the “Quick Start” Podcast
He went on to cite the 10 Commandments to show the seriousness of sin and the inability of humans to live in and through perfection.
Comfort’s main qualm, though, came back to what he saw as a squandered opportunity by Pope Francis to drive home biblical truth, particularly the fallen nature of the human heart.
“The Scripture says man’s heart is deceitfully wicked,” Comfort said. “It says actually, ‘Who can know it?’ That’s what Jeremiah 17 says …. who can understand the evil limitations on the human heart. It will go anywhere and do anything because [it] loves darkness rather than light because its deeds are evil.”
But the evangelist reminded people that Jesus offers a path to save men and women — one available to every human being.
“Eternal life is a free gift, and that’s good news for Catholics, non-Catholics atheists, agnostics, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims,” Comfort said. “You don’t have to get religious; God’s amazing grace will grant you everlasting life as a free gift upon our repentance and faith in Jesus. It’s such a simple Gospel, and that’s what I’d hope the pope would say, but he never does.”
Comfort spends much of his time sharing the Gospel in person and online, with Living Waters, his ministry, releasing tools to help people do the same.
The organization most recently made available a tract called, “Mind Game,” a tool providing “10 easy questions from the Bible.” It encourages Christians to bring up Scripture with those around them in a “fun way” that “seamlessly leads into the Gospel.”
Truth2Freedom's Blog 