And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
We have been considering together Paul’s injunction to us to be filled with the Spirit, and so obviously the great question for us to consider is how this can be true of us. How are we to become the kind of person delineated in the New Testament – rejoicing in Christ Jesus, filled with love and joy and peace and all these other manifestations of the gracious work of the Spirit? In order to consider that, we come back again to this verse in Ephesians, and there are a number of preliminary points to which I must call your attention. In the first place, we notice that this is a command: ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit,’ and then, secondly, we see that it is a continuous command. It really means ‘go on being filled’ with the Spirit. Paul does not tell us to be filled with the Spirit once, and from then on to live on this great gift we have received. Rather, the command is that we should be constantly filled with the Spirit, it is a continuous performance. And the last general point I would make in this connection is that the verb is in the passive – it says, ‘go on being filled’. It does not say, ‘go on filling yourselves with the Spirit’, because that is patently something we cannot do. Now that is important. It is a reminder again that the Holy Spirit is a Person; so that we cannot, as it were, fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit whenever we like. But what we can do is allow the Holy Spirit to fill us – we can go on being filled with him; it is a command, a continuous command, and in the passive.
Now there is a good deal of confusion in people’s minds with respect to the way in which we can reconcile these two – the command and the passive element. There are two main schools of thought with regard to this, as there generally are with regard to all these matters. They both take their case to different extremes, whereas scriptural teaching combines the two. As I have just said, it seems to me that the only way of holding these two ideas comfortably in our minds at one and the same time is to take a firm hold of the fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person. We must therefore, as we have seen, cease to think in terms of some power, like electricity, or some liquid being poured into us, like some kind of force or energy. Rather, because the Holy Spirit is a Person, then the essence of being filled with the Spirit is that our lives should be consciously controlled by him.
What exactly, therefore, does this involve? ‘That,’ someone may say, ‘is what I desire above everything else, but how does it happen? What do I have to do?’ Let us start again with the negative: there is no teaching in the Scriptures that tells us that what we have to do is wait or agonise in prayer for this to happen to us. Nor must we allow ourselves to go into a state of complete passivity, neither in the form known as ‘tarrying’ nor in any other form. There are some people who do not teach the tarrying, but who do teach complete passivity. They would say that if we want to be filled with the Spirit we must just cease from action altogether and even from thinking; and that the whole art in this matter is the art of abandonment, of resignation, an attempt, as it were, to annihilate our very personalities and to surrender ourselves in that complete sense.
But here, again, I suggest that that is a teaching which cannot be substantiated from the New Testament. If that teaching were true, then we would find that all Christians were identical and there would be no manifestations of individuality and personality whatsoever in any teacher or preacher. That, however, is clearly not the case; the apostle Paul retained his essential personality, so did the apostle Peter. People have fallen into the same error with regard to the inspiration of the Scriptures, but here again, personality remains, and the styles of writing of the apostle Peter and the apostle John are entirely different, although the message is the same and it is all perfectly controlled by the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is surely obvious that to be filled with the Spirit does not mean a kind of mechanical passivity, with a man’s personality going out of action – it is something much more wonderful than that. It means, rather, that though the man’s personality is still there it is entirely controlled by the Holy Spirit – that is the principle.
Perhaps the best way I can put this to you is to put it in terms of the supreme example of it, and that is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I wonder whether we have grasped this as we should? It is indeed one of the most astounding things in the Scriptures – it is certainly the essence of understanding the Incarnation and all that followed. We are told two things about the Lord Jesus Christ which on the surface seem to be quite incompatible. Firstly, we are told that he is very God of very God. While he lived here on earth, he was still the eternal Son of God, not in any way shorn of any of the powers that were his in heaven. He did not divest himself of his godhead; he was still God in the fullest sense conceivable. Yet we are told about him that he was baptised with the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and John tells us that ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him’ (Jn 3:34). We are also told that he was filled with the Spirit and led of the Spirit. Indeed, he himself says things like this – he, the very eternal Son of God, co-equal, co-eternal with God but undiminished in his power, he says, ‘As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things’ (Jn 8:28). He says that all his words and all his works are given to him by his Father. He is told what to say, and he is told what to do. He says, ‘I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me’(Jn 5:30).
How do we understand all this? How do we reconcile these statements with one another? Surely the answer must be that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, having taken unto himself human nature and having appeared, therefore, in ‘the likeness of sinful flesh’ as a man, deliberately took upon himself the form of a servant, and subjected himself and his own personality to the leading and the guidance of the Spirit. He did not do away with his personality, nor even with his gifts, but he chose, for the sake of our salvation, to humble himself in that way. He did not exercise his own will, nor did he depend upon his own power, in order to achieve our redemption, but lived life as a man. So, while all these powers and faculties and propensities were there, he did not exercise them, but was dependent and subservient to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Thus we find ourselves confronted by the whole marvel and miracle of the Incarnation and his life here upon earth – that he, who had created all things and by whom all things consist, seemed to be entirely dependent, weak and helpless. The explanation is that he willed all this, quite deliberately. He submitted himself to this control and leading.
When you and I are exhorted and commanded to be filled with the Spirit it means exactly the same thing. We are to do, in turn, what the Son of God did when he was here on earth. We are to realise that the Holy Spirit is within us, and we are to realise what his desire is with respect to us. We put that earlier in terms of James 4:5, ‘that the spirit’ that God has caused to dwell within us ‘lusteth to envy’ for our sanctification – the ‘flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh’ (Gal 5:17). His supreme desire is that we may be sanctified and holy, that we may really be separated from the world, and unto God. We must realise that and submit to him, allowing him to do his work within us. We must know something of his great power within us, that he is working within us ‘both to will and to do of his good pleasure’. Therefore, that is obviously the essential principle in this matter. We must submit ourselves to his control in all things, and that is the essence of this command to be filled with the Spirit.
But I know that having said that I am still leaving large numbers of people in difficulty with regard to how exactly these two things can be put together. How can I, living my life in the flesh, manifest the personality which God has given me, and yet at the same time be subservient to the power of the Holy Spirit and be led and controlled by him? What exactly is our relationship to the Spirit? At this point people generally use illustrations and there is no doubt that a picture or analogy can be of value. Yet I think we must always be very careful with illustrations. If I venture to put one to you now, in order to make this point clear, I realise that I am doing something that is attended by considerable risk; for no one illustration can convey the whole truth, though different illustrations may perhaps represent different aspects of the matter. There are two illustrations that are very frequently used which seem to me to be quite wrong and utterly misleading. The first illustration which is used is this. Imagine a man in the sea or in a pool of water. ‘Now,’ it is said, ‘the body of that man has a tendency to sink and will probably do so, for that is the natural thing to do – to go down. But,’ they continue, ‘if that man puts a lifebelt on he will no longer sink, because the lifebelt holds him up.’ So, according to that illustration, our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, is, as it were, a kind of lifebelt that keeps us from sinking. That, therefore, is the way not to sin and to be sanctified and to live the holy life: you abide in Christ, you put on the lifebelt and the lifebelt will hold you up. But the difficulty with that illustration, it seems to me, is that it suggests utter passivity: all you do is don your lifebelt; indeed, they go so far as to say that the moment you are out of the lifebelt, down you go.
Then another illustration used by the same people is the famous illustration about the poker. The poker is black and cold and rigid, but if you take it and put it into a fire it will become hot and you will be able to bend it. While it remains in the fire it is red hot, but the moment you take it out it becomes cold and black and rigid again. So the only thing you have to do is to see that the poker is kept in the fire, because while it is there, the fire will do all these things to it and for it. Once again, I suggest that that is a representation of pure passivity and for this reason those two illustrations have never commended themselves to me. So I would venture to put to you some other pictures. I remind you again that I am well aware of the defects of all illustrations, but I am trying to take spiritual teaching a little further and it seems to me that a figure like this surely does help at this point.
Imagine a man starting up a business – it does not matter what sort, take a grocer’s, if you like. There is the man, working in that business, weighing up his pounds of sugar and doing the things that have to be done. He is, of course, doing his best, working as hard as he can, because the harder he works the more business he gets, and his bank balance is going to show the result. However, for various reasons this man decides to sell this one-man owned business to a company, to a chain store. But a part of the agreement is that he should stay on in the same shop as manager. The position now is that that man, in the self-same shop, should be doing exactly what he did before. He should be equally careful, equally zealous, equally polite, equally anxious to attract business, equally careful in his weighing. Yet there is this obvious difference – he is no longer doing it for himself, and at the back of it all he is being controlled by another power who can step in at any time and suggest various things to him. Beforehand, he decided everything, now he is subservient to another authority, to which he submits. He does all he can, he is not passive, he is going on as he was before and yet he is being controlled. The control of the business, its ultimate prosperity, success and profit are not in his hands. As a result, at one and the same time, the man’s individuality and personality are preserved absolutely and yet he is being controlled by this company, by this higher power.
That is one illustration, and yet it seems to me that there is a difficulty about it which I must correct by giving you another. It does not represent the power that works within us. It deals with the question of control, and of the relationship of wills, but it does not show that over and above the Holy Spirit is within us, working within us both to will and to do. This is the ultimate guarantee of our being sanctified and living the holy life.
So I must take a second illustration, which is perhaps a little more difficult and involved. Yet it is very helpful to me personally, and so I want to suggest it to you. Let us try to look at this in terms of a man who is subject to seasickness, sailing on a boat. Now this man’s desire is to avoid being seasick. There is one method that is advocated for dealing with this which, from the standpoint of physiology, is very sound, and which has the advantage of being successful in practice, and it is this. The man is told first and foremost to stand as far forward as he can upon the ship. Then he is told that at all costs he must not look at the waves, nor at the side of the ship nor immediately in front of him. Even though everything within him wants to do this, it is the one thing he must not do; instead, he must look at the horizon in the far distance. Not only must he avert his gaze from the waves, he must also look at the horizon, and, furthermore, he must deliberately try not to balance himself, he must relax completely.
Now the reason why the man is told to do this is that there is a mechanism in our bodies, in what is called the inner ear, which is especially put there by God to keep us in a balanced condition; a wonderful little mechanism called the semi-circular canals. This mechanism is most intricate, but as long as we can relax, it will work. We must avoid doing anything that makes us think about it, in order to give these semi-circular canals a chance to do the work which they have been put into our body to do. We must also avoid the things that makes us feel sick, but though we may keep all these rules about diet, yet if we still keep looking at the waves we will probably be ill. So we keep all those rules, we avoid looking at the waves, and trying to balance ourselves, and holding ourselves rigid. We let these semi-circular canals in our body do their work, and if we do this we will find that we will not suffer from seasickness.
There, it seems to me, we have a very helpful analogy. You have perhaps been told by sailors and others that for the first few days at sea they are generally seasick but, they say, it passes and they are all right again. What happens is that unconsciously they get into the way of doing all the things which I have been describing to you. We talk about ‘the rolling gait’ of the typical sailor; it is because he has got into the habit of rolling backwards and forwards with the ship. He is allowing the mechanism of the body to maintain his balance. Now for all its imperfections, I suggest to you that this illustration again points to something that is being taught by the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is in us. He is there to do this work, so we must let him do it. But it is not a complete passivity on our part because there is a great deal which we have to do. Even though the Holy Spirit is in us, if we keep looking at the world and its enticements and attractions, we will go down. So what we must do is realise God’s provision for us in this respect and co-operate with him. We must work with the Spirit, and as long as we are working with the Spirit, and carrying out these instructions, we shall not be fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
Those, then, are two pictures which I have offered for your consideration in order to illustrate certain things which are stated so clearly in the Scriptures. Listen, for instance, to the apostle Paul. When dealing with this subject he almost seems to be contradicting himself, but there is no contradiction if you remember the principle – ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’ (Phil 4:13). You see the apparent contradiction? There was once an old-style preacher, who kept on saying over and over again, 1 can do all things ...’ Then he put a question to the Apostle and said, ‘Paul, do you mean to say you can do this and that?’
‘Yes,’ said Paul, ‘I can do it.’
So the preacher came to the conclusion that Paul was a great egoist who was always boasting, and he was very doubtful whether Paul really could do all the things of which he boasted. But Paul kept on saying, ‘I can do all things’ – and then he went on to say, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ said the old preacher, ‘I did not realise there were two of you!’
That is so characteristic of the Scriptures. I can indeed do all things. I am the one who does them, but in a sense I am only doing them because of this higher control. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, by means of the power which he is giving me through his Holy Spirit. I cannot do them alone, but I do them because of the way in which he enables me to do them. I am not passive, but active, as we see also in Galatians 2:20. Notice how Paul goes on, each thing seeming to contradict the one before, but there is no contradiction at all. What Paul is saying, in effect, is this: ‘I am no longer living for myself; I am now submitting myself to and am controlled by the Holy Spirit. I am doing this deliberately, I am subjecting myself.’ How zealous he was! He worked harder than any other preacher, ‘more than them all’, as he constantly says, and yet he is not boasting because it is all being done after, and according to, the life of the Spirit.
But perhaps the final example of this is the one which we find running through the Old Testament. The whole trouble with the children of Israel was that they failed to realise this particular principle which we are considering together. That is what God keeps on saying to them: ‘Why do you not listen to me? You do not realise who you are and what you are! They constantly failed to realise that they were God’s people. They forgot that if they would but realise that, if they would only keep in the right relationship to him, they would have nothing to worry about at all. Look at the amazing way in which God routed their enemies. He had promised to do that and he used the children of Israel to accomplish it, but they kept on forgetting, and kept comparing themselves with the other nations. ‘We must have a king,’ they said, ‘because the other nations have one.’ They could not trust God, so they had a human, earthly king. And then they saw other nations making alliances in order to defend their territories, and they said that they must do the same; so they made alliances with the Syrians and others. Then they said that others were using horses, so they must use them too. All along, their trouble was due to the fact that they did not realise who they were, what God’s promises were and the power of his might.
‘Let me be your rear-guard,’ says God in effect. ‘Let me be your horsemen and your horses and your chariots. I can be, I will be – trust me, co-operate with me. Do all that you are doing by my power and by my strength. Let me work in you and through you.’
It was because they constantly failed to realise that teaching that they went so frequently and so sadly astray.
So there we have what, it seems to me, is the essential principle in this great matter – this relationship between myself and the Spirit, my will and his will; how at one and the same time I can say that I do something and yet that he does it. Think of it supremely in terms of our Lord himself and the way he lived his life as a man here in this world, dependent upon the Father for words, for works, for everything. And you and I are to realise that God has put his Spirit within us. We must listen to him and be attracted to him and be controlled by him and work with him as he enables us. Again, we must turn to Paul’s great statement in Philippians: ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’
There is the principle, and having laid that down, we are now in a position to proceed to the practical instructions that are given. If all this is true in essence, this is what I must remember: I must never grieve the Spirit, and, positively, I must walk in the Spirit.