Lesson 14 May 15, 2002
#2
"BE FILLED IN (your) SPIRIT"
This
view, asserts that the filling takes place in the sphere of one's own human
spirit.
This view does have a number
of advantages over the previous view of control. Solves some of the problems of the first view but creates others.
#1. Crater has clearly established in his
thesis that the phraseology used in Luke and Acts to refer to the filling of
the Spirit is different from Ephesians 5:18.
#2. Crater also pointed out that there is a
definite lack of emphasis on the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New
Testament epistles. Concerning this lack he has written:
#3. He recognized that Eph 5:18 is not directly
related to the expressions of filling in Luke or Acts, he has clearly shown
that it can be related to the activities of the local church meeting as seen by
the immediate context of Ephesians 5:18-20.
(1) Crater's thesis fails to answer the key
question:
If we are to be filled in our
human spirit, what are we to be filled with?
(2) I think we would agree with Crater that the
primary emphasis of the passage is on the circumstances that flow from the
filling, but to largely eliminate the Holy Spirit from the picture as he does
goes contrary to the wider context of the epistle as well.
(3) The third interpretation of Ephesians 5:18
endeavors to answer all of these questions while relating to the context of the
entire epistle. [correct view]
#3 "BE FILLED BY THE SPIRIT" (agency)
In the third translation of
the verse in question, the preposition en is translated "by."
- The Holy Spirit is thus regarded as the
personal Agent of the filling.
(1) To begin, in Ephesians 1:10 Paul refers to
the "summing of all things in
Christ"
The idea expressed is that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the very
Center and Focus of all that God is doing to work out His sovereign
purpose (cf. Col. 1:18; John 16:14).
(2) In Ephesians 1:23 Paul states that the
Church is "His Body, the fulness
(plhrwma) of Him who fills all in all."
Thus the Church is "Christ's fulness," that is,
something which is filled with Christ, Who fills all things.
So the church receives from
Him what He possesses and is endowed by Him with all that is required for the
realization of its goals in time.
Col.
2:9 plh,rwma of deity; see connection with Jn 1:16 ek plh,rwma
The will of the Head is
carried out, exercised through the body!
It is this connection that is
the source of growth. Col. 2:18-19
(3) In Eph. 3:16-19 Paul prays that we may be
able to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ with the result that we
may "be filled up to (plhrow
eij) all the fulness (plhrwma) of God" (NASV),
i.e., that we may attain to His full character, or Godlikeness.
(4) In Eph. 4:10 the Lord Jesus is said to have
"descended" (become incarnate) for the express purpose "that He might fill all things".
(5) In 4:13 the goal of giving gifted men to
the Church to equip the saints is that we all might attain to the maturity
exemplified by "the fullness of
Christ".
(6) With the development of the theme of
"filling" as seen in Ephesians, it is therefore far more consistent
to take the thought of filling in 5:18 to be the same as that of the other
references in the epistle, especially in view of the fact that Paul uses a
different Greek expression here than Luke does in his Gospel or Acts to speak
of the "filling of the Spirit."
(7) The meaning then of Ephesians 5:18 is that
Christ Himself is the unexpressed content of the filling, which is produced by
the expressed agency of the Holy Spirit. [passive Voice]