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]