BE NOT DRUNK
WITH WINE
Ephesians 5:
17: Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the
Spirit; 19: Speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Drunkenness is sin. Drinking alcohol is not. We are not
forbidden to drink alcohol in scripture but we are forbidden to get drunk. But
the Holy Spirit is not using Paul to merely chop off one limb of the corrupt
tree. If that were the case this would not apply to those who do not get drunk
with wine. We should also look at “drunkenness” as a metaphor which cuts at the
very root of the tree, that is, our sin nature.
Drunkenness caused by drugs and alcohol is like the
intoxication caused by the old man of sin within us. Giving ourselves to our
old fleshly man is like giving ourselves to wine. When our works, our belly,
our senses, our pleasures, our glory, and the cares of this world are a man’s
god then he is drunk with the wine of his flesh. Our sin-nature is our root problem. A man could never touch alcohol but the root is
still there. When a man becomes drunk with literal alcohol, it is because he
first became drunk in his old man of sin.
The Lord is teaching us to walk after the Spirit, not
after the flesh. Notice, he says “And be
not drunk with wine…But be filled with the Spirit.” Both effect something in us. The flesh produces
excess: pride, rioting, songs of the
drunkard, rejoicing in the works of the flesh. But being filled with Spirit
produces “Speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Therefore, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, let us drink
deep from the cup of salvation rather than being drunk with the iniquity of the
flesh or of wine.