“Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Most people read that verse as a rule about alcohol. But the very next line takes a surprising turn. Paul goes on to describe believers “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19).
What does avoiding wine have to do with singing? On the surface, the two seem disconnected. Once you see the world Paul was writing into, the connection becomes clear, and so does a challenge for every believer today.
The Culture Behind Ephesians 5
Ephesians 5 is a quietly countercultural chapter. In the household instructions that follow, Paul speaks directly to wives, to children and to slaves (Ephesians 5:22; 6:1; 6:5). In the Greco-Roman world, all three lived under the authority of the head of the household and had little standing of their own. Many readers see only a chain of command, but the remarkable thing is that Paul addresses them at all. He speaks to them as people who matter to God.
Ephesians 5:18 works the same way. Paul is speaking into the culture around the church.
The Greek world was full of gods, and people chose which ones to devote themselves to. One of the most widely worshiped was Dionysus, the god of wine, festivity and religious ecstasy, known to the Romans as Bacchus. His worship was woven into everyday life. Bands of devotees and musicians traveled from city to city, bringing the worship with them. You did not have to go to a temple. The worship came to you.
That worship combined wine and music. Worshipers drank and sang until they reached a kind of ecstasy, hoping to lose themselves and be filled with the divine.
Why That Road Leads Nowhere
It was a false promise. You can drink and sing as long as you like, and you will never be filled with God that way. The best you get is a hangover.
Even believers in Ephesus who wanted nothing to do with Dionysus lived surrounded by his worship. It was in the air. So Paul is not simply handing down a rule. He is saying: you do not have to be shaped by what is happening around you. Instead of being filled with wine and the songs of the culture, be filled with the Spirit, and let your songs be songs of worship to the Lord.
The early church had already been accused of the same confusion. On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, onlookers mocked them: “They are filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13). Peter answered, “these people are not drunk, as you suppose” (Acts 2:15). There is a filling that wine can only imitate.
You Will Be Filled with Something
Here is the takeaway for us: your life is going to be filled with something. Television, news, the radio on your commute, the conversations at your table, ballgames, your phone. Your life is going to get filled. The only question is what you fill it with.
Galatians 5 sets the works of the flesh beside the fruit of the Spirit, and Paul says, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Something is always being nurtured in your life. The flesh is not always sinful. Sometimes it is simply selfish. But whatever you feed is what grows.
Churches used to build some of this in by default. Believers spent several nights a week at church, many listened only to Christian music, and the phone in your pocket could not do much more than play a simple game. Much of the old legalism is rightly behind us, but now we have to be intentional about what used to happen by default.
The first answer is always to read your Bible and pray. That has not changed. But here are four simple swaps that can help nurture a Spirit-filled life this week.
1. Fill Your Ears with Worship Music
This one comes straight from the text: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Music is one of the main ways a culture gets inside us. Secular music is not automatically sinful, but it is worth taking an inventory of what you allow through your “ear gate” all day long. If every song you hear is about drinking, heartbreak and losing your job, do not be surprised when your outlook starts to sound like your playlist.
What you consistently hear and dwell on shapes what you believe is possible. Worship-filled, Word-based music builds faith. Try starting your morning with worship and ordering your day toward the Lord.
2. Fill Your Week with Spirit-Filled Preaching
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). One sermon on Sunday is not enough to carry you through the week. If the news or sports talk is always on in the background, try swapping in a sermon or a preaching podcast. Listen to part of a message on the drive to work.
There is real value in keeping the Word in your ears, because you make better decisions when you are full of the Word. When Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed his damaged airliner on the Hudson River in 2009, investigators found that simulator pilots who turned back immediately could reach an airport, but when they allowed about 35 seconds for a human to recognize the emergency and decide, the flights did not make it. Life puts you under that same human factor. When a high-stakes decision arrives fast, the Word already built up inside you shapes what you do.
3. Fill Your Hands with Serving Others
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). The flesh keeps your mind on yourself: your desires, your problems, your circumstances. Serving others pulls you outside of that. When you help someone facing harder circumstances than yours, you tend to come away grateful.
Scripture also promises that serving comes back around: “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (Proverbs 11:25). When you serve people, your reward does not ultimately come from people. It comes from the Lord, and He is always on time.
4. Fill Your Life with Generosity
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). Notice the words: all grace, all sufficiency, all things, all times.
Generosity and Spirit-filled living go hand in hand. It is nearly impossible to give away a significant amount of money in simple obedience and stay unchanged. If you have ever wondered how to grow your faith, try giving. The first tithe is a real step of faith, and it is supposed to feel that way.
Fill It with What Nurtures the Spirit
You are going to fill your life with something. So fill it with things that nurture Spirit-filled living: worship music, Spirit-filled preaching, serving others and generosity. None of these is complicated, and all of them pay spiritual dividends.
Be filled with the Spirit, and let what you take in every day help keep you that way.