Be Filled

When in Ephesians 5:18 Paul urges the church to “be filled with the Spirit,” this is not simply an exhortation to individual piety. It is a charge to be “joined together” (Eph. 2:21) as the people of God, and so, to be the temple. The command to be filled with the Spirit draws on all of the temple imagery we have surveyed. Here Paul says, in effect: be the gathered people of God, in whose midst God dwells; be the new temple of God, the place where his presence is made manifest on earth; be the tabernacle of God, the place in the center of the community filled with the radiant glory of God’s Spirit. The imperative command of verse 18 “is not just another in a long string; rather, it is the key to all the others” [Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 791). Indeed, this command can be seen as the culmination of the entire book. —Steven R. Guthrie, Creator Spirit: The Holy Spirit and the Art of Becoming Human, 78-79