Dear Church Family:
We will be celebrating the Lord’s Table this coming Sunday. I trust that all of us will properly prepare our hearts to participate in this important ordinance of the church.
We will also continue in our study of the gospel of John, with particular emphasis on John 1:6-14 and the glory, grace, and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Soli Deo Gloria!
During the last week of July we took a look at Ephesians 5:18: And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled with the Spirit (HCSB). We said at the time that being filled with the Holy Spirit means being “Christ-centered”. It means that Jesus controls us and is living His life through us.
Actually, Ephesians 5:18-20 is a definitive treatment about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is in Christ, and accordingly by God the Holy Spirit, that we are able to live, and move, and have our very existence. So, Ephesians 5:18-20 becomes one of the most important passages in the Bible about the reality of daily Christian living.
The following is a portion of our good friend Robert J. Morgan’s discussion of Ephesians 5:19: Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music to the Lord in your heart (HCSB). After giving us the general command in Ephesians 5:18 that we are “to be filled with the Spirit”, Ephesians 5:19-20 complete a description of what that really means. Here is the main portion of Morgan’s account as set forth in chapter 54 of his book, One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart.
[In discussing Ephesians 5:18-20, Morgan states:]
In the Upper Room discourses of John 13:17, Jesus explained that He had to return to Heaven but would send another Comforter who would be with us and in us forever. After His Resurrection, Jesus ascended to Heaven as promised and 10 days later the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church, as described in Acts, chapter 2.
Now when we receive Christ, we are actually receiving the Holy Spirit who applies the finished work of Christ to our lives. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes to live within us. As we live in yielded obedience and faith, we are filled with His Spirit, living under His influence.
The first and most natural by-product is a song in our hearts. Notice the unbroken nature of this passage: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music to the Lord in your hearts.”
We are to sing: (1) to one another, joining voices and encouraging one another with songs of praise; and (2) to the Lord.
We are to do it: (1) with our voices in speaking and singing; and (2) in our hearts.
We are to do it with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Experts debate the differences among the three terms, but it makes sense to think of them in epoch terms. Psalms are hymns from Biblical history. Hymns are those from Christian history. Spiritual songs are expressions of worship that are more contemporary to our own generation. Ephesians 5:19 makes a case for what is often called “blended worship”.
The primary point, however, is this: the first evidence of being filled with the Spirit is a singing heart.
Four times the New Testament tells us that, in some wonderful sense, the Holy Spirit represents the presence of Jesus Himself via the Spirit.
“Singing I go along life’s road, praising the Lord, praising the Lord. Singing I go along life’s road, for Jesus has lifted my load.” (Eliza E. Hewitt)
Morgan ends there, but the ongoing influence of God the Holy Spirit of course never ends. When we are living completely under the influence of the Holy Spirit, our entire life itself will be a melodious song to Almighty God and to others whom we encounter on a continual basis.
Next week we will finish our Ephesians 5:18-20 “trilogy” of verses by exploring what I believe to be the most essential ingredient of all in Eph. 5:20 ... gratitude. Giving thanks for all of you now.Soli Deo Gloria!
Love,
John & Terri
Eph. 5:19