Albert Barnes Commentary Ephesians 5:18

"And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;" — Ephesians 5:18 (ASV)

And be not drunk with wine. This was a danger to which they were exposed and a vice to which those around them were greatly addicted (see Barnes on Luke 21:34).

It is quite probable that in this verse there is an allusion to the orgies of Bacchus, or to the festivals celebrated in honor of that heathen god. He was "the god of wine," and during those festivals, men and women regarded it as an acceptable act of worship to become intoxicated and, with wild songs and cries, to run through streets, fields, and vineyards. To these things the apostle opposes psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as much more appropriate modes of devotion, and would have Christian worship stand out in strong contrast to the wild and dissolute habits of the heathen.

Plato says that while those abominable ceremonies in the worship of Bacchus continued, it was difficult to find a single sober man in all Attica (as noted by Rosenmuller, Altes und Neues Morgenland, in the place cited). On the subject of wine, and the wines used by the ancients, see Barnes on John 2:10 and John 2:11.

We may learn from this verse:

1. That it was not uncommon in those times to become intoxicated on wine; and

2. That it was positively forbidden.

   All intoxication is prohibited in the Scriptures—no matter by what means it is produced. There is, in fact, but one thing that produces intoxication: It is alcohol—the poisonous substance produced by fermentation. This substance is neither created nor changed, increased nor diminished, by distillation.

   It exists in the cider, the beer, and the wine after they are fermented. The whole process of distillation consists in driving it off by heat and collecting it in a concentrated form so that it may be preserved. But distilling does not make it, nor change it.

   Alcohol is precisely the same thing in wine as it is in brandy after it is distilled; in the cider or the beer as it is in the whiskey or the rum. Why then is it right to become intoxicated on it in one form rather than another?

   Since, therefore, there is danger of intoxication in the use of wine, as well as in the use of ardent spirits, why should we not abstain from one as well as the other? How can a man prove that it is right for him to drink alcohol in the form of wine, and that it is wrong for me to drink it in the form of brandy or rum?

Wherein is excess. There has been much difference of opinion about the word translated excess here—aswtia. It occurs in only two other places in the New Testament, where it is translated riot (Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4). The adjective occurs once (Luke 15:13), where it is translated riotous.

The word (derived, according to Passow, from a and swzw, to save, deliver) means that which is unsafe, not to be recovered, lost beyond recovery; then, that which is abandoned to sensuality and lust: dissoluteness, debauchery, revelry. The meaning here is that all this follows the use of wine. Is it proper, then, for Christians to be in the habit of drinking it?

Doddridge remarks, "Wine is so frequently the cause of this, by the ungrateful abuse of the bounty of Providence in giving it, that the enormity is represented, by a very strong and beautiful figure, as contained in the very liquor."

But be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. How much more appropriate for Christians than to be filled with the spirit of intoxication and revelry! Let Christians, when about to indulge in a glass of wine, think of this admonition. Let them remember that their bodies should be the temple of the Holy Ghost, rather than a receptacle for intoxicating drinks. Was any man ever made a better Christian by the use of wine? Was any minister ever better fitted to counsel an anxious sinner, or to pray, or to preach the gospel, by the use of intoxicating drinks? Let the history of wine-drinking and intemperate clergymen answer.