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Observe here, 1. Our apostle's seasonable dehortation: Be not drunk with wine. Drunkenness, as well as uncleanness, and drunkenness with uncleanness, for they commonly go together, were sins which the Ephesians and unconverted pagans were generally guilty of. St. Paul therefore cautions these new converts against this old sin, which transports men to insolent and outrageous practices, as the words next intimate, For therein is excess. The original word may be rendered lewdness and lust, to denote, that when persons are inflamed with wine, they are liable to all manner of excessive wickedness, and particularly to the sin of uncleanness.
Observe, 2. The duty exhorted to, in order to the prevention of this sin; and that is, to labour and endeavour, instead of being filled with wine, to be full of the Holy Spirit of God, to be filled with the sanctifying graces of the Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God, he allows us to seek after the greatest and fullest measures of the Holy Spirit; and injurious we are to ourselves, if we content ourselves with small measures and degrees of it.
The sense of the word seems to be this: Let no Christian allow himself in any sinful excesses; let him never fill himself with wine or strong drink, or with meat and drink to the full, for that fulness will breed all manner of sensual lusts in him: but let his desires and endeavours be carried out after the grace and Spirit of God, let him be filled therewith; for that fulness will keep the soul holy, the body chaste, and render the Christian fit for the fruitation and enjoyment of God in heaven. Take your fill of the Spirit; you can never be overfilled.