"Drunk" with the Spirit

In Ephesians 5:18, we are exhorted to not get drunk with wine, which has such terrible consequences, but to be filled with the Spirit.  People get drunk to enjoy themselves, to experience the pleasure it offers when the alcohol controls them.  But its consequences, like the ultimate effect of so many worldly pleasures, are self-destructive and harmful.  In this illuminating comparison, Paul intimates that being under the control of the Spirit is both similar and different.  The Christian experiences great joy when the heart is filled with God’s Spirit. The pleasures of the world can never be fully satisfying.  We quickly grow tired of even the best of them.  Eating food is good only up to a point.  Excess makes so many legitimate desires very harmful.  And many of these pleasures can be indulged only at the expense of a guilty conscience.  Unbelievers cannot help but feel condemned in so much that they delight to do.  But there is no danger of excess or guilt in being “drunk” with the Spirit.  We never grow weary of spiritual joys, and we can never desire them too much.  In the things of God we should enlarge our desires as much as we can.  Spiritual delights can satisfy the entire heart.  Our highest joys may be indulged with no fear of a guilty conscience.  What a blessing it is to be commanded to seek our highest enjoyment in things in harmony with conscience!