Likely the most important truth about the Holy Spirit’s active work that we must remember is that the Holy Spirit always works through his Word. Through his illuminating power, the Spirit opens our minds and hearts to accept and submit to the authority of the Word that he inspired. And thus it is through such submission to the Word that the Spirit sanctifies us. This is critically important to recognize: the Holy Spirit will not sanctify us apart from his Word.

In fact, this is exactly what is indicated when Paul commands us to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). Like Spirit baptism and illumination, Spirit filling is another work of the Spirit that has been significantly confused in by errant teaching, but careful attention to the biblical text will give us clarity as to the exact nature of this work of the Spirit.

Likely the most important truth about the Holy Spirit’s active work that we must remember is that the Holy Spirit always works through his Word.

Sometimes in Scripture, language of filling is used to describe the special empowerment that the Spirit gave to key leaders of God’s people during important periods in redemptive history. In the New Testament, these all appear in Luke and Acts, where Luke uses the term pimplēmi, in which the grammar clearly indicates that he is the content of the filling. These leaders were filled with the Spirit in a unique way that empowered them to lead God’s people.

In contrast, Luke uses the adjective plērēs five times in which the grammar indicates that the Spirit is the content of the filling and that this is a figurative expression. In other words, these cases describe individuals who are characterized as being “spiritual.”¹These instances are Luke 4:1; Acts 6:3, 6:5, 7:55, 11:24. Similarly, in one case Luke uses the verb plēroō in Acts 13:52 to describe the disciples as characterized by spiritual joy. This is similar to when we might describe someone as being a “spiritual” person or a “godly” person. What we mean is that the person’s life is characterized by qualities that identify him with qualities of God himself.

So to summarize, Luke uses two different word groups to distinguish two kinds of filling:

• pimplēmi refers to unique filling for special ministry
• plērēs/plēroō refers to ordinary filling, meaning characterized as “spiritual”

Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:18–19 is related to the second use but grammatically different:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

In both cases above, the Spirit is the content of the filling, either in a unique sense or in an ordinary metaphorical sense. Paul uses the same verb that Luke used in Acts 13:52, plēroō, but with a different grammatical construction. Instead of “Spirit” being the content (genitive) of the filling, in Ephesians 5:18 “Spirit” is the object (dative) of the preposition en (translated in the ESV as “with”). Greek grammarians note that this grammatical construction never indicates content in the New Testament.²Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament with Scripture, Subject, and Greek Word Indexes (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1997), 374–75. Rather, “Spirit” refers to the means instead of content. Here are helpful illustrations of the difference between content and means:

Illustrations of the difference between content and means³Andrew David Naselli, Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2010), 252.

Content	Means
Fill a pool with water	Fill a pool with a hose
Fill a tire with air	Fill at tire with an air-compressor
Fill one’s stomach with food and liquid	Fill one’s stomach with eating and drinking utensils
Fill a tooth’s cavity with amalgam or composite	Fill a tooth’s cavity with dental tools
Be filled with the Spirit.	Be filled by the Spirit.

In other words, in Ephesians 5:18, “Spirit” is the means of filling rather than the content of filling, and thus it would be better to translate the command as “be filled by the Spirit” (the Greek preposition en can be translated either way).

So if the Spirit is the means of filling in Ephesians 5:18, what is the content of the filling? The best way to determine the answer is by looking at the parallel verse in Colossians 3:16:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The command here is nearly identical to Ephesians 5:18, but instead of the command being to let the Spirit fill us, the command in Colossians 3:16 is to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. The implication is that these are related concepts, and thus the content of the filling is the Word of Christ.

The command of Ephesians 5:18, then, ought to be clear: Paul commands us to let the Holy Spirit fill us with his Word. The point is clear: the Spirit always works through his Word. To be filled by the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit’s Word.

To be filled by the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit’s Word.

And, of course, this is why Spirit filling is so crucial to our sanctification, since it is the Word that the Spirit breathed out “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tm 3:16–17). The “filling” picture embodied by the plērēs/plēroō word group expresses the nature of how sanctification happens. In all of those cases, the ordinary filling with/by the Spirit signifies submission to his control by his Word. Sanctification does not take place apart from the Sprit’s work, but it is not passive—we must read the Word and submit ourselves to it; that is what it means to be filled by the Spirit.

Author

Scott Aniol

Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief G3 Ministries

Scott Aniol, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of G3 Ministries. In addition to his role with G3, Scott is Professor of Pastoral Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Conway, Arkansas. He lectures around the world in churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries, and he has authored several books and dozens of articles. You can find more, including publications and speaking itinerary, at www.scottaniol.com. Scott and his wife, Becky, have four children: Caleb, Kate, Christopher, and Caroline. You can listen to his podcast here.