_A COMMAND TO BE OBEYED._
But lest some one should think, "It is optional with me whether I claim
my birthright or not; no doubt it would be a very fitting thing for some
people to be filled with the Spirit, but _I_ need not trouble about
it"--in case any one should be tempted to speak and act like this, let us
learn that "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. v. 18) is a command to be
obeyed, a duty to be done. Many of God's people are acknowledging that
they did not know that "Be filled with the Spirit" was a command; _but it
is_, and there is no excuse for not knowing. You will notice that in Eph.
v. 18 there is a double command, a negative, "Be not drunk," and a
positive, "Be ye filled." The positive command is as authoritative as the
negative, and was binding on _just as many_ of those Ephesian Christians
as was the negative command. Now what was true for those believers there
in Ephesus in the long-ago is equally true for all believers on God's
footstool to-day. Is it a sin for a believer to-day to disobey the
command, "Be not drunk"? and is it then a virtue to disobey the equally
authoritative command, "Be ye filled"? If it is a sin for a Christian to
be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, _a sin_ not to be filled.
We are commanded and expected to live a Spirit-filled life, to be filled,
not with wine, the fruit of the vines of earth, but with the new wine of
the kingdom, the fruit of the "true Vine."
Reader, if you are asked, Do you obey the command, "Be not drunk with
wine," what is your answer? If it is, "Yes," that is obedience. Now, if
you are asked, Do you obey the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," what
is your answer? If it is, "No," that is disobedience; you are guilty of
breaking one of God's plainest commandments. You have no more license to
break _this_ command than you have to break any command in the Decalogue.
Before you read further, had you not better confess your sin, and tell
the Master that you purpose in your heart new obedience?