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The Gospel Observer

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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September 30, 2012
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Contents:      

1) Ephesians 5:18-19 (Tom Edwards)
2) News & Notes
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Ephesians 5:18-19
by Tom Edwards

As we continue in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he next instructs them by saying, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).  

The heathens of that day had "Bacchus" as the "god of wine"; and their celebration or festival to him was, therefore, known as a "Bacchanalia."  Albert Barnes writes that during these 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, and fields, and vineyards."

Isn't it interesting that after Paul  instructs them not to get drunk, that he then exhorts them toward the singing of spiritual songs?  For if there is an implication toward the Bacchanalia in the previous verse, then the spiritual songs would be in clear contrast to that.  But even if not the Bacchanalia, there is still a major distinction between being drunk and the sober state of mind one needs to truly sing spiritual songs acceptably unto God.  

According to this passage, getting drunk is dissipation (asotia).  The Greek word for it is defined as "1) an abandoned, dissolute life  2) profligacy, prodigality" (Thayer).  It is the same word that is also used in Titus 1:6 as one of the qualifications for an elder that he is "not accused of dissipation or rebellion."  But dissipation is not only to not be a part of the elder's character, but also every Christian.  For Peter implies this in 1 Peter 4:4, where we find the third and only other place this Greek word is used.  He states, "In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you."  And note, too, what he previously spoke of in 1 Peter 4:3: "For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries."

In 1 Peter 4:3, three stages of drinking are seen: "drunkenness, carousing, [and] drinking parties."

Strong defines the Greek word for "drunkenness" (oinophlugia) as "an overflow (or surplus) of wine..."; and Thayer just calls it "drunkenness."  It, therefore, indicates being inebriated or intoxicated.  

The Greek word for "carousing" (komos) is defined as "a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry."

And the Greek word for "drinking parties" (potos) is defined as simply "a drinking, carousing" (Thayer).  The KJV renders this as "banquetings," but it is not referring to a banquet of food, as we would usually think of that term.  Rather, it refers to the drinking of alcohol.  The New English Bible translates it as "tippling," and what we see in this word is that it doesn't require intoxication in order to be so.  According to Webster's Dictionary of the English Language, tippling  means "to drink spirituous or intoxicating liquors habitually; to drink frequently, but without getting drunk.  To drink, sip, or imbibe often."  R.C. Trench, in his "Synonyms of the New Testament," defines the Greek word "potos" as "the drinking bout, the banquet, the symposium, not of necessity excessive...but giving opportunity for excess."  Barnes explains that this word "...means properly drinking; an act of drinking; then a drinking bout; drinking together."

In our time, people often try to justify social drinking on the basis that Jesus turned the water into wine for a wedding feast in John 2.  But what kind of wine did Jesus make?  Why should people assume that it was fermented wine?  One thing we do know about it is that it was better (quality-wise) than what they had previously had.  We also know that Jesus would not want to make anyone drunk.  In this account, mention is also made of the "governor of the feast."  One of his responsibilities was to test the wine to make  sure that it was mixed with the proper portion of water.  For wine in those days was often only about 3 percent alcohol, but then mixed with a good portion of water; so it would be very diluted.  Wine today, however, can be anywhere from 10% to 14% alcohol; and if it is fortified, then 20%.   But, again, why should one assume that there was an alcoholic content in the wine that Jesus had just made?

Others have also cited Timothy as justification for the drinking of wine today.  But note in 1 Timothy 5:23 the reason for why Timothy was told to drink wine: "No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments."  So Paul is prescribing wine to Timothy for medicinal purposes, not merely for the sake of drinking in itself.  And we can also infer from this that Timothy appears to have been a total abstainer, since Paul had to instruct him to drink a little wine.  

Another thing for the Christian to consider is the stigma that is attached to alcohol in our country.  America has the highest known rate for alcoholism.  It is one of the biggest problems in our nation, which branches into other problems, as well -- such as violence, broken homes, and accidents and death on the highways.  In addition, alcohol is a dangerous thing to try and has been likened to Russian Roulette.  For it is said that 1 out of ever 15 social drinkers will become an alcoholic; and 10% of all alcoholics become that way from their first drink.  

Alcohol can be very deceptive.  Consider, for example, Proverbs 23:31-35: "Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.  Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things.  And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.  'They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.'"  Proverbs 20:1 declares that "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise."

Alcoholic drinks contain ethyl alcohol which is a habit-forming, narcotic drug -- poisonous and harmful to every form of life.  So these are just some of the reasons why people should be total abstainers.  James Burton Coffman writes, "Alcohol is the greatest single killer in the United States today.  It produces more sorrow than may be attributed to any other single source on earth.  It corrupts government, aggravates poverty, destroys spirituality and eventually destroys a society stupid enough to indulge the unrestrained use of it."

Rather than being drunk and filled with the spirit of intoxication, Paul exhorts the brethren in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit -- the Holy Spirit.  That is quite a clash!  In one we see of a drunken mind, but in the other a very sober mind that is in tune to God.  

To better understand this and see how it is acquired, it is helpful to consider the parallel passage in Colossians 3:16.  First of all, we can note that in Ephesians 5:19, as well as Colossians 3:16, Paul is speaking about the same thing -- the music of the church.  It is to be a cappella, which is music without instrumental accompaniment.  The Latin actually means "in the style of the church."  But notice that in Colossians 3:16, it is preceded with not "be filled with the Spirit," as in Ephesians 5:18; but, rather, with "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you."  Therefore, we can easily infer that it is by letting God's word to rule in our lives that we are then filled with God's Spirit.  

So rather than singing the Bacchanalian songs that so many would engage in while giving themselves to alcohol, the Christian, who is to be filled with the Spirit of God, is to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 5:19: "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."  Because of the specific instruction to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, I would think that most people realize that that rules out singing other types of songs to try to worship God with.  For specific commands rule out any other kind or method -- such as in God's command for Noah to use gopher wood in building the ark.  Therefore, to try to make an argument that "God did not say that Noah could not use cedar, oak, pine, maple, etc.," will not stand.  For all those different kinds of wood are automatically eliminated by the specific command to use gopher wood.  

And though many people can clearly see that, why do so many folks have trouble in using this same reasoning for the specific command to sing?  Throughout the New Testament, there is no authority for using musical instruments to worship God.  But in every verse where music in worship is mentioned, it is always a cappella music: Acts 16:25, Romans 15:9, 1 Corinthians 14:15, Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 2:12, and James 5:13.  Consider also Hebrews 13:15 where, though the term "singing" is not specified, it does say that the Christian is to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, THE FRUIT OF THE LIPS that give thanks to His name" (emphasis mine).  Singing songs of praise is one of the ways that this command is carried out.

On the word "psalms" (Eph. 5:19), David Lipscomb writes that "Psalms are songs devoted to the praise of God, extolling his name, power, character, and works.  The songs of David are mainly of this character, hence were called psalms."  Psalms is from the Greek word "psalmos" and refers to the psalms of the Old Testament that were originally accompanied with instrumental music; but now in our time are to be sung a cappella.  This word stems from the Greek word "psallo," which is translated in Ephesians 5:19 as "making melody."  Thayer shows that "psallo" had originally meant "1) to pluck off" or "pull out."  It then also came to mean "2) to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang."  Then "2a) to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings of a musical instrument so that they gently vibrate  2b) to play on a stringed instrument, to play the harp, etc."  But this did not include the singing.  Later, however, it came to also mean "2c) to sing to the music of the harp."  But then, as Thayer shows, it came to also eventually mean "in the NT to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song." 

So the Greek word "psallo" has changed in meaning over the years.  During the writing of the New Testament, "psallo" did not even imply the use of a mechanical instrument.  Sophocles, a Greek who was a professor of the Greek language at Harvard University for 35 years and also wrote a Greek lexicon, had studied the word "psallo" very extensively.  He searched through more than 1200 years of history (from 146 B.C. to A.D. 1100).  He studied, and I quote, "146 secular and 77 ecclesiastical authors of the Roman period, and 109 secular and 262 ecclesiastical, modern Greek, and scholastic authors of the Byzantine Period.  This is a grand total of 594 authors and covering a period of more than 1200 years, and he declares that there is NOT A SINGLE EXAMPLE OF PSALLO THROUGHOUT THIS LONG PERIOD INVOLVING OR IMPLYING THE USE OF AN INSTRUMENT, but says that it meant always and everywhere, 'to chant, sing religious hymns!'"

I often like to compare this evolving of the meaning of "psallo" from Old Testament to New Testament times to the word "lyric," which originally meant to play a "lyre."  Later, it denoted singing with the accompaniment of a lyre.  But in our time, we think of  lyrics as primarily being just the words to a song -- and without the thought of any instrument inherent in the word or even the melody.  

But if "making melody" literally involves the use of an instrument to fulfill Ephesians 5:19 then what would that mean?  For one thing, it would mean that the church has been in error for the many centuries it has not used an instrument.  Among those who called themselves Christians, the first instrument wasn't introduced until the sixth century after the church was established -- but it didn't really become popular until just a few hundred years ago, though through those years many well-known religious leaders of various denominational backgrounds had continued to stand opposed to its use in worship to God, such as Martin Luther (Catholic/Lutheran, 1483-1546), John Calvin (1509-1564), John Wesley (Methodist, 1703-1791), Adam Clarke (Methodist, c. 1760-1832), John Gerardeau (Presbyterian, 1825-1898), Charles Spurgeon (Baptist, 1834-1892).  And, prior to these men, Thomas Aquinas (Catholic, 1225-1274).  I cite these not as authority, but to show that it has not been just those in the church of Christ who have seen the error in using mechanical instruments in worship to God, as going beyond the things that are written in the Scriptures for our New Testament Age.

But if the term "psallo" did imply using a mechanical instrument, would we not then each need to learn to play one so we could "psallo" or "make melody" acceptably unto the Lord?   

However, Ephesians 5:19 does show what "instrument" (in a manner of speaking) we are to use in "making melody" or "to psallo."  It is the instrument of the heart: "making melody with your heart."  This might also remind you of Paul's statement that "...I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also" (1 Cor. 14:15).  That is what is to be emphasized -- rather than the melody.  For our singing is not only to worship God, but also to teach and admonish one another (cf. Col. 3:16).  Concerning this, Adam Clarke writes, "It is too often the case that, in public worship, men are carried off from the sense of the words by the sounds that are put to them. And how few... singers are there in the universe whose hearts ever accompany them in what they call singing the praises of God!"  That would be a sad state, if true.  For though it is important for our physical presence to assemble with the saints, isn't it even more important for our hearts to also be in the right place and filled with the proper devotion toward God?

Not only are we to sing psalms, but also "hymns."  Lipscomb defines the word "hymns" as "...songs of praise, thanksgiving, and supplication, teaching our dependence on God and his willingness to hear and bless."

Acts 16:25 records that while Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail, they were giving themselves to praising God in song: "But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God...."  And this was just soon after they had been severely flogged and had their feet fastened in the stocks in the inner prison.  

Matthew 26:30 declares that "After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."  This doesn't mean, necessarily, that they sang only one hymn.  For the phrase "singing a hymn" is actually from just one Greek word (humneo), which Thayer defines as "to sing the praise of, sing hymns to...."  As Barnes comments, "The word rendered 'sung a hymn' is a participle, literally meaning 'hymning' -- not confined to a single hymn, but admitting many."  Virtually every source I looked this up in pointed out that the hymns that Jesus and His apostles were probably singing at this time were from Psalms 113-118.  For the Jews celebrated the Passover by singing or chanting from those psalms, with Psalms 113,114 sung during the Passover,  and the rest at the close.  These psalms are referred to as the "Hallel," which literally means "praise" and is defined as "a Hebrew liturgical prayer consisting of all or part of Psalms 113-118, recited at the beginning of each new month of the Jewish calendar and on various festivals, as Passover and Hanukkah."  So it is thought that Jesus and His apostles probably sang the latter portion of this, before going out to the Mount of Olives.  And this also shows that some psalms could also be considered hymns.  

A third description of what is to be sung, when worshiping God, is "spiritual songs," which is from the Greek word "ode" and transliterated into our English language as "ode."  Thayer defines it as "a song, lay, ode."  So we also see in this passage that it is not merely any kind of song, but a spiritual song that is to be sung unto God.  All of these songs, the psalms and hymns, would also be spiritual songs; and sometimes the same song can contain the characteristics of a psalm, as well as a hymn; so there is some overlapping.  Lipscomb defines the spiritual songs as "...those intended to inspire and cultivate feelings of spiritual devotion and to bring the spirit of man into harmony with, and under the control of, the Spirit of God."

In thinking back of all the church services you have ever attended, could you imagine what they would have been like if there were never the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?  The singing of these is truly an important part of our worship to God, and one of the ways in which we each are actively involved in doing our part in the building up of the saints.  

So let us do as Paul instructs in Ephesians 5:18-19, to "not get drunk with wine...but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."  If just a little tune in our heart can sometimes make for a better day, how much more so should the songs of praise, with their lyrics that exalt the Lord, do for us?  It is one of the ways in which we can dwell on spiritual things and, thus, be spiritually-minded, setting our affections on things above and looking to Jesus with a heart of reverence and thankfulness. 
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News & Notes

Let those of us who are Christians continue to remember in prayer the following:

Richard and Cheryl Crews who have both come down with a bad case of the flu; Pam MacDonald who is to hear this week of the test results of her back trouble; Abbie Jathym who was not able to be with us recently due to sickness; Linda Lefort (Harris Lefort's sister-in-law) who has throat cancer and is receiving hospice care; Bill Barfield (Virginia Fontenot's brother) who was admitted to ICU last March and has been in a step-down unit ever since; Jean Calloway who has been having a foot problem; Shirley Young, who continually experiences fibromyalgia.

We are glad for the new job that Kelly Anderson recently acquired, but sorry to see her have to move away from us to Houston for it.  She had been attending with the church here since a baby.  But also on a positive note, she has family in Houston; and there are many good Christians and churches there; so we can be glad for that for her -- and wish her well in her recent move!
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation

1) Hear the gospel, for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17;  John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the deity of Christ (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith; for, if not, salvation can be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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Park Forest

CHURCH OF CHRIST
9923 Sunny Cline Dr., Baton Rouge, LA  70817
Sunday services: 9:00 AM (Bible class); 10 AM & 6 PM (worship)
Tuesday: 7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/go (Gospel Observer website)
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html (audio sermons)