The Activity of the Spirit in the Church, Part 48

The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Church Age believers, part 48.

One way to get a sense of this is to study the subject of fullness in the epistle to the Ephesians. Eph 1:7-10, 1:19-23, 3:14-19, 4:7-13, 5:17-21.

This is what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

To be filled by the Spirit is to be filled with the love of Christ.

The subject of love comes up in 26 out of the 27 books of the New Testament in over 200 verses.

Eph 3:19
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you [plural] may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

1Jo 4:16b
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

To be filled by the Spirit is to be filled with the love of Christ.

It shows us how this movement toward fullness in the Body of Christ plays out on a practical basis in our every day lives.

How it plays out in our participation in the growth of the Body.
Eph 4:1-16

How it plays out in how we are to love the brethren.
Eph 4:17-5:21

How being filled with the love of Christ plays out in our most intimate relationships of family and work. Eph 5:22-6:9

How all this fullness goes to work on the evil day when the spiritual forces of wickedness are on the attack. Eph 6:10-20

Notice what the final goal is here in Eph 4:7-13… : it is the measure of the stature which belongs to the FULLNESS OF CHRIST!

Before we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, we are commanded to be obedient in a series of practical matters having to do with loving the brethren.

Stop doing things that hurt the Body and are the opposite of love.
Start doing things that build up the Body and are the essence of love.

Joh 14:15
“If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.”

Joh 15:12
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

When you are living in these love commands, you will discover that you ARE being filled with/by/in the Spirit!!!

Notice that our being filled with the Spirit in verse 18 [“our” not “my “because this epistle deals with the church as a CORPORATE entity]…

…means that the royal family experiences a joyful intermingling of our Lord Jesus Christ and one another in verses 19-21.

“be filled” in Eph 5:18
 pleeroústhe
the second person plural, in the present passive imperative, of pleroo.

When we look at the big picture of Ephesians, that with which all is being filled, and the fullness, is CHRIST!!!

And that fullness is manifested by our loving one another as Christ has loved us.

What is that one great final purpose toward which God’s entire activity and plan for us is proceeding?

We were originally made in the image and likeness of God, and now we are being conformed into the image of God’s Son!
Eph 1:9-10; Rom 8:28-29.