Text: Ephesians 5: 1 – 21
In Ephesians 5:18 a distinction is made between the person under the influence of alcohol and the person under the Holy Spirit 's guiding influence. We Christians should not be intoxicated with the wine that comes from any earthly winery, but with the fresh wine of the Gospel that emerges from the celestial vineyard, from Him who is the real vineyard (John 15:1). In comparison, there is a meaning in setting these two commands. It was a pagan belief that God resided in the grape 's blood, so that man would drink God into himself while drinking wine.
Thus, drunkenness was considered a sacrament in which a man was to be under the influence of the god who filled him.Paul informed the Christians of this pagan practice at Ephesus, and then led them to the true manner of becoming possessed by God.
