Ephesians 5:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Be filled with the Spirit." Then he also indicates the way of being filled with the Spirit: "singing," he says, "and making melody in your hearts to the Lord" (Eph 5:18-19). What does "in your hearts" mean? It means with understanding. The mouth must not utter the words while the soul wanders somewhere among outward things. Rather, the soul must attend to what the tongue pronounces.

As swine run where there is mire, and bees dwell where there are flowers and fragrances, so demons gather where wanton songs are sung. But where there are spiritual songs, there the grace of the Spirit descends and sanctifies the mouth and the soul.

I say this not so that you may only praise me, but so that you may teach both children and wives to sing such songs. Teach them not only while spinning and doing other work, but especially at table.

Since the devil lays snares chiefly during feasts, through drunkenness, satiety, improper laughter, and slackness of soul, then above all one must defend oneself from him with the rampart of psalms. Before and after the meal, rise from the table with wife and children, and sing sacred songs to God.

If Paul, bearing unbearable wounds, with his feet in the stocks and in prison, sang praise to God with Silas at midnight, when all are especially sweetly asleep, then how much more should we sing. Neither place, nor time, nor cares, nor inclination to sleep, nor weariness from such labors, nor anything else compelled him to stop his hymnody.

We enjoy prosperity and the gifts of God. Therefore we should offer thanksgiving songs to God, so that if anything unclean enters our soul through drunkenness and satiety, we may drive out every impure and corrupt desire by psalmody.

Many rich people moisten a sponge with balsam and wipe their tables with it. If any stain remains from the food, they remove it and make the table clean. Let us do the same. Instead of balsam, let us fill our mouth with spiritual melody.

If any uncleanness arises in the soul from satiety, let us wash it away with this melody. Let us all rise together and cry out: "Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by Thy work, and in the works of Thy hands I will rejoice" (Ps 91:5).

Let prayer be joined to psalmody, so that together with the soul we may sanctify the house itself.

Those who bring jesters, dancers, and shameless women to feasts summon demons and the devil there. They fill their houses with much disorder, for from this arise quarrels, fornication, adultery, and many evils.

But those who summon David with the psalter summon Christ through him. Where Christ is, no demon will ever dare even to enter or look in. On the contrary, peace, love, and every good thing will flow there as from springs.

They turn their house into a theater. You make your dwelling a church. Truly, where there is a psalm, prayer, the exultation of the prophets, and a God-loving disposition in those who sing, there one may rightly call the gathering a church.

Even if you do not understand the force of the words, at least train your mouth to pronounce them. The tongue is sanctified by these words when they are uttered with zeal.

If we acquire this habit, we shall never leave this beautiful work, whether by choice or by negligence. Habit will urge us, even against our will, to perform this beautiful service every day.

In such hymnody, no blame attaches to anyone, whether old or young, whether with a rough voice, or wholly ignorant of ordered singing. Here what is required is a chaste soul, a vigilant mind, a contrite heart, a firm thought, and a clean conscience.

If you enter the holy choir of God with these qualities, you may stand in rank with David himself. Here there is no need of psaltery, tightened strings, bow, skill, or any instruments. If you wish, you can make yourself a psaltery by mortifying the members of the flesh and tuning your body in harmony with the soul.

When the flesh does not desire what is "contrary to the Spirit" (Gal 5:17), and does not obey its commands by carrying them out on this beautiful and wondrous path, then you will compose a spiritual melody.

Here no skill acquired by long practice is required. Only firm resolve is needed, and in the shortest time we shall gain experience. This does not require a special place or a special time. In every place and at every time one can sing with the mind.

Whether you walk in the marketplace, travel on a journey, or sit with friends, everywhere you can stir the soul. You can cry out even in silence. Moses cried out in this way, and God heard him.

Are you a craftsman? Sitting in the workshop and occupied with your work, you can sing. Are you a soldier, or do you sit in court? You can do the same.

But one who reasons about exalted things, and as a subtle interpreter explains the harmony in the world, the order and arrangement of all creation, sings a spiritual song.

Yet, to express more clearly for simpler people what we mean, a psalm pertains to the body, and a song to the soul. Therefore we must sing and praise the Lord more with the spirit than with the voice.

This is precisely what is said in the words, "singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." Let young men hear this. Let those who serve in the church hear this.

One must sing to God not with the voice, but with the heart. One must not, like actors in tragedies, smear the throat with soothing medicines so that theatrical modulation and singing may be heard in the churches.

Rather, one must sing with fear, with good works, and with knowledge of Holy Scripture. Even if someone should prove to be a poor singer (κακόφωνος), if he has good works, he is a sweet singer before God.

If a servant of Christ sings, it is not the singer's voice that pleases, but the words that are spoken. Thus the evil spirit that was in Saul (1 Sam 16:23) is driven out from those who are likewise subject to his power.

It does not enter those who make the house of God into a popular spectacle.

He rightly said, "in spiritual songs," for there are also worldly songs that arouse shameful fleshly desires. Thus the phrase, "speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," means this: teaching and instructing yourselves by the words contained in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

So he wrote also to the Colossians, saying, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Col 3:16).

By saying, "singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord," he teaches that one must sing not only with lips and tongue. One must also offer hymns, psalms, and songs to God with mind and soul.

By hymns, or in Russian, doxologies, are understood Christian songs proper. Despite the recent organization of independent Christian worship, these began to be used in the Church of Christ from the earliest times.

Such songs could include the song of the Theotokos, the song of the Prophet Zacharias, the song of the angels, and the song of Symeon the God-receiver (Lk 1:46-55; Lk 1:68-79; Lk 2:14; Lk 1:29-32).

They could also include the lesser and greater doxology, the evening hymn "O Gladsome Light," and others which, according to the witness of tradition, were sung in Christian assemblies from apostolic times.

Compare also Rev 5:9; 7:10; 15:3-4; 19:6-7. See the letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan.

By songs, or spiritual songs, are understood improvised songs of individual persons present at divine worship who had been counted worthy of a special revelation or inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

In time these improvisations multiplied, were elaborated, entered into general use, and formed the cycle of Christian hymns. The same Apostle points to such improvised hymnody when he says that each of those present in church may have his own psalm (1 Cor 14:26).

In later times the gift of improvising hymns during divine services grew scarce. Only a few gained renown for themselves as church hymnographers: Romanos the Melodist, John of Damascus, Theodore and Theophanes the Branded, Cosmas of Maiuma, and certain others.

The word spiritual should be referred also to psalms and hymns, because, as one of our native commentators observes, besides spiritual songs and hymns there are also worldly ones.

By requiring the singing of spiritual hymns in Christian assemblies, the Apostle indicates that these hymns must pour forth from the depth of the heart under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

They must bear the clear seal of divine inspiration. That is, they must be foreign to artificiality, rhetorical ornament, and passion.

At the same time it should be noted that in the Christian Church, both in ancient times and in the Eastern Church to this day, only vocal singing was and is used.

It has the greatest right to be called spiritual. Singing with musical instruments, which are in themselves soulless objects, was never admitted, as it is done in the Western Church.

Psalms, hymns, and ecclesiastical odes, or songs, are outpourings of reverent feelings toward God, moved by the Spirit. Their purpose is to warm and fan the spark of grace hidden in us.

The sacraments give this spark. To fan it and turn it into flame, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs were introduced. They act upon the spark of grace as wind acts upon a spark embedded in combustible material.

Psalms, hymns, and odes chiefly presuppose praise of God. They depict the infinite perfections of God and the boundless works of His creation, providence, redemption, and consummation of all things.

For everything we have is God's. God also orders our salvation. Living faith recognizes all this and disposes one to give thanks for everything (Bishop Theophan).

In the latter case, the Apostle laid down the rule that in church all things should be done decently and in order. Hence it is clear that both being filled with the Spirit, and singing under His action and coming, cannot be the object of a command. They can only be the object of desire and seeking, with the use of fitting means.

The direction about the prudent outward expression of the song formed within does not belong to the content of the present text. Therefore these words must be taken not in the first connection, but in the second. Be filled with the Spirit; and for this purpose, sing.

Singing will stir up the Spirit, or bring one into the state of the Spirit's coming, or of His perceptible action. Blessed Theodoret writes that the Apostle introduces spiritual intoxication when he says, "be filled with the Spirit." He also shows how to attain it: "by continually hymning God, entering deeply into ourselves, and always stirring up the thought." This is the same as saying: by singing with the tongue and with the heart.

It is not hard to understand that the chief thing here is not the sweetness of the singing, but the content of what is sung. It acts as an inspired discourse acts upon the one who reads it. The feeling placed in the word passes through the word into the soul of the hearer or reader. So it is also with the songs of the Church.

Psalms, hymns, and odes of the Church are Spirit-moved outpourings of reverent feelings toward God. The Spirit of God filled His chosen ones, and they expressed the fullness of their feelings in songs. One who sings them as he ought can, in turn, enter into the feelings expressed in them. Being filled with them, he can bring himself near to a state able to receive the actions of the grace of the Spirit, or can adapt himself to it.

This is precisely the purpose of Church songs: through them to kindle and fan the spark of grace hidden in us. This spark is given by the Mysteries. To fan it and turn it into flame, psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes have been introduced. They act upon the spark of grace as wind acts upon a spark embedded in combustible matter.

But let us remember that this action belongs to them on one condition. Along with their use there must also be purification of the heart, as Chrysostom said, guided by the very course of the holy Apostle Paul's discourse. Other conditions are indicated in this same place. The first is that they be spiritual. The second is that they be sung not only with the tongue, but also with the heart.

The Apostle indicates three kinds of songs: psalms, hymns, and odes. Certainly all of them were used in apostolic times, and differed from one another in some way. Since we have no specimens, we do not undertake to define what kind of Church songs bore these names. We shall understand by each of them a Church song.

That these were indeed Church songs, that is, songs sung in the assembly of Christians, is clear from the Apostle's command to speak them to yourselves, heautois. All interpreters understand this to mean: to one another mutually.

Therefore, for the singing of Church songs to lead to being filled with the Spirit, the Apostle requires that these songs be spiritual. By this one must understand not only that they should be spiritual in content, but that they should be Spirit-moved. They themselves must be the fruit of the Spirit, or must have flowed from hearts filled with the Spirit. Otherwise they will not lead to being filled with the Spirit.

This follows the law that what is placed into a song is what it gives to the one who sings. If human thought is placed there, it will produce human thought. If an element of grace is placed there, it will awaken grace in the one who sings. But if it is a mere collection of words, it will produce nothing.

The Apostle's second requirement is that the songs be sung not only with the tongue, but also with the heart. One must not only understand the song, but enter into sympathy with it. One must receive its content into the heart, and then sing it as though it came from one's own heart.

From comparing the present passage with others, it is clear that in apostolic times only those sang who were in such a disposition. Others entered into a like disposition with them. Thus the whole Church assembly hymned and sang to the Lord only in the heart. What wonder is it if, as a result, the whole assembly was filled with the Spirit?

What hidden treasure there is in Church hymnody, when it is performed as it ought! Chrysostom says: "What do the words mean, 'singing in your hearts to the Lord'? This means: approach this work with attention. The inattentive sing without profit, uttering only words, while their heart wanders elsewhere."

Blessed Theodoret adds to this: "He sings with the heart who not only moves the tongue, but also stirs the mind to understand what is being uttered." Other holy fathers, when writing about prayerful turning to God, hold that it is performed best when it is done by the mind established in the heart.

What the Apostle says here about the Church assembly also applies to private psalmody, which anyone may perform separately at home. The fruit from this can be the same when it is done as it ought, that is, with attention, understanding, sympathy, and from the heart.

Let us also note that although the Apostle's words speak of singing, his thought points to prayerful turning to God. This, properly speaking, is what awakens the Spirit.