{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4331","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":18,"verse_to":18},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Hence the Apostle says: Do not get drunk with wine... but be filled with the Holy Spirit; for those who are drunk with wine stagger and stumble, but those who are intoxicated in the Spirit are rooted in Christ. And therefore, the excellent drunkenness, which operates the sobriety of the mind.<br/><i>— On the Sacraments 5.3.17</i></p><p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: It is good conduct that strikes fear in the wrongdoer. Only one who is sober is prepared to counsel another realistically and with confidence. The person being counseled feels less resentment when he knows how good is the actual conduct of the one who admonishes him. But where there is intoxication there is also debauchery, and debauchery causes base deeds. Therefore it is our duty to be sober, so that the requirements of good conduct may be observed.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 5.18</i></p><p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: For since you are the presbyters and deacons of Christ, you ought always to be sober, both among yourselves and among others, that so you may be able to warn the unruly. Now the Scripture says, \"The men in power are passionate. But let them not drink wine, lest by drinking they forget wisdom, and are not able to judge aright.\" Wherefore both the presbyters and the deacons are those of authority in the Church next to God Almighty and His beloved Son. We say this, not they are not to drink at all, otherwise it would be to the reproach of what God has made for cheerfulness, but that they be not disordered with wine. For the Scripture does not say, Do not drink wine; but what says it? \"Drink not wine to drunkenness; \" and again, \"Thorns spring up in the hand of the drunkard.\" Nor do we say this only to those of the clergy, but also to every lay Christian, upon whom the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is called. For to them also it is said, \"Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath uneasiness? who hath babbling? who hath red eyes? who hath wounds without cause? Do not these things belong to those that tarry long at the wine, and that go to seek where drinking meetings are?\"<br/><i>— Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 8</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: Antony said, 'I think that the body has a natural movement within itself, which obeys the orders of the mind, a kind of inclination of which the body's actions are only symptoms. There is a second movement in the body, caused by eating and drinking, by which the blood is heated and excited. That is why St Paul said, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess' (Eph. 5:18), and again the Lord commanded his disciples in the Gospel, 'See that your hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness' (Luke 21:34). There is a third movement which comes from the deceit and envy of demons against those who are trying to live a good life. It is a help to know that there are three bodily inclinations – from nature, from too much food, and from the demons.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Dost thou wish, he says, to be cheerful, dost thou wish to employ the day? I give thee spiritual drink; for drunkenness even cuts off the articulate sound of our tongue; it makes us lisp and stammer, and distorts the eyes, and the whole frame together. Learn to sing psalms, and thou shall see the delightfulness of the employment. For they who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, as they who sing satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 19</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: And is then this Spirit within us? Yes, indeed, within us. For when we have driven away lying, and bitterness, and fornication, and uncleanness, and covetousness, from our souls, when we are become kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, when there is no jesting, when we have rendered ourselves worthy of it, what is there to hinder the Holy Spirit from coming and lighting upon us? And not only will He come unto us, but He will fill our hearts; and when we have so great a light kindled within us, then will the way of virtue be no longer difficult to attain, but will be easy and simple.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 19</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: (The apostle says further: ) \"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,\" -a precept which is suggested by the passage (of the prophet), where the seducers of the consecrated (Nazarites) to drunkenness are rebuked: \"Ye gave wine to my holy ones to drink.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"2b16d00ad51092f2d0c9d96e08e519ffb471f7aac317ea4a45e7dcec123795c7","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4331,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e862daeb464351b3a528d8e365c495a04d6219045677bafdb1ee315c4be62625","translator":null,"work":null}