The songs that we sing are often a mirror of our hearts. This is clearly seen in the songs sung before the early Christians became saints and those songs which they sang afterwards. This is so vividly seen when we look at the contrast of the “before” and “after” songs of the Christian faith. This is what Paul does in Ephesians chapter five.
To understand this, we must know what it would have been like to live in Ephesus before Paul brought Christ to them. In the midst of that city was a large temple used to worship Dionysus or Bacchus. I used Artificial Intelligence to find a description of his worshippers. He was the god of wine and worship festivals involved in excessive drinking and debauchery. “AI” used these words: “wild and uninhibited behavior, excessive and hedonistic behavior, drunkenness, promiscuity, violence, moral ruin, dancing, singing and sexual orgies.” This describes the “before” worship of the Ephesians.
Paul described just how corrupt the pagan world was in the first eleven verses of Ephesians five when he mentions, “Fornication…uncleanness…covetousness…filthiness…foolishness…filthiness…foolish talking…coarse jesting…fornicators…unclean…unclean person…covetousness…idolaters and deceivers…darkness…and unfruitful works of darkness.”
He emphasizes, “It is shameful to even speak of those things done by them in secret.” Paul contrasts this evil with the lives of those who walk in the light and must NEVER be partakers of what they once did, but to walk in the light and reprove those in the darkness of paganism.
As he concludes his discussion, he contrasts their former “church” with the new worship they now engaged in. The old worship involved being “drunk with wine” (“spirits”), unlike the worship of Christians, where those who were filled with the Spirit (not spirits) were given psalms (1 Cor. 14:26) and inspired songs and prayers, both in known and unknown languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). They were babes in Christ, and when they did not know how to pray, the Spirit provided the prayers for them.
Do not simply read the words about New Testament singing and ignore the total context of Ephesians five. When first read, the words of Paul about not being drunk with wine seems so much out of place. Keep it in the context as you read those verses. Pagan worship of Dionysus involves excessive drinking, debauchery, chaotic behavior. Instead of bringing pagan ideas into the church, they were to let the Spirit lead them to be singing His psalms and spiritual songs. Our worship is to always be done decently and in order. We have the words of the Spirit to show us how!