Ephesians 5:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Be not drunk with wine,— It is highly probable that here may be a particular reference to those dissolute ceremonies called the Bacchanalia, which were celebrated by the heathens in honour of their god of wine. While these rites continued, men and women made it a point of religion to intoxicate themselves, and ran about the streets, fields, and vineyards, singing and shouting in a wild and tumultuousmanner:inoppositiontotheseextravagantvociferations,theuseofdevout psalmody is with great propriety recommended. Plato tells us, that there was hardly a sober person to be found in the whole Attican territories, during the continuance of these detestable solemnities. St. Paul dehorts the Ephesians from the too free use of wine, because therein is excess. The word is ασωτια, which may either signify luxury or dissoluteness; implying that drinking is no friend to continencyand chastity, but gives up the reins to lust and uncleanness,—the vice that he had been warning them against: or it may signify intemperance and disorder; opposite to that sober and prudent demeanour advised in redeeming the time. Wine is so frequently the cause hereof, by the ungrateful abuse of the bounty of Providence in giving it, that the enormityis represented by a strong and beautiful figure as contained in the very liquor.