Paul exhorts the grace believers of this age to “be filled with the Spirit.” This is because today the filling with the Spirit is now a goal, an attainment, as Paul here, by inspiration, sets before the church.

The believers at Pentecost “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4), but the one Apostle, Paul, called and sent to the Gentile “body of Christ” never anywhere in his thirteen epistles says the members of “the body of Christ” are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul wrote "be not drunk with wine" but rather "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18). In contrast to a person may be "under the influence" of alcohol, Paul encourages believers to be "under the direct influence" of the indwelling "Spirit of Christ" and "redeem the time" (v16). This we do as a matter of choice, to yield or not yield to His Spirit moving within us.