Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit…

Ephesians 4:30-32
30. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice. 32. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you. (WEB)

In today’s Bible reading, we are talking about grieving the Holy Spirit. First of all, what does it mean to ‘grieve’ the Holy Spirit? The Amplified Bible translates the word grieve as … (do not offend or vex or sadden Him). (AMP)

I have also heard that the word ‘grieve’ means to break His heart. The New Living Translation says verse 30 this way… And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. (NLT)

In a relational context, what this means is that we can hurt the Holy Spirit if we yield to bitterness, wrath, anger, slander, etc. To better understand this verse, think about those family and friends that you dearly love. Would you ever want to deliberately hurt them? Of course not! That doesn’t stop us from hurting those closest to us from time to time, but it is not something that we intend to do. Hopefully when we discover that we hurt them, we make a U-turn in our behavior and get things right again.

I think it is the same with our relationship with God’s Spirit that lives in our hearts. He is the third Person in the Trinity and is God Himself. He has chosen to make His dwelling place in our hearts and is affected by our choices in life. My prayer today is that we would be sensitive to the things that sadden Him. Not out of fear or legalisim, but simply because we don’t want to hurt Him.

If we have the ability to sadden Him, we have the ability to bless Him too! I think verse 32 is the road map for us to honor and bless His heart… And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you. (WEB) May we all live in complete harmony with the Spirit of the living God that has chosen to make us His temple!

Romans 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. (WEB)