Pastor’s Notes Ephesians 4:30

In Ephesians 4:30 We are told not to grieve the Holy Spirt of God. To grieve is more than to offend. It is to inflict sorrow and grief upon another. If we love the Lord God, including His Spirit, we will be careful not to grieve Him. To grieve is to make sad or sorrowful. It is the word used to describe the experience of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:38).

As part of the Godhead surly the Holy Spirit was also grieved on that occasion. In the context of Ephesians 4:30 verse 31 tells us how the Holy Spirit may be grieved: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, will all malice.” Clamour is loud and confused noise, especially shouting at people and malice is the desire to cause harm. Now if we look at v32 we shall find the antidote to these unhelpful practices that grieve the Holy Sprit: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” We also read: “whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (also see Eph 1:13-14). This sealing stands for two things: ownership and likeness. The Holy Spirt is the Spirt of adoption (Rom 8:14-16) whereby God puts into our heart a knowledge that we are His children. We are God’s children purchased with the blood of His Son Jesus Christ so we ought to know that and therefore live accordingly. We can avoid grieving the Holy Spirt by loving and caring for each other: “Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,” (Ephesians 5:1-2a).