Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 4:30

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

30. grieve not ] A distinct indication of the Personality of the Blessed Spirit. “Grief is certainly a personal affection, of which a Quality is not capable” (Pearson, On the Creed, Art. VIII). Putting aside passages where “spirit” obviously denotes “breath” or “wind,” the usage of the word in Scripture favours the interpretation of it as always denoting a personality, good or evil. See further Bp Pearson’s discussion. This precept, in this context, seems to indicate that polluting words would be a special “grief” to the Holy One.

ye are sealed ] Better, ye were sealed, at the definite crisis of reception. See above, Eph 1:13 and notes.

the day of redemption ] “the redemption of the purchased possession,” Eph 1:14, where see note.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God – This is addressed to Christians, and it proves that it is possible for them to grieve the Holy Spirit. The word used here – lupeite – means properly to afflict with sorrow; to make sad or sorrowful. It is rendered to make sorry, or sorrowful, Mat 14:9; Mat 17:23; Mat 18:31; Mat 19:22; Mat 26:22, Mat 26:37; Mar 14:19; Joh 16:20; 2Co 2:2; 2Co 6:10; 2Co 7:8-9, 2Co 7:11; 1Th 4:13. It is rendered grieved, Mar 10:22; Joh 21:17; Rom 14:15; 2Co 2:4-5; Eph 4:20; and once. in heaviness, 1Pe 1:6. The verb does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. The common meaning is, to treat others so as to cause grief. We are not to suppose that the Holy Spirit literally endures grief, or pain, at the conduct of people. The language is such as is suited to describe what men endure, and is applied to him to denote that kind of conduct which is suited to cause grief; and the meaning here is, do not pursue such a course as is suited in its own nature, to pain the benevolent heart of a holy being. Do not act toward the Holy Spirit in a manner which would produce pain in the bosom of a friend who loves you. There is a course of conduct which will drive that Spirit from the mind as if he were grieved and pained – as a course of ingratitude and sin would pain the heart of an earthly friend, and cause him to leave you. If asked what that conduct is, we may reply:

(1) Open and gross sins. They are particularly referred to here; and the meaning of Paul is. that theft, falsehood, anger, and kindred vices, would grieve the Holy Spirit and cause him to depart.

(2) Anger, in all its forms. Nothing is more suited to drive away all serious and tender impressions from the mind, than the indulgence of anger.

(3) Licentious thoughts and desires. The Spirit of God is pure, and he dwells not in a soul that is filled with corrupt imaginings.

(4) Ingratitude. We feel ingratitude more than almost anything else; and why should we suppose that the Holy Spirit would not feel it also?

(5) Neglect. The Spirit of God is grieved by that. Often he prompts us to pray; he disposes the mind to seriousness, to the perusal of the Bible, to tenderness and penitence. We neglect those favored moments of our piety, and lose those happy seasons for becoming like God.

(6) Resistance. Christians often resist the Holy Spirit. He would lead them to be dead to the world; yet they drive on their plans Of gain. He would teach them the folly of fashion and vanity; yet they deck themselves in the most frivolous apparel. He would keep them from the splendid party, the theater, and the ballroom; yet they go there. A l that is needful for a Christian to do in order to be eminent in piety, is to yield to the gentle influences which would draw him to prayer and to heaven.

Whereby ye are sealed – see the notes on 2Co 1:22.

Unto the day of redemption – see the notes on Eph 1:14.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Eph 4:30

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit

It is a very clear proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit that He can be grieved. Our text, moreover, reveals to us the close connection between the Holy Spirit and the believer; He must take a very tender and affectionate interest in us, since He is grieved by our shortcomings and our sins.

I. The astounding fact that the Holy Spirit may be grieved.

1. The loving grief of the Holy Ghost may be traced to His holy character and perfect attributes. It is the nature of a holy being to be vexed with unholiness.

2. But it is mainly for our sakes that He is grieved.

3. Doubtless also for Jesus Christs sake.

4. For the Churchs sake.

II. Secondly, let us refer to deplorable causes which produce the grief of the Holy Spirit. The context is some assistance to us.

1. We learn that sins of the flesh, filthiness, and evil speaking of every sort, are grievous to Him. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. In Noahs day, the dove found no place for the sole of its foot on all the carcasses floating in the waste; and even so the heavenly Dove finds no repose in the dead and corrupt things of the flesh.

2. It appears, from the thirty-first verse, that the Holy Ghost is grieved by any approach to bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking, and malice.

3. I have no doubt it greatly grieves the Spirit to see in believers any degree of love of the world. His holy jealousy is excited by such unholy love. If a mother should see her child fender of someone else than of her; if she should know that it was more happy in the company of a stranger than when in the bosom of its own parent, she would feel it a very hard trial to bear. Now, the Spirit of God gives to us believers celestial joys and abounding comforts; and if He sees us turn our back upon all these, to go into worldly company, to feed greedily upon the same empty joys which satisfy worldlings, He is a jealous God, and He takes it as a great slight put upon Himself.

4. The Spirit of God is greatly grieved by unbelief. What would grieve you more, than to have your child suspect your truthfulness?

5. The Spirit is doubtless grieved by our ingratitude.

6. And by pride we sorely grieve the blessed Spirit.

7. Another thing which grieves the Spirit is a want of prayer.

8. The indulgence of any known sin.

III. The lamentable result of the Spirits being grieved.

1. The loss of all sense of His presence.

2. Loss of Christian joy.

3. Loss of power.

4. Loss of assurance.

5. Loss of usefulness.

Let a Church grieve the Spirit of God, and oh, the blights that shall come and wither her fair garden!

IV. Lastly, there is one personal argument which is used in the text to forbid our grieving the Spirit–Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. What does this mean? There are many meanings assigned by different commentators: we shall be content with the following.

1. A seal is set upon a thing to attest its authenticity and authority.

2. Once more, a seal is used for preserving, as well as for attesting.

The Eastern seals up his money bags to secure the gold within, and we seal our letters to guard the enclosure. A seal is set for security. Grieve not, then, that Spirit upon whom you are so dependent: He is your credentials as a Christian; He is your life as a believer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Grieving the Holy Spirit

Anger begets anger; but grief begets pity, and pity is next akin to love; and we love those whom we have caused to grieve. Now, is not this a very sweet expression–Grieve not the Holy Spirit?

I. The love of the spirit. The love of the Spirit!–how shall I tell it forth? Surely it needs a songster to sing it, for love is only to be spoken of in words of song. The love of the Spirit.

1. Let me tell you of His early love to us. He loved us without beginning.

2. Was it not He who guided you to Jesus?

3. Since then, how sweetly has He proved His love. Not only in His first strivings, or after quickenings; but in the sequel, how much have we owed to His instruction.

4. Forget not, also, how much we owe to His consolation.

5. Remember how much He loves us, when He helps our infirmities.

6. Another token of His love, is His indwelling in the saints.

II. It is by the Holy Spirit we are sealed. The Spirit Himself is expressed as the seal, even as He Himself is directly said to be the pledge of our inheritance. The sealing, I think, has a three-fold meaning.

1. It is a sealing of attestation or confirmation. No faith is genuine, which does not bear the seal of the Spirit. No love, no hope can ever save us, except it be sealed with the Spirit of God, for whatever has not His seal upon it is spurious. Faith that is unsealed may be a poison, it may be presumption; but faith that is sealed by the Spirit is true, real, genuine faith.

2. It is a sealing of appropriation. When men put their mark upon an article, it is to show that it is their own. The farmer brands his tools that they may not be stolen. The shepherd marks his sheep that they may be recognized as belonging to his flock. The king himself puts his broad arrow upon everything that is his property. So the Holy Spirit puts the broad arm of God upon the hearts of all His people.

3. Again, by sealing is meant preservation. Men seal up that which they wish to have preserved, and when a document is sealed it becomes valid henceforth. Now, it is by the Spirit of God that the Christian is sealed, kept, preserved, unto the day of redemption.

III. The grieving of the Spirit. How may we grieve Him–what will be the sad result of grieving Him–if we have grieved Him, how may we bring Him back again?

1. How may we grieve the Spirit? I am now, mark you, speaking of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is as easy as it is wicked.

(1) You may grieve Him by impure thoughts. He cannot bear sin.

(2) We grieve Him yet more if we indulge in outward acts of sin. Then is He sometimes so grieved that He takes His flight for a season, for the Dove will not dwell in our hearts if we take loathsome carrion in there.

(3) Again, if we neglect prayer, if our closet door is cobwebbed, if we forget to read the Scriptures, if the leaves of our Bible are almost stuck together by neglect, if we never seek to do any good in the world, if we live merely for ourselves and not to Christ, then the Holy Spirit will be grieved.

(4) Again, the Holy Spirit is exceedingly grieved by our unbelief.

2. Now, suppose the Holy Spirit is grieved, what is the effect produced upon us?

(1) When the Spirit is grieved first, He bears with us. He is grieved again and again, and again and again, and still He bears with it all.

(2) But at last, His grief becomes so excessive, that He says, I will suspend My operations; I will be gone; I will leave life behind Me, but My own actual presence I will take away. Our graces are much like the flower called the Hydrangia, when it has plenty of water it blooms, but as soon as moisture fails, the leaves drop down at once. And so when the Spirit goes away, faith shuts up its flowers; no perfume is exhaled. Then the fruit of our love begins to rot and drops from the tree; then the sweet buds of our hope become frostbitten, and they die. Oh, what a sad thing it is to lose the Spirit.

3. It is a mercy to know that the Spirit of God never leaves His people finally; He leaves them for chastisement, but not for damnation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Grieving the Spirit

If we may speak it reverently of One so far above, out of the reach of all human language, the Holy Ghost is a Being with the tenderest of feelings. We all know the sensitiveness of the affections, the delicacy of thought, the exquisite accuracy of the moral touch, which are required for the sweet offices of consolation. In what an infinite measure, then, must those properties be combined in Him who is characteristically and exclusively the Comforter of the Church! Essentially He loves us.

1. Whenever you grieve the Holy Spirit you do then, in the first instance, cause sorrow–it is Gods own word–to Him to whom you are bound by every generous feeling to give only happiness.

2. But have you considered, further, that every time you grieve the Spirit, you weaken the seals of your own security?

3. For there are few of us, I trust, who have not long since learnt that the secret of all true comfort and satisfaction in the world, is to carry within us the sunshine of Gods love, which is peace and joy. And what is that sunshine but the unclouded indwelling of the Holy Ghost?

4. For mark it yet once more. There are four deep downward steps in the path to death: to grieve the Spirit is the first–to resist the Spirit is the second–to quench the Spirit is the third–to blaspheme the Spirit is the fourth. No one of these is ever reached but by going through that which is previous to it. Consider, therefore, first in everything you do or say–in the pleasures you allow, the friendships you form, the thoughts you indulge–how will this affect the Holy Spirit? remembering always His exceeding sensitiveness, that if you grieve Him He will leave you, till you have not feeling enough to grieve that He is gone; but if you please Him, you will more and more forever find a satisfying pleasure in Him who so graciously condescends to please Himself in you. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The grieving of the Spirit

It is a very important question–How is the Holy Spirit grieved with us? The great instrumentality of the Holy Ghost is conscience. Only here take care; to refuse the encouraging voices of conscience is as bad as to neglect the reproving ones. To have sinned, and to doubt the forgiveness of the sin, after you have confessed the sin, grieves the Holy Spirit quite as much as the sin itself. He is Spirit,–therefore material religion,–a materialistic view of spiritual things,–grieves Him. He is the Holy Spirit; therefore everything which trifles with holy things–irreverence, levity on religious subjects, undevout familiarity with sacred subjects, low views of God–these things grieve Him very much. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Grieving the Holy Spirit

There are different ways in which you may grieve a person. If the person hate you, and wish you ill, then you may grieve and vex him by taking the course which will make you good and happy. If the person be a bad person, then you may grieve him by doing what is right. What greater stimulus to duty, than this?–Now, you will be industrious, and honest, and good; and make them all happy at home! And what healthier consideration in an hour of temptation to do wrong, than that which comes first and most natural: Oh, you will not do that, and break your mothers heart! My Christian friends, it hath pleased God, in the words of my text, to appeal to us with just that homely consideration. Grieve not–the words are spoken to all of us–the Holy Spirit of God.

I. And first, mark who it is we are asked not to grieve. You have seen how completely it turns upon the character of the person grieved, what the kind of things shall be that are to grieve him. The Person we are asked not to grieve is the Holy Spirit of God: the blessed Comforter. He is the kindest and best: He is our warmest well-wisher. And what kindness and consideration there are in the way in which the text shows us our duty I It is our own good that the Holy Spirit is desiring to work out: and we are asked not to vex Him by obstructing Him in doing what?

II. And now, looking at this precept–

1. We may be very sure that we grieve the Holy Spirit, by restraining prayer, or by heartless prayers.

2. A second way in which we shall especially grieve the Holy Spirit, by especially slighting His office and work, will be by refusing to allow Him to comfort us in sorrow.

3. There is a third way in which we shall specially grieve the Holy Spirit; and this is by resisting Him when He is seeking to lead us to Christ; by refusing to turn in penitence from sin to God; and then to grow in grace and holiness. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Grieving the Holy Spirit

I. Who, then, are they, who are told not to grieve the spirit of God? It must needs be those with whom He has already taken up His abode. We may anger a stranger, but we grieve a friend.

II. But let us consider is what ways the believing Christian may grieve Gods Holy Spirit.

1. If we give way to any sin in thought, word, or deed, we are then grieving the Holy Spirit.

2. But it is not only thus that we are in danger of grieving the Spirit of God; it is not only by what we do amiss, but by what we leave undone.

3. Another way of grieving the Holy Spirit is by neglecting those means of grace by which God is pleased, to work in our souls.

III. What are the consequences of grieving the Spirit of God?

1. We thereby become guilty of great ingratitude.

2. We also hinder our own advance in holiness and goodness.

3. And, in so doing, we lose the comforts of religion.

4. Once more: by grieving Gods Holy Spirit, we unfit ourselves for doing good to men, and so adorning the gospel. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)

The warning against grieving the Spirit

Just what the heart is to the body; what the eyes are to the head; what the mainspring is to the watch; what the steam is to the locomotive; or what the rudder is to the ship, just this, and more, the Holy Spirit is to us, in trying to get to heaven.

I. And in the first place, we ought to mind this warning, because grieving the Spirit will injure our knowledge. Of ourselves, we have no knowledge of the way, to heaven, and never could tell how to get there. It is the Holy Spirit alone who can give us this knowledge, but if we grieve the Spirit we shall never get this knowledge. Suppose that you and I were travelling through a strange country, like Switzerland. We should have no knowledge of the right way to travel in, so as to get safely through the country. And this would make it necessary for us to have a guide to show us the way. I remember when the Rev. Dr. Cooper of this city, and myself, were, travelling through Switzerland some years ago, an incident occurred which may come in as a good illustration of this part of our subject. We were stopping at an inn in the beautiful valley of Interlachen, and had made arrangements one evening to go on foot the next day over a high mountain, called the Wengern Alp, to the valley of Lauterbrunnen, on the other side. We had engaged a guide to show us the way, and were to take an early start the next morning. There was an English traveller staying at the same inn with us. He was travelling alone, and wanted to take the same journey. He spoke to one of the guides about going with him. But he thought the man asked too much money. They could not agree about the price; so he refused to take the guide, and said he was sure he could find the way himself. He started all by himself the next morning, a good while before us. When we had got nearly half way over the mountain our guide stopped. He pointed to a dark looking little object, far off from the path in which we were walking, and said: Theres the gentleman who would not have a guide. He has lost his way. He never can get out of the mountains in that direction. If he doesnt come back hell lose his life. Then the guide climbed up on a high piece of ground, and putting his hands to his mouth, he called out as loudly as he could, Come back! come back! We could not tell whether the lost man heard him or not, or what became of him. But in refusing to take a guide to show him the way that man was injuring his knowledge, just as we do when we grieve the Holy Spirit.

II. The second reason why we ought to mind this warning is because grieving the Spirit will injure our happiness. When David was speaking of the happy effect which follows from our acquaintance with the truth of God, he said–Blessed are the people which know the joyful sound. This blessedness refers to the happiness which Gods people find from knowing Him. And here we see how the knowledge of God, and the happiness which springs from it, both go together. This knowledge is like a fountain; and this happiness is like the stream which flows from the fountain.

III. The third reason why we should mind this warning is because grieving the Spirit will injure our usefulness. If you are an errand boy in a store, and your duty is to carry parcels or messages, wherever you are sent, then if anything should make you lame, so that you could not walk, this would interfere with your usefulness. Suppose you have a position on one of the stations of the Pennsylvania railway. Your duty there is to watch the signals, which tell when a train is coming; and then to give notice of it by ringing a bell. And suppose that something should happen to your eyes, so that you could not see; this would at once injure your usefulness, and unfit you for the duties of your position. Or suppose that your mother is a very skilful seamstress, and is supporting her family by the diligent use of her needle. She has an attack of rheumatism, which settles on her right hand, making her fingers so stiff that she cannot use her needle. That would injure her usefulness. And it is just so with us, in trying to serve God. If we listen to the voice of the Spirit, when He speaks to us, and mind what He says, then He will show us what our duty is, and help us to do it. And that will make us useful. I have one other illustration for this part of our subject. We may call it Sorely Tempted. It shows us how a boy was kept from injuring his usefulness, by not grieving the Spirit, but by listening to His voice. The boys name was Tommy Wright. He was about fifteen years old, and the only son of his mother, who was very fond of him. Mrs. Wright had got a situation for him in a merchants store. When he was about leaving home to begin work in this new place, his mother said to him, Now, Tommy, before you go, there are two promises I want you to make me. What are they, mother? he asked, looking fondly into her loving face, which was always so calm and peaceful. Promise me first, that you will always, wherever you are, no matter how busy, read one or more verses in the Bible every day; and then promise me next that you will never take a penny that is not your own. The first is easy enough, mother dear, said Tommy; but I dont like the second at all. It seems almost like an insult. You know very well I have not been brought up to be a thief. Surely you dont imagine for a moment that I would ever steal? Give me the promise, Tommy dear, said his mother, and I will pray for you, as you must pray for yourself, that God will give you grace to keep your word. These are terrible times that we are living in. Men who stand high in honour are often known to do very mean and dishonourable things. The fairest reputations are blighted. The city is full of snares, and I dont know what temptations you may meet with. You will need Gods help every day to keep you from going wrong. So Tommy made the promise, and then his mother kneeled down with him, and in her simple earnest words, asked the Lord to go with her dear boy, and help him to do his duty in the new position he was about to occupy, and to keep him from ever doing what was wrong. For some time after entering on the duties of his new position Tommy got on very well. He read every day at least one verse from the Bible. Sometimes he would read a number of verses, and occasionally a whole chapter. But after a while he began to be careless about it. Occasionally he would omit his reading in the morning, intending to do it at night, and at night deferring it till the next day. Then he would forget to pray. The next wrong step was his going with bad companions. His anxious, loving mother, up at the old farm, felt sure that he was not doing well, for his letters were few and short. But she kept on praying for him with increasing earnestness. At last he got into debt, and was at a loss to know what to do. One day he was left alone at the close of the day, in a room where there was an unlocked drawer, with a large sum of money in it, in notes and silver. Just then Satan came and tempted him. He said to him, Why cant you take some of this money and get out of debt? Mr. Courtney, your employer, will never find it out. And when you get your wages, if you like, you can pay it back. Tommy made up his mind to do this. He went to the drawer and took a handful of silver; but just as he was about to put it into his coat pocket he was startled by what seemed like someone whispering in his ear. The quiet voice seemed to say Tommy Wright! Tommy Wright! Take care! Remember the promise you made to your mother. In a moment he put the money back in the drawer and went home. On arriving there, he went straight up to his little room, and kneeling down in great distress and with many tears, he confessed his sin to God, and asked to be forgiven. Then he prayed that God would help him to resist every such temptation in the future, and always do what was right. Now it was the Spirit of God who whispered those warning words in Tommys ear. He listened to the Spirits voice, and that kept him from doing wrong.. But if he had not minded those whispered words he would have grieved the Spirit. And then he would have gone on from one sin to another, till he lost his situation, and so he would have injured his usefulness. And here we see that the third reason why we should mind this warning is, because grieving the Spirit will injure our usefulness.

IV. The fourth reason why we should mind this warning is because grieving the Spirit will cause the loss of our souls. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God–whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. To seal the soul unto the day of redemption is to make its salvation sure. This is what the Spirit will do for those who listen to His voice. See, there is Noahs ark just finished. God told Noah and all his family to come into the ark. They listened to His voice. They all went into the ark; and when the flood came they were saved. But suppose now they had not minded what God had said to them, and had refused to go into the ark; that would have been like grieving the Spirit; and the result would have been that when the flood came they would all have been destroyed. And so if we go on grieving the Spirit, it must certainly result in the loss of our souls. (Dr. Newton.)

On grieving the Holy Spirit

There are several ways in which more especially the Spirit may be said to be grieved. Thus, for example–

1. When His office is dishonoured. This is the case whenever the spirituality of Divine worship is called in question or practically ignored. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

2. Again, the Spirit may be said to be grieved whenever His sovereignty is limited. The Spirit is a free agent. He acts as He will, dividing unto every man severally according to His own good pleasure.

3. The Spirit may further be said to be grieved when His prerogative is infringed. If, for example, He is to any extent defrauded of His title as the supreme and only infallible interpreter of the written Word, if, in place of seeking earnestly and humbly to be guided by Him into all truth, we seek to human wisdom or guidance for the interpretation of the inspired Word, if we forsake His guidance–this is to grieve Him.

4. Again, the Holy Spirit is grieved whenever His influence is persistently withstood. This is a case, it is to be feared, of not infrequent occurrence under the ministry of the gospel. (Bishop R. Bickersteth.)

The sin and folly of grieving the Holy Spirit

I. What is here meant by the Holy Spirit of God, and now He seals us to the day of redemption.

II. What is implied in grieving him, and how this is generally done.

III. The sin, folly, and miserable consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit.

1. The sin of it. It is an act of undutifulness and injustice.

2. The folly of it. It may be compared with the folly of grieving a friend, whose direction and help we continually want; a father, on whom we are dependent; a husband, without whom we cannot live happy.

3. The miserable consequences of sin. So far as we grieve Him, we remain ignorant, sinful, guilty, depraved, weak, and wretched. (J. Benson, D. D.)

Influence of, and opposition to, the Holy Spirit

I. It is here supposed that there is a Divine influence necessary to the salvation of fallen men.

II. The influence of the Holy Spirit is expressed in scripture by a great variety of phrases. Christians are said to be born of the Spirit; renewed, sanctified, and led by the Spirit; to be anointed and filled with the Spirit; and to be the temples in which the Spirit dwells. Here they are said to be sealed by the Spirit–i.e., the Divine image is impressed on the believers heart.

III. Believers are said to be sealed unto the day of redemption.

1. The sealing or sanctification of the Spirit is a necessary preparation for heaven.

2. An evidence of our title to heaven.

IV. The Spirit is grieved when we act in opposition to His influence.

V. A solemn caution against grieving the Spirit of God.

1. Indifference and carelessness in religion is opposition to the grace of God.

2. Spiritual pride grieves the Divine Spirit.

3. The Spirit is grieved when we neglect the means appointed for obtaining His influence.

4. Opposition to the strivings of the Spirit is another way in which He is often grieved.

5. There are some particular kinds of sin which are, in an eminent and peculiar sense, opposite to the work of the Spirit.

(1) Among these may be reckoned impurity, intemperance, dissipation, and all the vices of sensuality.

(2) The indulgence of malignant passions grieves the Spirit.

(3) Contentions among Christians are opposite to the Spirit.

(4) Men grieve the Spirit when they ascribe to Him those motions and actions which are contrary to His nature. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)

Duties relating to the Holy Spirit

I. Inquire what duties are incumbent upon us, relating to the Spirit of God. According to the general rule of interpreting negative precepts, the charge not to grieve the Spirit implies more than is expressed; it carries an obligation to a contrary duty, and that is to behave in a becoming manner toward Him.

1. He is to be owned and glorified as a Divine Person.

2. We should entertain honourable thoughts of the Spirit of God, with regard to the peculiar part He bears in the work of salvation.

3. We should be earnest in our desires and prayers for the Spirit, to all the purposes for which we need Him.

4. It is our duty to make use of all the means of grace which God has appointed and owns for vouchsafement of His Spirit.

5. We should seriously attend to all the Spirits motions upon our souls.

6. We should live under His influence, in such a manner as is pleasing to Him, and answerable to His holy design upon us.

7. It should heartily grieve us that the Spirit of God is so much grieved.

II. Consider the several arguments contained in our text, to enforce these duties.

1. The authority of God demands these duties to be paid to His Spirit. It is God, by the apostle, that charges us in our text not to grieve His Spirit, but to carry it well toward Him; for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2Ti 3:16).

2. He to whom these duties have a special reference is the Spirit of God. It is not a man like thyself, it is not thine equal, not any created Spirit, but one infinitely above thee, and above all angels and archangels; it is the uncreated Spirit of God, who is Himself God. And canst thou dare to offend and provoke, or to behave undutifully toward Him?

3. He is the Holy Spirit. His nature and will, ways and works are holy, all the tendencies of his operations are to holiness, and all their effects, where they prevail, are holiness; there is no iniquity in Him or them. With what reverence and caution then shouldest thou behave in the sight and presence of such a Holy One.

4. The nature and design of the Spirits work is to seal us. Hath he hitherto preserved you and engaged to preserve you still, even to the day of complete redemption? And shalt thou not carry it well to such a kind indulging Friend as this?

5. This sealing work of the Spirit is unto the day of redemption. The Spirit in His sealing work is giving you the sweetest and surest earnests of this blessed day. And is not all this happy and delightful work for you? would you do anything to put a cheek upon it?

6. If we dont behave dutifully toward the Spirit, He will certainly be grieved. (J. Guyse.)

A fountain sealed

I. What it is to grieve the spirit. The Holy Ghost cannot properly be grieved in His own person, because grief implies a defect of happiness in suffering that we wish removed. It implies a defect in foresight, to prevent that which may grieve. It implies passion, which is soon raised up and soon laid down. God is not subject to change. It implies some want of power to remove that which we feel to be a grievance. And therefore it is not beseeming the majesty of the Spirit thus to be grieved. We must therefore conceive of it as befitting the majesty of God, removing in our thoughts all imperfections.

1. We are said to grieve God when we do that which is apt of itself to grieve; as we are said to destroy our weak brother when we do that which, he taking offence at, is apt to mislead him and so to destroy him.

2. We grieve the Spirit when we do that whereupon the Spirit doth that which grieved persons do; that is, retireth and showeth dislike and returns grief again.

3. Though the passion of grief be not in the Holy Ghost, yet there is in His holy nature a pure displeasance and hatred of sin, with such a degree of abomination, as though it tend not to the destruction of the offender, yet to sharp correction; so that grief is eminently in the hatred of God in such a manner as becomes Him.

4. We may conceive of the Spirit as He is in Himself in heaven, and as He dwells and works in us; as we may conceive of God the Father, as hidden in Himself and as revealed in His Son and in His Word; and as we may conceive of Christ as the Second Person and as Incarnate. So likewise of the Holy Ghost as in Himself and as in us. God, in the person of His Son, and His Son as man and as minister of circumcision, was grieved at the rebellion and destruction of His own people. The Holy Spirit as in us grieveth with us, witnesseth with us, rejoiceth in us and with us; and the Spirit in Himself and as He worketh in us hath the same name; as the gifts and graces and the comforts of the Spirit are called the Spirit; even as the beams of the sun shining on the earth are called the sun, and when we let them in or shut them out, we are said to let in or shut out the sun. We may grieve the Spirit, when we grieve Him as working grace and offering comfort to us.

II. Particulars wherein we specially grieve the Spirit. It is the office of the Spirit to enlighten, to soften, to quicken, and to sanctify. When we give content to Satan it puts the Holy Ghost out of office. Where the Holy Ghost hath not only set up a light, but given a taste of heavenly things, and yet we, upon false allurements, will grow to a distaste, it cannot but grieve the Spirit. Upon divers respects some sin may grieve more or less than another. As the Holy Ghost is a Spirit, so spiritual sins grieve most–as pride, envy–imprinting upon the soul, as it were, a character of the contrary ill spirit. Carnal sins, whereby the soul is drowned in delight of the body, may more grieve the Spirit in another respect; as defiling His temple, and as taking away so much of the soul. The office of the Spirit is to set out Christ, and the favour and mercy of God in Christ.

1. When we slight Christ in the gospel, the ordinance and organ of working good in us, the Holy Ghost is slighted and grieved.

2. The Holy Spirit is grieved when ye have a corrupt judgment of things, not weighing them in the right balance, nor value them according to their worth.

3. This grieves the Holy Spirit also, when men take the office of the Spirit from Him; that is, when we will do things in our own strength and by our own light, as if we were gods to ourselves.

4. Besides grieving Gods Spirit in ourselves, there is a heavy guilt lies upon us for grieving the Spirit in others, which is done many ways. First, By neglecting the grace of God in them, or despising them for some infirmities which love should cover. Contempt is a thing which the nature of man is more impatient of than of any injury. We likewise grieve the spirit of others by sharp censures, and the greater our authority is, the deeper is the grief a censure inflicteth. Again, Those that are above others grieve the spirits of those under them by unjust commands; as when masters press their servants to that which their conscience cannot digest, and so make them sin, and offer violence to that tender part. Again, We grieve the spirit of others, when those that are inferior show themselves untractable to those above them in magistracy or ministry, when they make them spend their strength in vain.

IV. What course we should take to prevent this grieving of the spirit.

1. Let us give up the government of our souls to the Spirit of God.

2. Study to walk perfectly in obeying the Spirit in all things.

3. If we would not grieve the Spirit, let us take heed of being wanting to the Spirits direction.

4. When the Spirit suggests good motions, turn them presently into holy resolutions. Let us not give over till these motions be turned into purposes, and those good purposes ripened to holy actions, that they be not nipped in the blossom, but may bring forth perfect fruit.

5. Let the Spirit have full scope, both in the ordinances, and in the motions stirred up by the ordinances. This is the way to make the ordinances and the times glorious, but the liberties of the gospel are contrary to the liberties of the flesh.

6. When we find the Spirit not assisting and comforting as in former times, it is fit to search the cause, which we shall find some slighting of holy motions, or the means of breeding of them.

7. Take heed of little sins, which we count lesser sins perhaps than God doth. The Holy Spirit by which ye are sealed. The Holy Ghost delighteth to speak in our own language.

We cannot rise to Him, therefore He stoopeth to us. The persons sealed are, first, Christ, and then those that are given to Christ. I, Christ is sealed.

1. By the Father (Joh 6:27).

2. He was sealed by the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in flesh, abased and exalted for us; so as His flesh is the flesh of the Son of God, and His blood the blood of God (Act 20:28).

3. Sealed by a testimony from heaven of all three persons: by the Father, This is my well-beloved Son; by the Holy Spirit descending like a dove; by Himself to His human nature dwelling in all fulness in it.

4. In being justified in the Spirit, being raised from the dead, and declared thereby to be the Son of God mightily with power (Rom 1:4); and then advanced to the right hand of God, that through Him our faith and trust might be in God (2Pe 3:14).

II. As Christ was sealed and fitted for us, so we are sealed and fitted for Christ, Many are the privileges of a Christian from this his sealing, as the use of a seal in mans affairs is manifold.

1. Seals serve for confirmation and allowance. To that purpose measures are sealed. God is said to seal instruction (Job 33:16). Confirmation is either by giving strength, or by the authority of such as are able to make good what they promise, and also willing; which they show by putting to their seal, which hath as much strength to confirm him to whom the promise is made, as he hath will and power to make it good that hath engaged himself.

2. The use of it likewise is for distinction from others that carry not that mark. So the sealing of the Spirit distinguisheth a Christian from all other men.

3. The use of a seal is likewise for appropriation. Merchants use to seal their wares they would not have others have any right unto.

4. Again, we use to set our seal only upon that we have some estimation of. Set me as a seal, saith the Church in the Canticles, upon Thy right hand (Son 8:6); have me in Thy eye and mind as a special thing Thou valuest.

5. Seals likewise are used for secrecy, as in letters, etc. So this seal of the Spirit is a secret work. God knoweth who are His (Rev 2:17). Our life is hid with Christ in God (Col 3:3).

6. Hence, likewise, the use of a seal is to show that things should be kept inviolable. Hereupon the Church is as a sealed fountain (Song of Solomon of Solomon 4:12). Sealing shows a care of preservation from common annoyance.

Hereupon likewise it is that sealing is the securing of persons or things sealed from hurt. Whereby you are sealed. Now there are divers degrees of the Spirits sealing.

1. Faith: He that believes hath the witness in himself (1Jn 5:10). The seal and first discovery of election is manifested to us in our believing.

2. The work of sanctifying grace upon the heart is a seal. Whom the Spirit sanctifieth He sayeth. The Lord knoweth who are His (2Ti 2:19).

But how shall we know it? By this seal: Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, not only in heart and affection, but in conversation; and that shall be a seal of his sonship to Him. To the day of redemption.

1. There is a double redemption: redemption of the soul by the first coming of Christ to shed His blood for us; redemption of our bodies from corruption by His second coming.

2. Secondly, full redemption is not yet. But there is a day appointed for it. Consolatory thought! Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

From the consideration of all that hath been formerly spoken of, the sealing of the Spirit to the day of redemption, there ariseth these four conclusions:

1. For the first, we may know we are in the state of grace

(1) because the apostle would not have used an argument moving not to grieve the Spirit from a thing unknown or guessed at. It is an ill manner of reasoning to argue from a thing unknown.

(2) Again, sealing of us by the Spirit is not in regard of God, but ourselves. God knoweth who are His, but we know not that we are His but by sealing.

(3) The scope of the Scriptures indited by the Spirit is for comfort. The apostle saith so directly; and what comfort is in an uncertain condition, wherein a man knows not but he may be a reprobate?

2. The second conclusion: We may, upon the knowledge of our present estate in grace, be assured for the time to come, for this sealing is to the day of redemption; that is, till we be put into full possession of what we now believe.

3. The third conclusion is this, that the Spirit doth seal us. This cannot be otherwise; for who can establish us in the love of God but he that knows the mind of God towards us? and who knows the mind of God but the Spirit of God?

4. The fourth conclusion is, that the sealing of the Spirit unto salvation should be a strong prevailing argument not to grieve the Spirit; that is, not to sin, for sin only grieves the Spirit (see Tit 2:11-12). Even the consideration of the benefits of Christ that are past, such as came with Christs first coming; but that is not all (verse 13, Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ) The second coming of Christ enforceth likewise the same care of holiness: Our conversation is in heaven (Php 3:20), and not as theirs, spoken of in the former verse, whose end is damnation, whose belly is their god, who mind earthly things. No. We mind heavenly things. And these heavenly desires, from whence sprung |hey but from the certain expectation of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies? etc. (Php 3:21); that is, shall redeem us fully, even our bodies as well as our souls.

(1) It is an argument of force whether we be not yet sealed, or be sealed. If not sealed, then grieve not Him whose only office is to seal; entertain His motions, that He may have scope and liberty of working.

(2) For those that have been sealed by the Spirit, and yet not so fully as to silence all doubts about their estate: those should, out of that beginning of comfort which they feel, study to be pliable to the Spirit for further increase. The Spirit sealeth by degrees. As our care of pleasing the Spirit increaseth, so our comfort increaseth: our light will increase as the morning light unto the perfect day.

(3) For those that the Holy Spirit hath set a clearer and stronger stamp upon, that do not question their condition, they of all others should not grieve the Spirit. To conclude this discourse, let Christians therefore be careful to preserve and cherish the work of assurance and sealing in them. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)

Grieving the Holy Spirit

I. Let us first consider some truths which appear to be implied in the statement here made.

1. It is plainly implied that the Holy Spirit is a Person.

2. A second truth implied in the text is, that not only is the Holy Ghost a Person, but that He is a Divine and holy Person.

3. But the third thing implied in this text is, that the Spirit of God so dwells within us, as that the indulgence of angry tempers, or a walk of ungodliness and sin, will cause distress to this Divine inhabitant.

II. Now, having considered those truths which seem to be implied in the text, let us proceed to consider what is contained in the exhortation itself: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

1. And, first, wherein are we most prone to grieve the Spirit? Grief, in the sense of offence taken by one person against another, arises from the offering of some supposed indignity, whether in the omission of some customary respect, or in the offer of some admitted slight, or in ungrateful requital for certain benefits received, or in some open contrariety to the mind and wish of our benefactor. Thus, look at the Spirit of God in some of those gracious offices and relations which He sustains towards us. Is He the enlightener, the guide, the counsellor of man in all the parts and duties of a godly life? What greater indignity can we offer to Him than taking counsel with flesh and blood–leaving the directions of a friend, to follow the advice of an enemy.

2. But observe, secondly, the special aggravation of this grieving–Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now, the point of all this, you will perceive, is that sin becomes more than ever sin, when it is committed against received light and knowledge-that grief against the Holy Spirit of God becomes double grief, when we have been made partaker of His gifts already.

3. And now, brethren, look at the text as it is a tender, affectionate, fatherly appeal to your gratitude. It is asked–If God the Spirit has done this for you, if God the Spirit will continue to do these things unto your lives end, how have you received Him? (D. Moore, M. A.)

The Holy Spirit sealing believers, yet grieved by them

I. And, first, of the agent here spoken of–the Holy Spirit of God–and the peculiar office, which He is said to execute on behalf of believers. The figure used in my text–that of grieving the Spirit–leads us to the acknowledgment of the personality of that blessed Spirit. The use of seals to signify appropriation was a very early practice; the patriarch Judah, you know, had his seal; and ministers of state had their seals of office in very ancient times; and you read, in the Book of Esther, these words, Write in the kings name, and seal it with the kings ring, for the writing which is written in the kings name, and sealed with the kings ring, may no man reverse. But again, under this head, I observe, that it is the office of the Holy Spirit, not merely to seal believers, by an eternal designation to God, but at times–at times, we say–as to His infinite wisdom and grace may seem fit–it is the office of the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to their spirits that they are thus called. But I proceed, furthers to observe, that wheresoever this sealing to God, known at all times to Him–this sealing of appropriation from eternity–known to believers themselves, in the degree in which God sees it to be good for them–wheresoever this sealing takes place, it is always accompanied by an outward seal, by which believers are more or less discernible to the world around them. For seals, as you know, my brethren, are not merely used to signify appropriation, but are also used to make an impression. The seal stamps its own impression. And the Holy Spirit of God seals believers as His own, by making His own impression of holiness upon them–by diffusing His graces over their souls. Let us, then, consider some of the ways in which believers may be said to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

1. Among these we may rank, my brethren, the sin of ingratitude–a sin, of which all believers are more or less guilty, and apt thereby to grieve the Holy Spirit.

2. And, again, I would observe, that the Holy Spirit is grieved by resisting His operations in the soul, by turning a deaf ear to His friendly warnings and His friendly remonstranees.

3. Again, I observe, that the Spirit of the Lord trains up believers for redemption in the school of affliction: and we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, when we do not endeavour, at least, to see the hand of God in those trials, and when we rebel against that rod, wherewith He chastens us for our good.

4. And, again, my brethren, I would observe, that the Holy Spirit is grieved by the indulgence of unhallowed tempers and of sinful dispositions.

5. Allow me, once more, to add grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by running in the way of temptation. And as to the fearful consequences of grieving Him, or of causing that blessed Agent to withdraw, what, my brethren, can be said, or what need be said? In that moment when He is withdrawn, the means of grace become useless. Our salvation, be it remembered, depends entirely upon the agency of the Holy Spirit; and to forfeit that agency is to cut off ourselves at once from all hope. (Norman Macleod, D. D.)

The sealed ones

I. The sealing. They were sealed in their sonship. Moreover, as sons, they were sealed for the purpose of separation, that they should be a distinct people, and hence the prediction concerning them was put forth in a very early period in the history of the Church on earth. Moreover, they were sealed in this secret compact between the persons of Deity for sanctification, set apart for that purpose. Now, what is the first thing that you and I should do in sealing, to keep literally to the expression? Suppose we seal a letter, or seal a will or testament, or seal any document or covenant among mortals? Why, the first thing is to melt the wax, or whatever we are about to impress. There is the efficiency, and there is a need of fire for that. My hearer, when we are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, it is melting work. Moreover, in this sealing work there is an elevation of character–a dignity stamped upon it. You know, in olden time, when letters were written, as by Ahasuerus and others, and said to be sealed with the kings seal, there was a dignity and importance stamped on the documents; it elevated them above the scale of the subjects of the realm, for it was the monarchs own impression, the monarchs own authority, the monarchs own command and injunction. So with the Lords family. Just go on to mark that they are sealed apparently and manifestly, so as to be known before men. Pass on to mark that, according to my text, It is a lasting seal. Ah! there are some seals that you may break or deface–they are not lasting; but here is a seal that shall last till the day of redemption.

II. The exhortation given to the sealed ones. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Let everything in the shape of sin be loathed and abhorred; that, although it dwells in old Adam, and sometimes strives for the mastery, it shall be crucified, mortified, put off, denied, and kept under, that the Holy Spirit may not be grieved. Again, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by opinions which are heterodox. All those things which tend to grieve one another, to separate brother from brother, and Church from Church, and create schism in the Body of Christ, grieve the Spirit of God. (J. Irons.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God] By giving way to any wrong temper, unholy word, or unrighteous action. Even those who have already a measure of the light and life of God, both of which are not only brought in by the Holy Spirit, but maintained by his constant indwelling, may give way to sin, and so grieve this Holy Spirit that it shall withdraw both its light and presence; and, in proportion as it withdraws, then hardness and darkness take place; and, what is still worse, a state of insensibility is the consequence; for the darkness prevents the fallen state from being seen, and the hardness prevents it from being felt.

Whereby ye are sealed] The Holy Spirit in the soul of a believer is God’s seal, set on his heart to testify that he is God’s property, and that he should be wholly employed in God’s service. It is very likely that the apostle had in view the words of the prophet, Isa 63:10: But they rebelled, and VEXED his HOLY SPIRIT; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and fought against them. The psalmist refers to the same fact in nearly the same words, Ps 78:40: How oft did they PROVOKE him in the wilderness, and GRIEVE him in the desert! Let every man, therefore, take heed that he grieve not the Spirit of God, lest God turn to be his enemy, and fight against him.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God; viz. by corrupt communication. The Spirit is said to be grieved when any thing is done by us, which, were he capable of such passions, might be matter of grief to him; or when we so offend him as to make him withdraw his comfortable presence from us: see Isa 63:10.

Whereby ye are sealed; set apart or marked for, and secured unto the day of redemption; see Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22; so, Eze 9:4, they are marked that are to be delivered; and Rev 7:3, the servants of God are sealed that were to escape the following plagues.

Unto the day of redemption; i.e. full and final salvation at the resurrection: see Luk 21:28; Rom 8:23.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

30. grieve notA condescensionto human modes of thought most touching. Compare “vexedHis Holy Spirit” (Isa 63:10;Psa 78:40); “fretted me”(Eze 16:43: implying Histender love to us); and of hardened unbelievers, “resist theHoly Ghost” (Ac 7:51).This verse refers to believers, who grieve the Spirit byinconsistencies such as in the context are spoken of, corrupt orworthless conversation, c.

whereby ye are sealedrather,”wherein (or ‘in whom’) ye were sealed.” As in Eph1:13, believers are said to be sealed “in“Christ, so here “in the Holy Spirit,” who isone with Christ, and who reveals Christ in the soul: the Greekimplies that the sealing was done already once for all. It is theFather “BY”whom believers, as well as the Son Himself, were sealed (Joh6:27). The Spirit is represented as itself the seal (Eph1:13, for the image employed, see on Eph1:13). Here the Spirit is the element INwhich the believer is sealed, His gracious influences beingthe seal itself.

untokept safelyagainst the day of redemption, namely, of the completion ofredemption in the deliverance of the body as well as the soul fromall sin and sorrow (Eph 1:14Luk 21:28; Rom 8:23).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,…. Not a believer’s own spirit, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, which is grieved by sin; nor the spirit of a good man, that hears our words and sees our actions, and is displeased and troubled at them; but the third person in the Trinity: and this is said of him by an anthropopathy, and supposes something done that is offensive to him; and he may be grieved, not only by unconverted persons, by their stubborn resistance and opposition to the Gospel and means of grace, and by their contempt of his person, office, and grace, but by believers themselves, and who are here spoken to; and which may be done both by their words, lying, angry, and corrupt ones, before cautioned against, Eph 4:25 and by their actions, their behaviour towards God, their conversation in the world, and by their carriage to one another, which is suggested in the following verse: also he may be grieved by their thoughts, their vain and sinful thoughts, and that they are no better employed; and especially when they entertain any undervaluing ones of Jesus Christ, whose glorifier he is; and by the unbelief of their hearts, and by their unmindfulness of the things of the Spirit; and when they disregard the rules, dictates, and advice of the Spirit, and make no use of him: and his being grieved appears by his departure from them; which is to be perceived by the darkness of their souls, the prevailings of corruption, the weakness of grace, and their backwardness to duty: and now there are many reasons why he should not be grieved; as because he is God, and the author of the new birth, the implanter and applier of all grace, and the finisher of it; because he is the saints’ comforter, their advocate, helper, and strengthener; and their constant companion, who dwells in them, and will remain in them, until death: and it follows,

whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption; of the sealing work of the Spirit, [See comments on Eph 1:13]. By “the day of redemption” may be meant, either the day of death, when the saints have a deliverance from the incumbrance of the body; from their present state of exile and banishment; from the body of sin and death; from all sorrows and afflictions; from the reproaches and persecutions of men; from the temptations of Satan; from doubts, fears, and unbelief; and from all fear of death, corporeal, spiritual, and eternal: or the day of the resurrection, when the body will be redeemed from mortality, corruption, weakness, and dishonour; when it will be refined and spiritualized, so that it will not stand in need of natural sustenance; will be endowed with great agility, like that of spirits; and will be subject to the soul, or spirit, and will be suited to spiritual objects; to which may be added, the day of judgment, Lu 21:28 when Christ shall appear in glory, and his saints with him, and he will put them, soul and body, into the possession of everlasting happiness; which will consist in the vision of Christ, in conformity to him, and in that happy company and conversation that will then be enjoyed, and that delightful employment they will be taken up in: and now the saints being sealed up by the Spirit unto this time, shows the perpetual indwelling of the Spirit in them; and that it will continue even after death, who will give them confidence at the day of judgment; and that it is the Spirit which works up the saints, and makes them meet for glory; and gives them the assurance of it, and therefore they should not be grieved.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God ( ). “Cease grieving” or “do not have the habit of grieving.” Who of us has not sometimes grieved the Holy Spirit?

In whom ( ). Not “in which.”

Ye were sealed (). See 1:13 for this verb, and 1:14 for , the day when final redemption is realized.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

HOW TO AVOID GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT

1) “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God (kai me lupeite to pneuma to hagion tou theou) “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”- The attribute of grief indicates the personality of ‘the Holy Spirit, who has personal, feeling qualities regarding sin and righteousness. Foul language grieves the Holy Spirit as speech originates not in the brain but the heart, Mat 15:18.

2) “Whereby ye are sealed” (en ho euphragesthete) “By whom ye are sealed,” Eph 1:13-14. This refers to the believer as the marked, identified property of Jesus Christ, incontestably, until the redemption jubilee of the body from the grave, Rom 8:11; Rom 8:23.

3) “Unto the day of redemption” (eis hemeron apolutroseos) “For or unto a day of redemption,” the redemption day of the body, Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:23. Wherever redemption or adoption is referred to as future, it refers to the resurrection of the physical body or of natural Israel, each empowered by the Holy Spirit, Eze 37:11-14.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

30. And grieve not. As the Holy Spirit dwells in us, to him every part of our soul and of our body ought to be devoted. But if we give ourselves up to aught that is impure, we may be said to drive him away from making his abode with us; and, to express this still more familiarly, human affections, such as joy and grief, are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. (151) Endeavour that the Holy Spirit may dwell cheerfully with you, as in a pleasant and joyful dwelling, and give him no occasion for grief. Some take a different view of it, that we grieve the Holy Spirit in others, when we offend by filthy language, or, in any other way, godly brethren, who are led by the Spirit of God. (Rom 8:14.) Whatever is contrary to godliness is not only disrelished by godly ears, but is no sooner heard than it produces in them deep grief and pain. But that Paul’s meaning was different appears from what follows.

By whom ye are sealed. As God has sealed us by his Spirit, we grieve him when we do not follow his guidance, but pollute ourselves by wicked passions. No language can adequately express this solemn truth, that the Holy Spirit rejoices and is glad on our account, when we are obedient to him in all things, and neither think nor speak anything, but what is pure and holy; and, on the other hand, is grieved, when we admit anything into our minds that is unworthy of our calling. Now, let any man reflect what shocking wickedness there must be in grieving the Holy Spirit to such a degree as to compel him to withdraw from us. The same mode of speaking is used by the prophet Isaiah, but in a different sense; for he merely says, that they “vexed his Holy Spirit,” (Isa 63:10.) in the same sense in which we are accustomed to speak of vexing the mind of a man. By whom ye are sealed. The Spirit of God is the seal, by which we are distinguished from the wicked, and which is impressed on our hearts as a sure evidence of adoption.

Unto the day of redemption, — that is, till God conduct us into the possession of the promised inheritance. That day is usually called the day of redemption, because we shall then be at length delivered out of all our afflictions. It is unnecessary to make any observations on this phrase, in addition to what have already been made in expounding Rom 8:23, and 1Co 1:30. In this passage, the word sealed may have a different meaning from that which it usually bears, — that God has impressed his Spirit as his mark upon us, that he may recognize as his children those whom he perceives to bear that mark.

(151) “According to our view, the verse is a summation of the argument — the climax of appeal. If Christians shall persist in falsehood and deviation from the truth — if they shall indulge in fitful rage, or cherish sullen and malignant dislikes — if they shall be characterized by dishonesty, or insipid and corrupt language, then do they grieve the Holy Spirit of God; for all this perverse insubordination is in utter antagonism to the essence and operations of Him who is the Spirit of truth; and inspires the love of it; who assumed, as a fitting symbol, the form of a dove, and creates meekness and forbearance; and who, as the Spirit of holiness, leads to the appreciation of all that is just in action, noble in sentiment, and healthful and edifying in speech.” — Eadie.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(30) And grieve not the holy Spirit.This verse refers to all the practical commands given above. The four cardinal sins forbidden are regarded as grieving the Holy Spirit of God. In that expression, even more than in the cognate expressions of quenching the Spirit (1Th. 5:19), and resisting the Holy Ghost (Act. 7:51), there is implied a personal relation to a Divine Person, capable of being grieved by our transgressions, partly as sins against His perfect holiness, partly as suicidal rejections of His unfailing love. In the description of this effect of sin we have the needful complement to the view hitherto taken of its effect, as marring our unity with men; for that unity is always in God, through the Holy Spirit working out in each soul the image of Christ. There is one Body only because there is one Spirit. Sin vexes the one, but grieves the other.

Whereby ye are sealed.Properly, in whom ye were sealed. See the fuller expression of the same truth in Eph. 1:13-14, and the Notes there. The reference to it is here emphatic. The sealing unto the day of redemption reminds us of the glorious consummation to which we are destined, and from which every sin is a falling off. The very thought of this perfection, with all its associations of purity and love, should shame us from sin.

This general exhortation seems fitly to close the warning against the series of typical sins, which is itself exhaustive of the general sins against men. In the passage which follows (Eph. 4:31 to Eph. 5:21) St. Paul does not indeed traverse new ground, but dwells with special emphasis on some of these sins, which especially beset the society to which he wrote, viz.: (in Eph. 4:31 to Eph. 5:2) bitterness, (in Eph. 5:3-14) impurity, (in Eph. 5:15-21) reckless excess.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

30. And Caution as to the consequences of the putrid communication. There is a pure, a Holy Spirit who hears.

Grieve not It is not only a pure Spirit, but a tender, a sensitive Spirit: for all pure natures are sensitive. The modest spirit cannot bear indecency; the pure spirit cannot bear foulness: and the divine Spirit is here said to be grieved because such lips utter such words, before it is angry. Its grief, amazement, and horror precede its wrath and departure.

Ye are sealed Repetition of same image as Eph 1:13, (where see note,) of a spirit-seal to the day of redemption, Eph 1:14, typified by attainment of Canaan, and exhibited in the central verse, Eph 1:10. The danger of apostasy is exemplified by this allusion to Israel, who “rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy.” Isa 63:10. For the Spirit bestowed upon us is itself the seal, Eph 1:13, and so the departure of the Spirit is the withdrawal of the seal. By that withdrawal they were sealed over to a reverse destiny. The pedantic remark of Riddle (in Schaff’s Lange) that the words imply a “logical possibility of falling” while “the more theological and soteriological statements preclude such a possibility,” seems an attempt to overrule the apostle’s purpose with his own dogma. There is not a statement in the Bible that would “preclude such a possibility.” Nor is there any reason, from experience, to doubt that such apostasies often occur in human history. Dr. Eadie says it is an appeal to their love, and not to their fear, and asks: “Which of the twain is the stronger appeal? And this is the question we put as our reply to Alford and Turner.” We answer: The appeal is made to both their love and their fear; and which is the stronger, an appeal to one or both? And so all the encouragements and warnings of Scripture are equally sincere, and by attracting to a real reward and determining by a real danger (not a factitious “logical possibility”) would, by a double force, gain us to a happiness we may freely forfeit. And that is our reply to Dr. Eadie.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.’

The word for grieve may be rendered ‘make sorry, fill with regret’. That the Holy Spirit can be grieved emphasises His personality and the depths of God’s concern for His people. The fact of His grief over sin here contrasts with His wrath against sin in those who refuse to respond to the light. His people have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in readiness for the coming day of final deliverance, and He is now at work in perfecting them, and their failure to respond therefore grieves Him but does not incur His wrath, because if they are His they will in the end submit to His will. But we must beware of complacency, for as Paul will shortly remind us, ‘Because of these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience’ (Eph 5:6).

‘Until the day of redemption.’ Compare Rom 8:23. This is the day when sin will finally be dealt with, when Jesus Christ will come to deliver His own and call men into judgment, and creation will be ‘restored’, the day made possible through the redeeming death of Christ.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eph 4:30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed. The original is emphatical, Grieve not that Holy Spirit of God;whereby ye are sealed; that is to say, “As all the things, against which I have been cautioning you, are directly contrary to the holy nature, will, and operations, gifts and graces of the good Spirit of God; and as he, speaking after the manner of men, is grieved at them, as a friend uses to be at the disagreeable and ungrateful behaviour of one with whom he dwells, and has treated with kindness and favour,have a care lest, by indulging any of them, you offend and rebel against him, as Israel did of old (Isa 63:10.), and provoke him to withdraw his gracious presence, who is not only infinitely pure and holy in himself, but loves holiness, and is the author and worker of its first beginnings, and of all its increases in you; by which, in some remarkablemanifestations and impressions of light and grace, consequent to your first believing, (see ch. Eph 1:13), you are evidently sealed as with his own image, and are thereby distinguished for his own, with assuring tokens of salvation; and have the pledge and earnest of it in yourselves, for your present comfort, until, if faithful unto death, you be possessed of the heavenly inheritance.” The term of sealing seems to be a metaphor, taken from merchants putting some seal, or mark, upon their commodities, by which they may be known to be theirs. One of the ancients somewhere says, Delicata res est Spiritus Dei;“There is, if we may so express it, a certain delicacy in the Spirit of God, which should engage those who desire his influences, solicitously to guard against every approach to what might be offensive to him.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eph 4:30 . Connected by with what precedes; hence not, with Lachmann and Tischendorf, to be separated by a full stop from Eph 4:29 , by which there would result an exhortation too indefinite in the connection.

And grieve not (which would take place by means of ) the Holy Spirit of God . Evil discourses are so opposed to the holy nature and aim of the Divine Spirit, who dwells in the Christians, that He cannot fail to be grieved thereat. Comp. Hermas , ii. 10. 3, as also ii. Ephesians 3 : , . An anthropopathic conception of the consciousness, with which the Spirit of God is holily affected, of the incongruity of human action with His holiness; but how truly and touchingly in keeping with the idea of the love of God, which bears sway in His Spirit (Rom 5:5 )! The man becomes conscious of this grieving of the divine , when he, who has become through the atonement and sanctification the dwelling-place of the Spirit, no longer receives from this Spirit the testimony that he is the child of God (Rom 8:16 ). The chosen expression, “ the Holy Spirit of God ,” renders the enormity of such action most palpable. An allusion, we may add, to Isa 63:10 is not to be assumed, since in that passage the of the Spirit is characteristic.

. .] furnishes motive for the exhortation: for if ye have received so great a benefit through the Holy Spirit, how wrong (ungrateful) is it the possibility of losing the seal here hinted at. But to this points less naturally than (Isa 63:10 ) would point to it.

.] quite as at Eph 1:13 .

. .] for the day of redemption ; when at the Parousia the certainty of the deliverance unto salvation, indicated by ., becomes reality . As to , comp. on Eph 1:14 ; Luk 21:28 ; also Rom 8:23 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2112
GRIEVING THE SPIRIT

Eph 4:30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

THE Holy Scriptures are not written after the manner of human systems, but often blend warnings with promises, and duties with privileges, in a way that by some would be thought to involve them in inconsistency. The Apostle, cautioning the Ephesians against various evils which he had observed amongst them, adds, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God; in which expression he seems eventually to refer to those who had grieved the Lord in the wilderness, and had therefore been excluded from the promised land [Note: Heb 3:10; Heb 3:17.], and to those who by rebelling against God had provoked his Holy Spirit, so that he was turned to be their enemy [Note: Isa 63:10.] Yet at the same time he informs them, that the Holy Spirit had sealed them, as the Lords property, unto the day of redemption, when he would claim them as his own. The advocates of human systems love not such apparent contrarieties: they would rather say, if they be sealed unto the day of redemption, how can they be in any danger of so grieving the Lord, as to be finally excluded from the heavenly Canaan? or, if they be in danger of such a calamity, how can it be that they should ever have been sealed unto the day of redemption? But we may safely leave these matters to God, who will clear up all such difficulties in the last day. That we may grieve the Holy Spirit, and that believers are sealed by him unto the day of redemption, is equally certain: nor is there any great difficulty in reconciling the two, to a mind that is truly humble and contrite; because the liberty of man is not at all affected by the decrees of God: man never loses his proneness to fall, notwithstanding Gods counsel shall ultimately stand: and therefore he needs at all times the caution in our text, whilst the encouragement afforded in it is at all times proper to animate his exertions.

But,not to enter into nice disquisitions about difficulties, which, after all that can be said upon them, can never be entirely removed,we shall proceed, with a view to practical improvement, to notice,

I.

The inestimable benefit conferred upon believers

Many are the offices which the Holy Spirit executes in the great work of redemption. He is the one Agent, by whom redemption is applied in all its parts. By him is life imparted to those who were dead in trespasses and sins: he convinces the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and glorifies Christ in the sight of all who are so instructed. But there is one office in particular of which we are now called to speak, namely, his sealing of believers unto the day of redemption. This is more especially dwelt upon by the Apostle, in the first chapter of this epistle, where he says that the Ephesian converts, after they had believed in Christ, had been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, as the earnest of their inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [Note: Eph 1:13-14.]. This office he executes upon all true believers;

1.

By an eternal designation of them to Gods service

[Such a seal most assuredly exists, and was made use of by Almighty God from all eternity. It was made use of in the consecration of his only dear Son to his mediatorial office; for him hath God the Father sealed [Note: Joh 6:27.]: it was made use of also in the setting apart his chosen people to be his own peculiar treasure above all the people upon the face of the earth [Note: Deu 7:6.]: The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his [Note: 2Ti 2:19.]. In the appointment of Abraham and his posterity to be a holy nation and a peculiar people, we all see and acknowledge the exercise of sovereign grace; though we find it difficult to acquiesce in this idea in reference to the eternal states of men. But where shall we draw the line? or how shall we justify the dispensations of God towards the Jewish people, if we deny his right to exercise the same sovereignty towards all the sinners of mankind? The truth is, that fallen man has no claim upon his God: in that respect he is exactly on a footing with the fallen angels: and, it God be pleased to shew mercy to any, he may do so in any way, and to any extent that he shall see fit: and if he select any as objects of his mercy in preference to others, he does no more injury to the rest, than he would to the great mass of the fallen angels, if he were at this moment, for the display of his own glorious perfections, to liberate any number of them from the chains of darkness in which they are bound. He has a right to do what he will with his own: nor ought our eye to be evil because he is good [Note: Mat 20:15.]. It is certain that the Lord hath from eternity set apart him that is godly for himself [Note: Psa 4:3.]; and not because he was godly, or would be so, but because God of his own sovereign will and pleasure ordained him unto life: as St. Paul expressly tells us; Whom God did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified: their call in this world, and their glorification in the next, originating altogether in the predestination of God from all eternity [Note: Rom 8:29-30.].]

2.

By the sanctification of their hearts and lives

[This, if I may so speak, is the broad seal of heaven: By their fruits ye shall know them: He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. By this seal the Thessalonian converts were so distinguished, that St. Paul did not hesitate to infer, from what he saw in them, that they were Gods chosen people: when he called to mind their works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, he knew from it their election of God [Note: 1Th 1:3-4.]. And on all true believers this seal is found: Gods peculiar people are invariably found to be holy and zealous of good works [Note: Tit 2:14.].

Now this consideration may well reconcile us to the exercise of Gods sovereign grace: for, if the idea of Gods choice being altogether uninfluenced by holiness, either seen or foreseen in the objects of his choice, appear to militate against the interests of morality, the circumstance of Gods having inseparably united this seal with the foregoing, sufficiently removes all fear on that head. In Gods mind, our sanctification is as much ordained as our final salvation: We are chosen, that we may be holy [Note: Eph 1:4.] and elect unto obedience [Note: 1Pe 1:2.] and predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son [Note: Rom 8:29.]: and in this way alone will any one finally attain the salvation of his soul; since it is only in, and by, and through the means, that God has ordained the end: He has from the beginning chosen us to salvation; but it is through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth [Note: 2Th 2:13.].]

3.

By the manifestation of Gods love to their souls

[The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of adoption in the hearts of Gods people [Note: Rom 8:15.]: he is also a Witness testifying of their adoption [Note: Rom 8:16.]: yea, he is to them, and within them, an earnest of their everlasting inheritance [Note: Eph 1:13. 2Co 5:5.]; shedding abroad in their hearts that love of God, which will constitute their happiness through eternal ages [Note: Rom 5:5.]. In this also he operates as a seal, as St. Paul has said in reference to all true Christians: Now he who established us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts [Note: 2Co 1:21-22.].

By the first of these seals we are known to God alone: by the second, we are discoverable to those around us: by the last, an assurance of our happiness is imparted to our own souls. And though the impression of the two last is not at all times equally clear and strong, yet is it the privilege of all to possess them; and in proportion only as these last exist, will the first be ascertained.]
In connexion with the privileges of believers, we may well consider,

II.

Their duty towards their gracious Benefactor

The Holy Spirit is here represented as a parent, who, from his tender solicitude for the welfare of his children, is deeply grieved when they defeat in any respect the purposes of his love towards them. Now we may grieve the Holy Spirit,

1.

By departing from the truth in our principles

[The particular office assigned to the Holy Spirit in the economy of redemption, is, to glorify Christ, by receiving of the things that are his, and shewing them unto us [Note: Joh 16:14.] Now in this office he delights: and when we duly appreciate the excellencies of Christ, and behold his glory as the glory of the onlybegotten of the Father, then is the Holy Spirit delighted to dwell with us, and to carry on the whole work of grace in our souls. But when we suffer the wily serpent to beguile us, and to turn us from the simplicity that is in Christ, then is the Spirit grieved: for he is a jealous God, and especially jealous for the honour of that Saviour, whose cause he has espoused. Against two things then in particular we have to guard, namely, against philosophical subtilties on the one hand, and Jewish superstitious on the other. By both the one and the other of these was the Church of God rent, in the very first ages of Christianity; and thousands of souls were subverted by them. By the same are we also endangered. Our natural pride and self-conceit are ever at work, to add something to what God has revealed or to detract somewhat from it. Perhaps the simplicity of the Gospel is that which most offends the carnal mind. A simple life of faith upon the Son of God, as having loved us and given himself for us, is most difficult to be maintained. We want to be something; or to do something, that so we may share the glory of Christ, and ascribe some part of his honour to ourselves: but he is all, and must be all; and all who glory, must glory in him alone [Note: Here reference may be made to any questions and strifes of words which may be agitated in the Church; for they all, when unduly insisted on, grieve the Holy Spirit.] By retaining in constant exercise this humble and childlike spirit, we shall obtain frequent tokens of Gods favourable acceptance: but by departing from it, we shall provoke him to hide his face from us.]

2.

By dishonouring it in our practice

[To this more especially does the Apostle refer, both in the preceding and following context. Unhallowed tempers and dispositions are most offensive to the Spirit of God. O that all the professors of religion throughout the world were made duly sensible of this truth! But, whether they consider it or not, God will not dwell where there is bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamour, and evil-speaking and malice, or an habitual want of a forbearing and forgiving spirit. Falsehood too in our words, and dishonesty in our dealings, and impurity in our hearts, will assuredly drive him from us, and bring down upon us the tokens of his displeasure: If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy [Note: 1Co 3:17.]. It is no uncommon thing to find those who profess religion low and miserable in their minds. But we should not wonder at it, if we knew what abominations are harboured in their hearts: we should rather wonder that God bears so long with them, and that his wrath does not break forth to consume them in an instant. Let us never forget this, that as well may light have fellowship with darkness, and Christ with Belial, as the Spirit of God abide with those who yield not to his sanctifying operations. If, instead of conforming ourselves to the mind that was in Christ, we rebel against him, we shall vex his Holy Spirit, and provoke him to become our enemy [Note: Isa 63:10.].]

Address
1.

Those who comply not with the written word

[The word which is recorded in the Scriptures of truth is Gods word: it is altogether given by inspiration from the Holy Ghost. If therefore we comply not with that, we resist the Holy Ghost, and do despite to him. Consider this, ye who receive not the word with all humility of mind, or labour not to conform to it in your life and conversation: think, whom it is that ye resist and rebel against; even Him, who, if he depart from you, will leave you in a bondage from which you can never be delivered, and in misery from which you can never be redeemed [Note: Hos 4:17; Hos 9:12.]. O learn to tremble at the word of God, and beg that your whole souls may be so melted and poured into its mould, as to assume its every feature, and be formed into the perfect image of your God.]

2.

Those who rest in a mere formal compliance with it

[You cannot deceive that blessed Spirit whose province it is to search the heart and try the reins. He requires truth in our inward parts: he requires that your heart be right with him; that you walk in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit, and live in the Spirit, and give yourselves up altogether to his godly motions. Do not therefore dissemble with him, lest he give you up to your own delusions, and seal you up in utter impenitence to the day of final retribution. Of those who held the truth in unrighteousness, we are told that he gave them up to a reprobate mind. I pray you, bring not upon yourselves this heaviest of all judgments: but to-day, while it is called to-day, surrender up yourselves entirely to his guidance, that he may make you perfect in every good work, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Christ Jesus [Note: Heb 13:20-21.].]

3.

Those who are endeavouring to please him in all things

[The day of redemption is near at hand. O blessed day, when all the remains of sin and sorrow shall be for ever banished from the soul! Look forward to it; and order your every action, word, and thought, in reference to it. Pray to the Holy Spirit to work yet more and more powerfully upon you, in order to prepare you for your appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ. Guard against any sloth in the ways of God, lest, like the Church of old, you cause him to suspend the communications of his love [Note: Son 5:2-6.]. Pray to him to give you that white stone, which none but he who has it can appreciate, and which has on it the name written, which none but he who possesses it can read [Note: Rev 2:17.]. Then shall you already even now enjoy a foretaste of your heavenly inheritance, and in due season have an abundant entrance ministered unto you into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Ver. 30. And grieve not, &c. ] As men in heaviness cannot despatch their work as they were wont; so neither doth the Spirit. if we grieve the Holy Ghost, how should we expect that he should comfort us? It is a foul fault to grieve a father; what then the Spirit? Delicata res est Spiritus Dei, saith Tertullian, God’s Spirit is a delicate thing, and must not be vexed. “It is a holy thing, that Spirit of that God” (so the original hath it, ), “whereby we are sealed,” and so are declared to be the excellent ones of the earth; for whatsoever is sealed, that is excellent in its own kind, as Isa 28:25 , hordeum signatum, sealed barley, &c.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

30 .] and (Thl. finely gives the connexion: . , , . . ) grieve not (the expression is anthropopathic, but as Meyer remarks, truly and touchingly sets forth the love of God, which ( Rom 5:5 ) is shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit) the Holy Spirit of God (the repetition of the articles gives solemnity and emphasis), in whom (as the element, condition, of the sealing: not by whom; the sealing, both of the Lord and of us His members, is the act of the Fathar, Joh 6:27 : the Spirit being the seal , ch. Eph 1:13 ) ye were sealed unto (in reservation for) the day of redemption (the day when redemption shall be complete in glory see again ch. Eph 1:13 . On the genitive, see Winer, 30. 2, so , Rom 2:5 , &c. So far from the doctrine of final perseverance, for which Eadie more sharply than reasonably contends, being involved here, there could hardly be a plainer denial of it by implication. For in what would issue the grieving of the Holy Spirit, if not in quenching His testimony and causing Him to depart from them? The caution of Thl., , is a direct inference from the passage).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Eph 4:30 . : and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God . This is not a general exhortation, but one bearing, as the indicates, particularly on the preceding injunction. The utterance of evil or worthless words is repugnant to the holiness of the Spirit, and is to be refrained from as calculated to grieve Him. The injunction is made the more solemn by the designation of the Spirit as “the Holy Spirit” and the Spirit “of God”. The Spirit is here regarded as capable of feeling, and so as personal. In Isa 63:10 we have a similar idea, following the statement that Jehovah was afflicted in all His people’s affliction. These terms, no doubt, are anthropopathic, as all terms which we can use of God are anthropomorphic or anthropopathic. But they have reality behind them, and that as regards God’s nature and not merely His acts. Otherwise we should have an unknown God and One who might be essentially different from what we are under the mental necessity of thinking Him to be. What love is in us points truly , though tremulously, to what love is in God. But in us love, in proportion as it is true and sovereign, has both its wrath-side and its grief-side ; and so must it be with God, however difficult for us to think it out. : in whom ye were sealed . , not “by whom” (Tynd., Cranm., Gen., Bish.), or “whereby” (AV), but “ in whom,” the Holy Spirit being the environment of the seal, the sphere or element in which it takes effect. On the sealing see on Eph 1:13 above. : unto the day of redemption . is most simply taken as = with a view to . , as in Eph 1:14 , Luk 21:28 , Rom 8:23 , is the redemption of the future, and here specifically that redemption in its completeness and finality. The gen. is the gen. of temporal relation , = the day on which redemption will take effect, or manifest itself; cf. (Rom 2:2 ); (Jud 1:6 ). The consideration, therefore, that it is in the Spirit they have their security and their assurance of reaching the day when their redemption shall be made perfect, is an additional reason for avoiding everything out of harmony with His holy being and action.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

EPHESIANS

GRIEVING THE SPIRIT

Eph 4:30

The miracle of Christianity is the Incarnation. It is not a link in a chain, but a new beginning, the entrance into the cosmic order of a Divine Power. The sequel of Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet is the upper room and the Pentecost. There is the issue of the whole mission and work of Christ-the planting in the heart of humanity of a new and divine life. All Christendom is professing to commemorate that fact to-day, [Preached on Whitsunday] but a large portion of us forget that it was but a transient sign of a perpetual reality. The rushing mighty wind has died down into a calm; the fiery tongues have ceased to flicker on the disciples’ heads, but the miracle, which is permanent, and is being repeated from day to day, in the experience of every believing soul, is the inrush of the very breath of God into their lives, and the plunging of them into a fiery baptism which melts their coldness and refines away their dross. Now, my text brings before us some very remarkable thoughts as to the permanent working of the Divine Spirit upon Christian souls, and upon this it bases a very tender and persuasive exhortation to conduct. And I desire simply to try to bring out the fourfold aspect in those words. There is, first, a wondrous revelation; second, a plain lesson as to what that Divine Spirit chiefly does; third, a solemn warning as to man’s power and freedom to thwart it; and, lastly, a tender motive for conduct. ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’

Now let us look briefly at these four thoughts: Here we have-

I. A wonderful revelation.

Wonderful to all, startling to some. If you can speak of grief, you must be speaking of a person. An influence cannot be sorry, whatever may happen to it. And that word of my text is no more violent metaphor or exaggeratedly strong way of suggesting a motive, but it keeps rigidly within the New Testament limits, in reference to that Divine Spirit, when to Him it attributes this personal emotion of sorrow with its correlation of possible joy.

Now, I do not need to dwell upon the thought here, but I do desire to emphasise it, especially in view of the strangely hazy and defective conceptions which so many Christian people have upon this matter. And I desire to remind you that the implied assumption of a personal Spirit, capable of being ‘grieved,’ which is in this text, is in accordance with all the rest of the New Testament teaching.

What did Jesus Christ mean when He spoke of one who ‘will guide you into all truth’; of one who ‘whatsoever He shall hear, those things shall He speak’? What does the book of the Acts mean when it says that the Spirit said to the believers in Antioch, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them’? What did Paul mean when he said, ‘In every city the Holy Ghost testifieth that bonds and afflictions await me’? What does the minister officiating in baptism mean when he says, ‘I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’? That form presents, according to many interpretations, a Divine Person, a Man, and an Influence. Why are these bracketed together? And what do we mean when, at the end of every Christian service, we invoke ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’? A Man, and God, and an Influence-is that the interpretation? You cannot get rid from the New Testament teaching, whether you accept it or not-you cannot eliminate from it this, that the divine causality of our salvation is threefold and one, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Now, brethren, I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that practically the average orthodox believer believes in a duality, and not a Trinity, in the divine nature. I do not care about the scholastic words, but what I would insist upon is that the course of Christian thinking has been roughly this. First of all, in the early Church, the question of the Divine nature came into play, mainly in reference to the relation of the Eternal Word to the Eternal Father, and of the Incarnation to both. And then, when that was roughly settled, there came down through many ages, and there still subsists, the endeavour to cast into complete and intelligible forms the doctrine, if I must use the word, of Christ’s nature and work. And now, as I believe, to a very large extent, the foremost and best thinking of the Christian Church is being occupied with that last problem, the nature and work of that Divine Spirit. I believe that we stand on the verge of a far clearer perception of, and of a far more fervent and realising faith in, the Spirit of God, than ever the Churches have seen before. And I pray you to remember that however much your Christian thought and Christian faith may be centred upon, and may be drawing its nourishment and its joy from, the work of Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for our salvation, and lives to be our King and Defender, there is a gap-not only in your Christian Creed, but also in your Christian experiences and joys and power, unless you have risen to this thought, that the Divine Spirit is not only an influence, a wind, a fire, an oil, a dove, a dew, but a Divine Person. We have to go back to the old creed-’I believe in God the Father Almighty … and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord … I believe in the Holy Ghost.’

But further, this same revelation carries with it another, and to some of us a startling thought. ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit’: that Divine Person is capable of grief. I do not believe that is rhetorical exaggeration. Of course I know that we should think of God as the ever-blessed God, but we also in these last days begin to think more boldly, and I believe more truly, that if man is in the image of God, and there is a divine element in humanity, there must be a human element in divinity. And though I know that it is perilous to make affirmations about a matter so far beyond our possibility of verification by experience, I venture to think that perhaps the doctrine that God is lifted up high above all human weaknesses and emotions does not mean that there can be no shadow cast on the divine blessedness by the dark substance of human sin. I do not venture to assert: I only suggest; and this I know, that He who said to us, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,’ had His eyes filled with tears, even in His hour of triumph, as He looked across the valley and saw the city sparkling in the rays of the morning sun. May we venture to see there an unveiling of the divine heart? Love has an infinite capacity of sorrow as of joy. But I leave these perhaps too presumptuous and lofty thoughts, to turn to the other points involved in the words before us.

I said, in the second place, there was-

II. A plain lesson here, as to the great purpose for which the Divine Spirit has been lodged in the heart of humanity.

I find that in the two words of my text, ‘the Holy Spirit,’ and ‘ye were thereby sealed unto the day of redemption.’ If the central characteristic which it imports us to know and to keep in mind is that implied by the name, ‘the Holy Spirit’ then, of course, the great work that He has to perform upon earth is to make men like Himself. And that is further confirmed by the emblem of the seal which is here; for the seal comes in contact with the thing sealed, and leaves the impression of its own likeness there. And whatever else-and there is a great deal else that I cannot touch now-may be included in that great thought of the sealing by the Divine Spirit, these things are inseparably connected with, and suggested by it, viz. the actual contact of the Spirit of God with our spirits, which is expressed, as you may remember, in the other metaphors of being baptized in and anointed with, and yet more important, the result purposed by that contact being mainly to make us holy.

Now, I pray you to think of how different that is from all other notions of inspiration that the world has ever known, and how different it is from a great many ideas that have had influence within the Christian Church. People say there are not any miracles now, and say we are worse off than when there used to be. That Divine Spirit does not come to give gifts of healing, interpretations of tongues, and all the other abnormal and temporary results which attended the first manifestations. These, when they were given, were but means to an end, and the end subsists whilst the means are swept away. It is better to be made good than to be filled with all manner of miraculous power. ‘In this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.’ All the rest is transient. It is gone; let it go, we are not a bit the poorer for want of it. This remains-not tongues, nor gifts of healing, nor any other of these miraculous and extraordinary and external powers-but the continual operation of a divine influence, moulding men into its own likeness.

Christianity is intensely ethical, and it sets forth, as the ultimate result of all its machinery, changing men into the likeness of God. Holiness is that for which Christ died, that for which the Divine Spirit works. Unless we Christian people recognise the true perspective of the Spirit’s gifts, and put at the base the extraordinary, and higher than these, but still subordinate, the intellectual, and on top of all the spiritual and moral, we do not understand the meaning of the central gift and possible blessing of Christianity, to make us holy, or, if you do not like the theological word, let us put it into still plainer and more modern English, to make you and me good men and women, like God. That is the mightiest work of that Divine Spirit.

We have here-

III. A plain warning as to the possibility of thwarting these influences.

Nothing here about irresistible grace; nothing here about a power that lays hold upon a man, and makes him good, he lying passive in its hands like clay in the hands of the potter! You will not be made holy without the Divine Spirit, but you will not be made holy without your working along with it. There is a possibility of resisting, and there is a possibility of co-operating. Man is left free. God does not lay hold of any one by the hair of his head, and drag him into paths of righteousness whether he will or no. But whilst there is the necessity for co-operation, which involves the possibility of resistance, we must also remember that that new life which comes into a man, and moulds his will as well as the rest of his nature, is itself the gift of God. We do not get into a contradiction when we thus speak, we only touch the edge of a great ocean in which our plummets can find no bottom. The same unravellable knot as to the co-operation of the divine and the creatural is found in the natural world, as in the experiences of the Christian soul. You have to work, and your work largely consists in yielding yourselves to the work of God upon you. ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you.’ Brethren! If you and I are Christian people, we have put into our hearts and spirits the talent. It depends on us whether we wrap it in a napkin, and stow it away underground somewhere, or whether we use it, and fructify and increase it. If you wrap it in a napkin and put it away underground, when you come to take it out, and want to say, ‘Lo! there Thou hast that is Thine,’ you will find that it was not solid gold, which could not rust or diminish, but that it has been like some volatile essence, put away in an unventilated place, and imperfectly secured: the napkin is there, but the talent has vanished. We have to work with God, and we can resist. Ay, and there is a deeper and a sadder word than that applied by the same Apostle in another letter to the same subject. We can ‘quench’ the light and extinguish the fire.

What extinguishes it? Look at the catalogue of sins that lie side by side with this exhortation of my text! They are all small matters-bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil-speaking, malice, stealing, lying, and the like; very ‘homely’ transgressions, if I may so say. Yes, and if you pile enough of them upon the spark that is in your hearts you will smother it out. Sin, the wrenching of myself away from the influences, not attending to the whispers and suggestions, being blind to the teaching of the Spirit through the Word and through Providence: these are the things that ‘grieve the Holy Spirit of God.’

And so, lastly, we have here-

IV. A Tender Motive, a dissuasive from sin, a persuasive to yielding and to righteousness.

Many a man has been kept from doing wrong things by thinking of a sad pale face sitting at home waiting for him. Many a boy has been kept from youthful transgressions which war against his soul here, on the streets of Manchester, full as they are of temptations, by thinking that it would grieve the poor old mother in her cottage, away down in the country somewhere. We can bring that same motive to bear, with infinitely increased force, in regard to our conduct as Christian people. ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.’ A father feels a pang if he sees that his child makes no account of some precious gift that he has bestowed upon him, and leaves it lying about anywhere. A loving friend, standing on the margin of the stream, and calling to his friends in a boat when they are drifting to the rapids, turns away sad if they do not attend to his voice. That Divine Spirit pleads with us, and proffers its gifts to us, and turns away-I was going to use too strong a word, perhaps-sick at heart, not because of wounded authority, but because of wounded love and baffled desire to help, when we, in spite of It, will take our own way, neglect the call that warns us of our peril, and leave untouched the gifts that would have made us safe.

Dear brethren, surely such a dissuasive from evil, and such a persuasive to good, is mightier than all abstractions about duty and conscience and right, and the like. ‘Do it rightly’ says Paul, ‘and you will please Him that hath called you’; leave the evil thing undone, ‘and my heart shall be glad, even mine.’ You and I can grieve the Christ whose Spirit is given to us. You and I can add something to ‘the joy of our Lord.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

grieve. Greek. lupeo, occurs frequently; compare Rom 14:15.

the holy Spirit. App-101.

whereby = by (Greek. en) Whom. The Giver here is the Sealer.

are = were.

sealed. Compare Eph 1:13, where the sealing is the gift.

the = a.

redemption. Final deliverance; now we have the earnest. See Eph 1:14.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

30.] and (Thl. finely gives the connexion: . , , . . ) grieve not (the expression is anthropopathic,-but as Meyer remarks, truly and touchingly sets forth the love of God, which (Rom 5:5) is shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit) the Holy Spirit of God (the repetition of the articles gives solemnity and emphasis), in whom (as the element, condition, of the sealing: not by whom; the sealing, both of the Lord and of us His members, is the act of the Fathar, Joh 6:27 : the Spirit being the seal, ch. Eph 1:13) ye were sealed unto (in reservation for) the day of redemption (the day when redemption shall be complete in glory-see again ch. Eph 1:13. On the genitive, see Winer, 30. 2,-so , Rom 2:5, &c. So far from the doctrine of final perseverance, for which Eadie more sharply than reasonably contends, being involved here, there could hardly be a plainer denial of it by implication. For in what would issue the grieving of the Holy Spirit, if not in quenching His testimony and causing Him to depart from them? The caution of Thl., , is a direct inference from the passage).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Eph 4:30. , grieve not) by corrupt conversation. The Holy Spirit is grieved not in Himself, but in us [or in other men (by reason of our conversation)-V. g.], when His calm testimony is deranged. The LXX. often use for and .-, ye have been sealed) that you may know that there is not only some day of deliverance, but also that that day will be a day of deliverance to you, as being the sons of God; and on that account rejoice [opposed to grieve].- , to the day of deliverance [redemption]) This is the last day; of which there is a kind of representation [present realization-a pledge given in hand] in the day of death; it takes for granted all previous days, Rom 2:16. On that day especially it will be a matter of importance to us, who shall be found to be sealed.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Eph 4:30

Eph 4:30

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,-The Holy Spirit is Gods medium of communication with man, his representative here on earth. We reach God through the Spirit. Then what pleases God pleases the Spirit; what grieves God grieves the Spirit The prophet says: But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. (Isa 63:10). The Holy Spirit was in the prophets and through them taught the people the law of God. They refused to hearken to it and rebelled and sinned against him, and God turned and fought against them. Again, referring to the frequent rebellings against Moses, the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Psalmist, said: How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! (Psa 78:40). They provoked and grieved the Spirit by their frequent murmurings and rebellions against Moses and his law in the journey through the wilderness from Egypt to the land of Canaan. Distrusting his promises and disobeying his commands grieved him and provoked the Lord to destroy them. He says: Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: wherefore I swore in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. (Psa 95:10-11). The Holy Spirit since the ascension of Christ is the representative of God on earth; to grieve God now is to grieve the Holy Spirit. The commands of the Spirit are the commands of God. To violate the commands of the Spirit grieves him. In the passage before us are a number of commands given by the Spirit. Those who violate any of these or any other commands of the Spirit grieve the Spirit as they grieve God by violating a command of God. There is nothing obscure in this work of the Spirit of God. He is a person with the peculiarities of action and being acted upon common to other persons, modified only by his divine characteristics.

in whom ye were sealed-A seal is a sign guaranteeing and confirming a promise, or obligation. To this end the Holy Spirit as an indwelling Comforter to all baptized believers in Christ is given. The influences of the Spirit are exerted through the truth, revealed in the scriptures and confirmed to our faith. All the instructions given by the Spirit to the apostles for the enlightenment, guidance, comfort, and help of the world are recorded in the scriptures for the benefit of the world. Hence the apostle says: Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. (2Ti 3:16-17). It is through the Spirit then in his teachings and guiding power that all Christians are sealed or confirmed until the day of redemption, complete and thorough from the thralldom of sin and the grave. They are sealed men, sealed after their conversion by the bestowal of the Holy Spirit.

unto the day of redemption.-The day of redemption refers to the second coming of Christ, as it is called, when he will redeem his people from the bondage of corruption and give them the eternal inheritance in the presence of God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Grieving the Spirit

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.Eph 4:30.

St. Paul is charging the Ephesians to be careful not to forget or to despise some of the common duties of everyday life. He is telling them to speak the truth, to beware of foolish talking, to be industrious and honest, kind and charitable, to put away bitterness and evil-speaking, to be slow to take offence, and ready to forgive. And in the midst of these separate exhortations we find words of a very different kind, the words of the text, words which are so placed as to be the very centre and kernel of the whole, summing up in themselves the substance of all that has gone before and of all that comes after. For he speaks in them, not of any one particular duty, but of a rule of life from which all duties must most surely spring. He gives no new commandment, but he tells of a glorious guide. He speaks of a tender love which is watching us anxiously as we go up and down in the business or the pleasures of the day, of a Friend who has marked us out for the day of redemption, and is disappointed in us, grieved, distressed when we turn our backs upon Him and treat Him lightly. For such seems to be the meaning of the textDo not give pain to One who so loves you. He has come to your rescue, He has sealed you for a blessing; therefore, I beseech you, grieve Him not.

Milton wrote his great poem, actuated by the strong desire that men might remember him and think of him long after he was dead: you remember the touching words in which he himself tells us so. And the little boy at the village school works his hardest to gain his prize, because he thinks how it will please his mother. You would not care much for any distinction you might get, or any success, if there were no one but yourself to know of it or to care for it. And you know whether, coming next after Gods grace, there be anything that does more to keep a youth, cast alone amid the temptations of a great city, in the right path, than the keeping up of the old home-feeling; and whether there be a safeguard more effectual than the ready suggestion of the great motive that grows out of it. What greater stimulus to duty than this?Now, you will be industrious, and honest, and good; and make them all happy at home! And what healthier consideration in an hour of temptation to do wrong than that which comes first and most natural: Oh, you will not do that, and break your mothers heart! It hath pleased God, in the words of the text, to appeal to us with just that homely consideration. Grieve notthe words are spoken to all of usthe Holy Spirit of God.1 [Note: A. K. H. Boyd, The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 2nd Ser., 55.]

I

The Personality of the Holy Spirit

1. This is a classical passage in proof of the personality of the Spirit of God. The very fact that we may grieve Him implies His personality. He is more than an abstraction. Our mental attitude towards an attribute, an emanation, an influence, or an abstraction of any kind, would be very different from that which we instinctively assume towards the third Person of the blessed Trinity. Scripture does not shrink from speaking of God as being capable of feelings which for us can be represented only under human forms of emotion; God is represented as being pleased, as joying, as delighting in the love and obedience of His people, and He is also represented as grieved, offended, angry, alienated, by their sin; and we need not hesitate to follow where the Bible leads us. Indeed, it may be questioned whether God would be all that He is in His adorable and infinite nature if He were incapable of feeling both pleasure and pain; perfect love must mean the possibility of both. An old writer has said of the nature of God, In the outer chambers may be sadness, but in the inner ones is unmixed joy.

There is a gap, not only in our Christian creed, but also in our Christian experiences and joys and power, unless we have risen to this thought, that the Divine Spirit is not only an influence, a wind, a fire, an oil, a dove, a dew, but a Divine Person. We have to go back to the old creedI believe in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord I believe in the Holy Ghost.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

2. The Holy Spirit is always with us, a constant companion, and nothing is hid from Him. In this He witnesses to us the omnipresence of God; He makes Gods existence real to us, wherever we happen to be. However vast the numbers of the human race, the Holy Spirit is with every individual and knows every individuals life. Do we speak a word? It falls upon the Spirits ear, as well as upon the ear of the person to whom we speak. Do we perform any action, good or bad? The Holy Spirit sees it and records it. Do we even think a thought? That thought is mirrored in the multitudinous mind of the Divine Spirit. We cannot escape from His presence.

Over the door of a church in Hamburg is a piece of statuary. In a marble chair sits a man upon whose knee rests a parchment. On this parchment his eyes are fixed, and in his right hand he holds a pen with which he seems to be writing. It is John the Evangelist. He thinks himself alone, yet he is not. An angel stands behind him gazing intently over his shoulder upon the parchment, and with his right hand he guides the pen. So the Holy Spirit is ever present with us, seeking to direct us.

3. Though more than an emanation or an influence, and though continually witnessing our character and our ways, the Holy Spirit is so gentle and sensitive that you never read of His wrath. You read of the wrath of God the Father; you read even of the wrath of the Lamb. But you never read of the wrath of the Spirit: and the imagery employed to describe Him and His influence on mankind is of the gentlest possible character. We have, for instance, the dew that descends silently from heaven, the rain that comes down upon the mown grass, the wind that rustles the leaves of the trees, or that sweeps away the clouds from the fair face of the sky; and if, as is once the case, the coming of this supernatural guest is symbolized by the fire and the tornado, the fire is that which gleams in harmless flame over the thoughtful brows of the first Christian disciples gathered together in the rough upper room; and the tornado is that which overthrows and destroys nothing, but only announces, by an over-powering sound, the presence of God, and bids the people assemble together to listen to His overtures of mercy. The Holy Ghost, then, is emphatically gentle and tender and kind. He excites no emotions of alarm, and yet we feel that, if He is a Being capable of entering into personal relations with us, our belief of this capability will necessarily influence in a marked degree the sentiments which we entertain towards Him, and the trust which we are inclined to repose in His help. And when we know the gentleness of the Spirit in His dealing with us, surely we shall deal gently with others.

It was indeed a gift of his nature to find out excellences, and to avoid seeing failure; although the gift was not needed in this case, where the real genius had existed and been attested. But its possession was well known to his friend Ned Jones, who once said, Signor admires paintings that would make very good soles for his boots! I remember repeating to my husband a remark of Mr. Du Mauriers on the lenient view he always took of the foibles and faults of human nature; alas, I cannot now recall the humorous saying, at which Signor laughed heartily, and said, Any affection that has been given to me, I am sure is due to the fact that it is difficult for me not to see the best in people. I think I am not deceived, but their good qualities are uppermost to me.1 [Note: Mrs. Watts, George Frederic Watts, i. 171.]

II

How we may Grieve the Spirit

1. The Apostle has been referring to certain sins, such as falsehood, anger, bitterness, corrupt speech, and after warning his readers against them, he adds, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. It is sin, then, that grieves Him, sin that pains Him; and this is exactly the answer we should have expected, for He is the Holy Spirit of God, and all, therefore, that is evil and sinful He hates with a perfect hatred, and is grieved by it. The character of a man is always revealed as much by his deepest sorrows as by his highest joys. And the character of God is revealed in all its purity and holiness by the fact that the only thing in human life that grieves Him is sin.

A great difficulty with many is that they want power without purity and happiness without holiness; hence, when God puts His finger upon unclean and unlawful things, they shrink from the cost of renouncing them, and thus make it impossible for their prayer to be answered. There are in most lives mountains to be levelled, valleys to be exalted, crooked things to be made straight, and rough places to be made plain before the glory of the Lord can be revealed, and it is just here that so many fail. It often means a very serious matter this renunciation of what is revealed as iniquity, involving changes in many realms of life, possibly touching the sphere of the affections or the possessions, the inner habits of life or the outward details of conduct; but it is a much more serious thing to continue a controversy with God and thus prevent the Holy Spirit possessing His own temple. It is an actual impossibility to receive the Holy Spirit while grasping anything that God has condemned. The hand of faith must be empty in order to receive.1 [Note: J. S. Holden, The Spirit of Life, 62.]

The thinnest sheet of paper placed under the trolly of an electric car will stop the car, provided it is not punctured by the mechanical pressure. Cut a copper wire carrying an electric current, file the ends square, place a piece of writing paper between the ends and press them together: the current which was transmitting thousands of horse-power is stopped; it is incapable of passing through the insulating substance of the paper. No other agency for transmitting power can be stopped by such slight obstacles as electricity. A sheet of writing paper placed across a tube conveying compressed air would be instantly ruptured. It would take a wall of steel at least an inch thick to stand the pressure which is driving a 10,000 horse-power engine. A thin layer of dirt beneath the wheels of an electric ear can prevent the current which propels the car from passing to the rails, and thus back to the power house. So sensitive is the Holy Spirit to sin in the heart of a believer that its presence there is a complete obstacle to the manifestation of His love and power.2 [Note: C. H. Tyndall, Electricity and its Similitudes, 78.]

(1) He is grieved by insincerity and falsehood, for He is the Spirit of truth.All that is against truth, all that is against justice and honesty, is hateful to Him. He is grieved at all falsehood, in word or in deed. How much is He grieved then at the insincerity of Christians towards one another, when we change our words towards our neighbours to their face and behind their back; when we speak them fair as long as they are before us, but have quite a different story when they are gone and cannot hear our opinion of them; when we make a show of friendship as long as we think they may be useful to us and do us good, but speak roughly as soon as we have nothing more to get from them. Surely there can be few greater griefs to the Spirit of truth and faithfulness than to see those whom He is striving to bring into the ways of truth so hollow in heart, so full of false professions, and unmeaning, untrue words.

Among her many virtues, one thinks first of her sincerity. She gave to everybody an immediate sense of truth, such as we have when a sum comes right. She could not be disloyal or disingenuous; she had no use for any sort of trick or artifice; it was not in her to act or pose or rehearse effects.1 [Note: Said of Mrs. Paget, in Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford, 75.]

More and more, he said once, I see that nothing is so necessary for the religious condition of the mind as absolute simplicity. We know what we have got to do, and the only thing is to ask ourselves whether we are doing it as well as we can.2 [Note: George Frederic Watts, ii. 224.]

(2) He is grieved by malice and unkindness, for He is the Spirit of love.How must it grieve Him to see how love is set at nought among Christian people. How must it grieve Him to see how little some people seem to think of cherishing malice and ill-will in their hearts, to see how hard a matter it is to get them to give up a quarrel and really forgive what they suppose is an injury. How must it grieve Him as He accompanies us through the day, watching our dangers, ever anxious to help our weakness, to hear the words of unkindness, of peevishness, of jealousy, which drop from our mouths as the hours wear on, and which we take no care to stop. How must He grieve at the uncharitable suspicions and surmises, at the obstinacy with which we try to put the worst appearance on things, and stretch them from the truth to make them seem as bad as possible.

We have read of the old teacher Pythagoras, who had a school of rhetoric, dialectic, and general disputation. All the scholars in the school, we read, used to spring at one another, so to say, and in hot dispute chase the hours of the day; but their habit was, when the shadows gathered and the school was done, to fall upon each other and with a kiss of peace and brotherhood to close the intellectual fray.3 [Note: J. Parker, The Epistle to the Ephesians, 126.]

2. The great instrumentality of the Holy Ghost is conscience. There is a natural conscience in every heathen man, according to which he will be judged at the last day. In the Christian the conscience is moreit is the vehicle of the voice of the Holy Ghost. It needs, of course, to be instructed, or else it will be a morbid or false conscience. But the Spirits seal is on the conscience. And to silence conscience is to grieve the Spirit. By resisting His warnings and whisperings in our consciences, by going contrary to what He puts into our hearts and makes us see to be right, by refusing to be led by Him when He shows us what we ought to do, we may show more and more that we do not belong to Him, that we do not wish for His help and guidance, that we prefer to walk alone, till at last, wearied out by our provocations and hardness of heart, He lets us have our way, and gives us up to the imaginations of our own hearts. That is what we are always in danger of whenever we grieve Him. That is what we must come to if we grieve Him too long, and presume too far on His patience.

Dean Stanley recalls a well-known German picture representing a young man playing at chess with the Tempter of his soul. There he sits, intent upon the game; he sees only the moves of the pieces immediately before him; he thinks he will still win the game. Opposite to him sits the Fiend, exulting over an easy prey. Already piece after piece has been taken; here a good deed gone, there a prayer removed; a few more successful moves on the Tempters part, and the game is wonand the soul is lost. But there is yet another figure in the picture, which gives to the scene at once a deeper pathos and also a ray of hope. Behind the young man, unseen by him, unnoticed by the Tempter, stands the Guardian Angel of his soul. The wings are already spread for flight: the face is already turning away. It is a face not of anger, not of disappointment, not of despair, not of resistance, but of profound compassion and grief.

III

The Great Motive for not Grieving the Spirit

We stand in a high relationship to Him. We have been sealed in Him unto the day of redemption.

1. In what does this sealing consist?The Apostle explains elsewhere. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. From which we learn that it is a seal which has, if one may so speak, two sides, which make two impressions, which together complete the spiritual sealing. The one, Gods electing graceThe Lord knoweth them that are his ; and the other, our own personal progress in holinessLet every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And Gods election, and our sanctification, the consequence of election, make the seal.

That this is the seal of which the Apostle is speaking to the Ephesians is confirmed by the words that he addsunto the day of redemptionimplying that it then ceases. For, as soon as the redeemed soul takes its redeemed body, the danger will be all over; the Proprietor will be come back, and He will unseal the casket, and take out the jewel, because He wants it for His own crown.

If we can learn aright how Christ was sealed, we shall learn how we are sealed. The sealing of Christ by the Father is the communication of the Holy Spirit in fulness to Him, authorizing Him unto and acting His Divine power in all the acts and duties of His office, so as to evidence the presence of God with Him and approbation of Him. Gods sealing of believers then is His gracious communication of the Holy Spirit unto them so to act His divine power in them as to enable them unto all the duties of their holy calling, evidencing them to be accepted with Him both for themselves and others, and asserting their preservation unto eternal life.1 [Note: John Owen, Discourse Concerning the Spirit.]

2. The seal is the mark of ownership.When men put their mark upon an article, it is to show that it is their own. The farmer brands his tools that they may not be stolen. They are his. The shepherd marks his sheep that they may be recognized as belonging to his flock. So the Holy Spirit puts His mark of ownership upon the hearts of all His people. He seals us. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day that I make up my jewels. And then the Spirit puts Gods seal upon us to signify that we are Gods reserved inheritanceHis peculiar people, the portion in which His soul delights.

What, is said here to be sealed is not any external promise or assurance, however rich, however infallible: it is the Christian himself, his own actual personality, that is the recipient of the sealing. And here, perhaps, we may be reminded that in the great discourse in the sixth chapter of St. Johns Gospel, our Lord, having to prove that He can give to His followers the food that endureth to eternal life, affirms that He Himself was sealed by the Father, that is, was solemnly declared by the Father to be the true Christ. Yet we may discern the idea of ownership as recurring, though less distinctly, in this passage also; for in the context our Lord asserts a special Sonship as inhering in Himself, My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven, as if the fundamental thought, in regard to the sealing connected with His Incarnate Person, were just this, that He was attested as Gods own Son.

How hot it is! cried a stick of sealing-wax. Its positively exhausting. I cant stand much more of this! And thereupon the poor thing began to bend and twist under the heat. But it grew hotter and hotter still, as a cruel hand kept it remorselessly in the flame of a candle. Then the wax began to melt, and portions dropped off on to a sheet of paper placed to receive them; and these were moulded into shape under pressure of a signet. Really, said the sealing-wax, I didnt know I could look so splendid. Just see this crest! Adversity tends to the development of character. Fire makes the Divine crest beautiful. The marble of the Christian character gleams the whiter, the gold and silver and precious stones flash the brighter, the colours glow the more beautiful, because of the fierce lights of time. Reserved by Divine love and grace unto the day of redemption,

The ills we see,

The mysteries of sorrow deep and long,

The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,

Have all one key!

This strange, sad world is but our Fathers school,

All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule.1 [Note: W. Burrows.]

In Eastern countries clay is sometimes used instead of wax for the purpose of sealing. The wax may melt, while the clay hardens by reason of the heat of the climate. In the Book of Job it is said, It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. Any impression made upon the clay will become more distinct as the suns rays pour down and become fiercer. Some retire into monasteries and convents to find shelter; some retire into themselves. Let us be as well-seasoned clay, to derive shape and comeliness even from the worlds fierce light, which beats upon the throne of our natures. Be as clay, and the writing upon the seal will come out the more clearly the more glaringly the worlds suns and fires may shine and burn.1 [Note: W. Burrows.]

3. The seal indicates guardianship.A seal is used for preserving as well as for attesting. The Eastern seals up his money-bags to secure the gold within, and we seal our letters to guard the enclosure. A seal is Set for security. Now, as the only way by which we can be known to be Christians is by really possessing the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost, so, also, the only way by which we can be kept as Christians, and preserved from going back to the world, is by still possessing that same Holy Spirit. What are we if the Spirit of God be gone? Salt that has lost its savour, wherewith can we be salted? Trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. The Holy Spirit is to us not a luxury, but a necessity: we must have Him, or we die.

Eastern locks could be opened with ease. Solomon has an allusion to this when he says, My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him (Son 5:4, R.V.). A seal was placed over the door of the house where property was deposited. The Pharisees caused a watch to be set, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone. When Daniel was cast into the lions den, a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel (Dan 6:17). Christians are sealed with Gods own signet, that the Divine purposes of love and mercy may be fully established. As the blood was sprinkled upon the doorposts of the children of Israel to save from the destroying angel, so God marks His own with His own signet for security.2 [Note: Ibid.]

You have some valuable propertyit may be gold or jewelsand you are going abroad for a season. Anxious for your precious things, you gather them carefully up, and you put on them your seal, your name to the seal. The seal marks them yours while you are away, and secures them from being lost or stolen. So long as they are under the seal, they cannot be removed or hurt; and you look to find them, in their sure keeping, when you come back. And your great Proprietor, who has spent so much on you, is gone away for a time. He has gone to a far country. But He is to return; and when He returns, His longing desire is to find you unharmed and beautiful, and still His own.1 [Note: James Vaughan.]

You watch a ship as it is being loaded for a voyage, and amongst other cargo you notice a number of boxes bearing a significant seal. These are not stowed away in the hold like consignments of common goods, but are taken to some place where they will be constantly watched by the responsible officers of the ship. The chests are chests of sealed treasure. Should the ship spring a leak and be endangered, after the safety of the passengers has been provided for, these sealed chests will be the first things to be put into the lifeboats. If pirates should succeed in boarding the vessel, the great fight will be round these sealed chests. Should the ship go down into the depths, these sealed chests will be the first things the divers will seek to bring back to the surface. The seal marks them out for special care and defence, and whatever human vigilance, foresight, and valour can do will be done to deliver them to the consignees. And so with that sealing of the Spirit affixed to sincere believers in Jesus Christ. They are subject to the same risks, vicissitudes, and temptations as other men; but all that Gods power can do to help and deliver them shall be done, and when the final catastrophe of death shall come into the horizon and bury all things in a common desolation, these shall be the first to be brought back again from the depths of earth. This special sealing marks out body and soul alike for Gods special possession and guardianship. His sealed servants shall never perish.2 [Note: T. G. Selby, The Holy Spirit, 98.]

4. The seal lasts until the day of redemption.The term redemption is one of the broadest and most elastic in the New Testament vocabulary. A cursory glance will show us that it does not merely denote the ransom Christ once offered for our salvation, or even our experimental deliverance from the power of sin in the present life. The word covers the rescue of Gods people from the last trace of sins dominion in death and their elevation to share the glory of Jesus Christ on high. A similar comprehensiveness in the use of the word is to be found in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where St. Paul speaks in an ascending series of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If redemption points chiefly to Christs work on the cross, we should expect it to be put before righteousness and sanctification; but because it is the wider term, Paul puts it last, and makes it include not only rescue from the moral perversity bred into human character by sin, but from every pain, abasement, and physical debility that has followed in its train.

The seal is not to be broken until the proper authorities and witnesses are present, and all the purpose of such sealing has been answered. Christians are sealed unto the day of redemption, unto that day when redemption shall be perfected in glory. This sealing is both retrospective and prospective. It looks back to Calvary and onward to heaven. The day when the terms of our spiritual purchase were agreed to, when the Divine compact was settled, when the seal was affixed, was the day when the Saviour said, It is finished. We come into part enjoyment of this redemption on earth. In heaven all the terms of the agreement will be fully manifested and enjoyed. Ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Whatever may be the trials and difficulties through which we have to pass, however much we may be tossed on the heaving ocean of life, let us not abate our courage or lose our heart, for we are reserved unto the day of redemption. Let us not think that we are the children of fate, the mere toys of blind circumstances, the playthings of tyrannical and unreasoning force; for we are reserved unto the day of redemption. Yes, God, the loving and all-wise God, has mysterious methods of reservation. He may reserve in poverty, in trial, in sickness drear, in sore bereavement, in heart anguish, in soul throbbings of fearful measure, when waves and billows toss and groan and sweep with fury. Still God reserves; and sometimes thus reserves that the crest on the seal may be all the brighter.

When Daguerre was working at his sun pictures his great difficulty was to make them permanent. The light came and imprinted the image, but when the tablet was drawn from the camera, the image had vanished. He discovered, however, the chemical power which turned the evanescent into the permanent. And the day is coming when the image of Christ will be stamped so indelibly by the Spirit upon the mind of man that it can never fade.

What is the one decisive sign by which we may know whether we have received the Holy Ghost? Is it to be a mere sentiment, an impression upon the mind, a religious hope; or is it to be something more decisive, emphatic, and incontrovertible? Do you ask a question? I am prepared with a reply. What is the one decisive sign that a man has received the Holy Ghost? Let me approach that question through two others. Have you received the poetic spirit? How do you prove it? Not by prose, but by poetry. Have you received the heroic spirit? How do you prove it? Not by cowardice, not by craven-heartedness, but by adventure, by freely encountering peril in all its thousand forms and possibilities of visitation. Have you received the Holy Spirit? The decisive sign is love of holinessnot power of theological debate, not only contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, not only outwardly irreproachable character, but love of holinessnot reputation, but reality; a heart that pants after the holiness of Godlife concentrated into one burning prayer to be sanctified, body, soul, and spiritlife a sacrifice on Gods altarthat is what I mean by saying that holiness is the one decisive test of our having received the Holy Ghost.1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]

Ah Lord, we all have pierced Thee: wilt Thou be

Wroth with us all to slay us all?

Nay, Lord, be this thing far from Thee and me:

By whom should we arise, for we are small,

By whom if not by Thee?

Lord, if of us who pierced Thee Thou spare one,

Spare yet one more to love Thy Face,

And yet another of poor souls undone,

Another, and anotherGod of grace,

Let mercy overrun.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poems, 137.]

Grieving the Spirit

Literature

Atkin (J. W.), The Paraklete, 62.

Barrett (G. S.), Musings for Quiet Hours, 40.

Boyd (A. K. H.), The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, ii. 54.

Bright (W.), Morality in Doctrine, 88.

Burrows (H. W.), Lenten and other Sermons, 120.

Calthrop (G.) In Christ, 128.

Chapman (J. W.), The Power of a Surrendered Life, 81.

Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, ii. 307.

Lowry (S. C.), The Work of the Holy Spirit, 87.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: The Epistle to the Ephesians, 262.

Moore (E. W.), The Spirits Seal, 45.

Selby (T. G.), The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, 91.

Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, v. 425.

De Teissier (G. F.), Village Sermons, iv. 254.

Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 154.

Vaughan (C. J.), The Presence of God in His Temple, 228.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), iv. No. 493; ix. No. 790.

Christian World Pulpit, xii. 74 (Beecher).

Churchmans Pulpit, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, xii. 488 (Moberly).

Clergymans Magazine, 3rd Ser., 219 (Burrows).

Literary Churchman, xx. (1874) 237; xxiv. (1878) 420.

Preachers Magazine, vi. (1895) 217 (Gordon).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

grieve: Gen 6:3, Gen 6:6, Jdg 10:16, Psa 78:40, Psa 95:10, Isa 7:13, Isa 43:24, Isa 63:10, Eze 16:43, Mar 3:5, Act 7:51, 1Th 5:19, Heb 3:10, Heb 3:17

whereby: Eph 1:13

the day: Eph 1:14, Hos 13:14, Luk 21:28, Rom 8:11, Rom 8:23, 1Co 1:30, 1Co 15:54

Reciprocal: Exo 23:21 – provoke him not Exo 28:11 – engravings of a signet Lev 25:24 – redemption 1Ch 4:10 – that it may Psa 51:11 – holy Psa 143:10 – thy spirit Son 4:12 – sealed Isa 1:13 – iniquity Jer 32:10 – and sealed Eze 9:4 – set a mark Joh 4:14 – shall be Joh 7:39 – this spake Joh 14:26 – Holy Ghost Joh 21:17 – grieved Rom 4:11 – a seal Rom 5:5 – shed Rom 8:13 – through Rom 8:16 – Spirit 2Co 1:22 – sealed 2Co 5:5 – the earnest Gal 3:14 – might Gal 4:6 – God Phi 2:1 – if any comfort 2Ti 2:19 – having Heb 10:29 – and hath 1Pe 3:7 – that Rev 7:2 – having Rev 9:4 – which

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

AN APOSTOLIC INJUNCTION

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

Eph 4:30

How sad it is to grieve a friend! But to grieve the best of friends seems more than sad, more than culpable.

We may grieve the Holy Spirit of God

I. By lack of Christian charity.Selfishness no doubt is at the root of our want of love to the brethren. And not only selfishness, but that narrowness of spirit which prevents one seeing the good in others and from realising that Christ is leading them on perhaps quite as much as He is leading us on. Love to the brethren ought to be extended far wider than we are accustomed to allow it to extend; we are to take care that we love others no less than we believe that God loves them.

II. By wilfully indulged sin.If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. And can we forget that any wilfully indulged sin, any allowance of ourselves in ways that we know instinctively, intuitively, must grieve the Spirit of God, ought never to be followed for a single instant.

III. By distrust of the love of God.He calls us his children. He bids us by the Spirit that He gives us look up to Him and call Him, Abba Father; and how it must grieve Him when after all we distrust that love of God. The same gracious Spirit brings us back to God, and therefore must there be the constant prayer from us that He would return to us if we have driven Him away, so that we by His power may return again to God.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

(Eph 4:30.) -And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. The term , and the epithet , have been already explained under Eph 1:13, and solemnly and emphatically is the article repeated. He is called the Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, each term having a distinct and suggestive significance. This sentence is plainly connected with the previous exhortations, and specially by , with the preceding counsel. And the connection appears to be this:-Obey those injunctions as to abstinence from falsehood, malice, dishonesty, and especially corrupt speech, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. True, indeed, the Godhead is unruffled in its calm, yet there are feelings in it so analogous to those excited in men, that they are named after such human emotions. The Holy Spirit represents Himself as susceptible of affront and of sorrow. is used in a similar passage in Isa 63:10 by the Seventy, but it is not a perfect representation of the original Hebrew-, H6772. We regard it as wrong to dilute the meaning of the apostle, explaining it either with Bengel-contristatur Spiritus Sanctus non in se sed in nobis; or rashly affirming with Baumgarten-Crusius, that the personality of the Holy Spirit is only a form of representation, and no proof of what Harless calls objective reality; or still further declaring with Rieger, that the term Spirit may be referred to-des Menschen neugeschaffenen Geist-the renewed spirit of man; or, in fine, so attenuating the meaning with de Wette as to say, that by the Holy Spirit is to be understood moral sentiment, as depicted from the Christian point of view. It is the Holy Spirit of God within us (not in others, as Thomas Aquinas imagines), that believers grieve-not the Father, nor the Son, but the blessed Spirit, wh o, as the applier of salvation, dwells in believers, and consecrates their very bodies as His temple. Eph 2:22; 1Co 6:19; Rom 8:26-27. According to our view, the verse is a summation of the argument-the climax of appeal. If Christians shall persist in falsehood and deviation from the truth-if they shall indulge in fitful rage or cherish sullen and malignant dislikes-if they shall be characterized by dishonesty, or idle and corrupt language-then, though they may not grieve man, do they grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for all this perverse insubordination is in utter antagonism to the essence and operations of Him who is the Spirit of truth, and inspires the love of it; who assumed, as a fitting symbol, the form of a dove, and creates meekness and forbearance; and who as the Spirit of holiness, leads to the appreciation of all that is just in action, noble in sentiment, and healthful and edifying in speech. What can be more grieving to the Holy Ghost than our thwarting the very purpose for which He dwells within us, and contravening all the promptings and suggestions with which He warns and instructs us? Since it is His special function to renew the heart, to train it to the abandonment of sin, and to the cultivation of holiness-and since for this purpose He has infleshed Himself and dwells in us as a tender, watchful, and earnest guardian, is He not grieved with the contumacy and rebellion so often manifested against Him? Nay more-

-in whom ye were sealed for the day of redemption. is for-reserved for, implying the idea of until; the genitive being a designation of time by its characteristic event. Winer, 30, 2, a. For the meaning of the verb , the explanation already given under Eph 1:14 may be consulted. It is a grave error of Chandler and Le Clerc to refer this sealing to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; for surely these were not possessed by all the members of the church, nor could we limit the sin of grieving the Spirit to the abuse of the gift of prophecy, which the second of these expositors supposes to be specially intended in the preceding verse. In Eph 1:14, the apostle speaks of the redemption of the purchased possession, and that period is here named the day of redemption. The noun has already occupied us under Eph 1:14, and the comment needs not be repeated. This clause is evidently an argument, or the motive why believers should not grieve the Holy Spirit. If He seal you, and so confirm your faith, and preserve you to eternal glory-if your hope of glory, your preparation for it, and especially your security as to its possession, be the work of God’s blessed Spirit, why will you thus grieve Him? There is no formal mention made of the possibility of apostasy, or of the departure of the Spirit. Nor does it seem to be implied, as the verb sealed intimates. They who are sealed are preserved-the seal is not to be shivered or effaced. A security that may be broken at any time, or the value of which depends on man’s own fidelity and guardianship, is no security at all. Not only does the Socinian Slichtingius hold that the seal may be broken, but we find even the Calvinist Zanchius speaking of the possibility of so losing the seal as to lose salvation: and in such an opinion some of the divines of the Reformation, such an Aretius, join him. The Fathers held a similar view. Theophylact warns- . See also the Shepherd of Hermas, 2.10, where the phrase occurs- . Ambrosiaster says-Quia deserit nos, eo quod laeserimus eum. Harless admits that the phrase may teach the possibility of the loss of the seal; while Stier displays peculiar keenness against those who held the opposite doctrine, or what he calls-praedestinationisches Missverstndniss. Were the apostle speaking of the striving of the Spirit, or of His ordinary influences, the possibility of His departure might be thus admitted. Gen 6:3; Isa 63:10; Act 7:51. Or if he had said-grieve not the Holy Spirit, by whom men are sealed, or whose function it is to seal men, the hypothesis of Stier would not be denied. But the inspired writer says-by whom ye were sealed. They had been sealed, set apart, and secured, for perseverance is the crowning blessing and prerogative of the saints; not to say, with Meyer, that if the view of Harless were correct- would have been the more natural expression. The apostle appeals not to their fears, lest the Spirit should leave them; but he appeals to their sense of gratitude, and entreats them not to wound this tender, continuous, and resident Benefactor. 2Co 1:21. It may be said to a prodigal son-grieve not your father lest he cast you off; or grieve not your mother lest you break her heart. Which of the twain is the stronger appeal? and this is the question we put as our reply to Alford and Turner. In fine, the patristic and popish phraseology, in which this seal is applied to the imposition of hands, to baptism, or the sacrament of confirmation, is wholly foreign from the sense and purpose of the passage before us, though its clauses have been often adduced in proof. Catechismus Roman. 311; Suicer, sub voce .

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Eph 4:30. A part of Thayer’s definition of the original of grieve is “to offend.” The Bible was given to the world through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If we show any disrespect for the Sacred Volume, then, we will grieve or offend the Spirit. Whereby ye are sealed means they are furnished with assuring evidence by the Spirit which reveals the truth of salvation through the apostles. Day of redemption refers to the day of judgment when all faithful servants of God will receive their eternal crown of redemption from sin.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eph 4:30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, lit, the Spirit, the Holy (Spirit) of God. This emphatic form shows the importance of the command. The verb means to disturb, render sorrowful, while and shows that corrupt words do thus grieve the Spirit, which dwells in us and in others, and can be thus ill treated by foul speech. Believers can grieve the Spirit, unbelievers resist Him; comp. Acts 5:51. Though the expression is in one sense figurative, it points to a great reality, namely, the sympathetic (not apathetic) presence of the Holy Spirit in Christian hearts.

In whom, not by whom, since God seals us with the Spirit as the Seal (comp. Eph 1:13); in suggests fellowship.

Unto the day of redemption; the day of final and complete redemption; comp. chap. Eph 1:14. The motive is one of love, not of fear, the day of judgment is for Christians the day of redemption. The possibility of losing the seal is not suggested, except as all exhortations imply danger.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The title given to the Spirit of God: he is styled the Holy Spirit, being essentially and infinitely holy in himself, and the author of all grace and holiness in us.

Observe, 2. The affection of grief, which is here attributed to the Spirit, not properly, but improperly: when we do that which would most certainly afflict and grieve him, were he a subject capable of grief; and when, upon provocations given on our parts, he carrieth himself towards us after the manner of a person grieved, namely, when we provoke him to suspend his influence, to withdraw his comforts, leaving us wuthout any present sense of feeling of his assistances; he is also then grieved when he is opposed, interrupted, controlled, and disturbed, in his operations of grace and comfort upon our souls.

Observe, 3. The argument used to enforce the exhortation, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God: because by it we are sealed to the day of redemption.

But what doth God’s sealing his people by his Holy Spirit intimate and imply?

Ans. 1. It intimates that God has distinguished them from others.

2. That he has appropriated them to himself.

3. That he has put a value upon them, and a very high esteem. and,

4. It imports the irrevocable purpose of God for their salvation.

Seals are for these uses, ends, and purposes: seals are for distinction, for appropriation, for confirmation; and argue a high evaluation and precious esteem of the person or thing which the seal is put upon. Grieve not the Spirit, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption; that is, to the day of judgment.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

Any involvement of Christians in the activities of the “old man” would grieve the Holy Spirit ( Isa 63:10 ). Whenever we reject the teachings of the Bible, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit, thereby giving him great sorrow ( Psalms 78:40: 95:10-11 ). Remember, the Holy Spirit is the seal, or guarantee, of our ultimate salvation in heaven ( Eph 1:13 ). None would want to risk giving him cause for sorrow since that would lead to our eternal sorrow (4:30).

Paul lists a series of actions the old man might have been involved in that the new man must avoid. A bitter man has resentment built up in him that causes him to see only mud and no stars. The anger here is uncontrolled, explosive in nature and leads to rash actions such as murder. Wrath is another description of such anger. If you have ever seen two, or more, people in a shouting match, you have seem clamor. The word for evil speaking could also be translated blasphemy and suggests speaking against God or man. Our word sadistic, which describes one who enjoys inflicting pain on others, could be used in place of the word malice (4:31).

In place of the attitudes listed in the previous verse, Paul would encourage the Ephesian brethren to show others kindness. Also, they were urged to be tenderhearted, or have compassion, and a forgiving spirit toward others. Christians are forgiven because of Christ’s loving sacrifice ( Mat 6:14-15 ; Mat 18:21-35 ). Clearly, all who have been forgiven of sin ought to be prepared by that forgiveness to forgive others (4:32; Rom 6:23 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Verse 30

Whereby ye are sealed; that is, which is the pledge and earnest of redemption.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The reason for this call to purity of speech is so that we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. He is within us to assist, teach and guide, and if we don’t live as a Christian ought we grieve Him – we ignore Him – we thumb our nose at Him. Not a great situation to be in Christian.

It is the Holy Spirit which seals us in our salvation. We are guaranteed by His seal. Why would a believer ever go against the Spirit, yet we often do just that.

Redemption is the thought of purchase back or buy back – to pay a price for something. We are sealed unto the day of redemption when we are finally, completely removed from this life and world and transferred to the next. We are sealed or guaranteed to that last day – nothing is going to change that destination. Why would we ever want to grieve the One that is responsible for doing this great thing for us spiritually? Sin is the choice and we all too often make it.

Often, on internet forums I see questions about whether a certain act is grieving the Holy Spirit. The strict context here is the misuse of the tongue and those things just preceding the verse, but I suspect the Spirit is grieved anytime we step away from His assistance and leading. He is there to minister to us, so anytime we remove ourselves from His influence we are in essence turning our backs on Him.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

4:30 {18} And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

(18) A general precept against all excess of affections which dwell in that part of the mind, which they call “angry”, and he sets against them the contrary means. And he uses a most strong preface, how we ought to take heed that we grieve not the Holy Spirit of God through our immoderateness and excessiveness, who dwells in us to the end of moderating all our affections.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

"And" connects this verse with the former one. Some English versions do not translate this conjunction, but it is present in the Greek text. We can grieve (bring sorrow or pain to) the Holy Spirit by our speech. It is inappropriate for us to do so because it is He who is our seal (Eph 1:13-14; cf. 2Co 1:21-22; 2Co 5:5). He is the pledge of God’s final redemption of us that will happen at our resurrection (Php 3:20-21). Grieving the Holy Spirit amounts to rejecting a priceless gift from God. [Note: See Lewis Sperry Chafer, He That Is Spiritual, pp. 82-104.]

"That which grieves the Holy Spirit is sin." [Note: Martin, p. 1312.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)