Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Christian, do you ever stop to think that your sin grieves
the Spirit of God? The great crime of our times is being offensive. That's
about the only thing our society will not tolerate, offending people. But what
about offending God? Are you more
concerned about what offends you rather than what offends God? Our rebellion
offends our friend, the Holy Spirit. It is a sad consequence of bad
doctrine when the Spirit is viewed as a
power or a force and not the third person of the Trinity.
Grieving the Spirit is when we are not cultivating the fruit
of love, peace, and joy, but are sowing the seeds of hatred and bitterness. We
grieve the Spirit when we are unforgiving and uncompassionate. Rather than
renewing our minds in the Word, we choose to continue to do what is right in
our own eyes. Instead of being lead by the Holy Spirit, we follow the
leadership of the corrupt old nature. Instead of speaking truth, you grieve the
Spirit by speaking lies. You choose to give place to the devil when we are the temple
of God. You can't help if the Devil comes knocking on your door, but you don't
have to let him in and make him comfortable. You grieve the Spirit speaking
corrupt communication rather than edifying words of grace and thanksgiving. You grieve the Spirit when you
walk after the course of this world instead of walking in love, after Christ. When
the you desire fellowship of the ungodly instead of fellowship with God. You
offend the Spirit when you ignore Him before makings decisions by not reading
the Bible to know the will of the Lord and to prove was is acceptable to him. When
you covet what doesn’t belong to you instead of being content with what God has
given; or when you make idols out of
things, or people, you have grieved God the Spirit.
Christian, this grief of the Spirit presupposes a
relationship. He is grieved because He loves you. From the moment of the new
birth, when the Spirit of God gives life, the Blessed Spirit never leaves the
child of God. The Spirit gives life, faith, strength, hope, endurance, peace, patience,
joy, and keeps on giving our whole life. The Spirit who sovereignly came to you
in resurrection power to quicken you from death to life; the Spirit that
graciously gave you faith and drew you to Christ, loves you. You grieve the
Spirit that desires your sanctification. You offend Him who gently leads you in
righteousness. You grieve the Spirit that is longsuffering with you when you
are disobedient and patient with you when you are stubborn. It would not occur
to a Christian to blaspheme or defame, or offend the Father or the Son. When
was the last time you thought that your sin offends the Spirit of God?
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