Eph 4:30 And do not grieve~| the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Can you imagine the hurt that Jesus felt when He was led out of the predawn, drummed–up trial at the Sanhedrin inquest, where He was railed on and beaten by the people He came to save?
The deeper hurt came after He left the judgment hall: across the courtyard, His friend and apostle, Peter, had just sworn in a convincing voice that he knew nothing of this Jesus. Just then, they led Jesus past Peter, “and the Lord turned and their eyes met” (Luke 22:61). Peter never got over it, because he knew how much he had disappointed Jesus.
Sin is a hurtful offense to God (Psa 51:4), especially when His children, in whom His Spirit dwells, refuse to change their attitudes or old lifestyles and are indifferent to His instructions. God’s Spirit “grieves,” which means “to cause grief, offend, cause pain,” because He is a person, and too often we ignore Him.
In Ephesians 4:30, believers were lying and getting angry with each other, stealing instead of sharing, and speaking damaging words about each other instead of building each other up, all of which deeply hurt the Spirit. The verb implies they were already doing the action and had to “stop grieving” the Spirit.
One of the greatest motives for learning the commands in Scripture is to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit within us. When we chose to “believe” in the gospel, we “were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:13–-14). Thus the Spirit is sealed within us, regardless of how comfortable He may be.
When Ananias ignored the Spirit when he pretended to give everything, Peter asked him, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit . . . Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3, 4).
If we do not obey the Spirit, we are only pretending to love Him. When the Spirit is grieved, He chastises us to teach us to walk in harmony with His values and principles. But even when He is grieved, He will never leave us or forsake us . . . Thank You, Lord!
“I cannot imagine how difficult it is for Your Spirit to dwell in my being when I hurt Him and grieve Him by ignoring Him and listen to my interests more than His. Thank You for remaining in my life and for Your patience with my stumbling ways.”