Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
In describing what a “quickened” (Ephesians 2:1,5) Child of God’s life should look like, we are exhorted to “grieve not the holy Spirit of God”! To “grieve … the holy Spirit of God” is to severely offend Him by our behaviors. In this context, to “grieve … the holy Spirit of God” is to mistreat our Brethren and Sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord with the offenses described in Ephesians 4:31-32. To avoid grieving “the holy Spirit of God” there are five things that we are to “put away from” us. We are to “put away” “all bitterness” toward one another; that is, thinking and speaking mean and hard things to and about one another. We are to “put away” “wrath”; that is, we must never let our anger move us to speak harsh and hateful things to or about one another. We are to “put away” “anger”; that is, subdue our agitated thoughts and emotions that can lead us to say and do unkind things. We are to “put away” “clamour”; that is, loud and disturbing words and behaviors toward one another. We are to “put away” “evil speaking”; that is, shading or embellishing the truth about others to harm them or impugn their reputation. We are to “put away” “malice”; that is, scheming and enacting things hurtful to one another. Anger is a part of our human nature; there is a righteous anger, and there is also a sinful anger. We are Commanded to “Be ye angry, and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26); that is, we are to prayerfully control ourselves so that we do not act upon our sinful anger. It has often been said to me, “I just couldn’t control myself”. Well, the truth is we can control our anger because our Lord will empower us to do so (Philippians 4:13). We defeat this sinful anger by being “kind one to another”; that is, by always speaking gently to one another. We defeat this sinful anger by being “tenderhearted”; that is, recognizing that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, including ourselves, so we always speak with loving compassion, even to those who may have offended us. We defeat this sinful anger by “forgiving one another”; that is, in our heart and mind and demeanor and speech, we render an offending person free from debt to us. It is always good and helpful when folks apologize, but we can and should forgive even without an apology. Here is a very tall order, we are to forgive “one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven” us! Our Lord is most gracious and merciful to forgive us; so, we in like manner are Commanded to forgive “one another”! When Peter asked the Lord how many times he must forgive his neighbor, the Lord answered, “Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). Let us prayerfully strive to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit, and life will be much more pleasant for us all!