Ane marker of a successful sermon is that it satisfactorily answers some questions while provoking still others. On Sunday I visited a little church in an eastern-Ontario village and heard only such a sermon. The pastor preached on Ephesians four as part of a series on the Christian's identity in Christ, but as he connected through the text he was merely barely able to speak to poesy 30: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." I later found myself request, What does it hateful to grieve the Holy Spirit? My initial reaction to the word grieve in reference to the Holy Spirit was a negative 1: Surely the Spirit of God does non actually grieve, does he? Possibly this is a poor translation. Isn't sorrow a besides-human reaction to ascribe to the holy God? Doesn't it diminish the Spirit to advise that my sin tin brand him experience genuine sorrow?

Thankfully I take my unabridged theological library on the road with me thanks to the magic of Logos, and so I was able to commencement meditate on the text and and then to research it a little chip. What I found is that grieve is really a very faithful rendering. Information technology is, in fact, the preferred rendering of the word for every major translation, new or old, with the exception of the NLT which prefers the synonymous bring sorrow to. The Bible dictionaries agree: the Greek give-and-take λυπέω indicates grief, sorrow, and distress. Then somehow our sin really can bring grief to God and, co-ordinate to the immediate context, this is peculiarly true for the sins of the rima oris that cause disunity between believers.

Still, I was glad to see that Bryan Chapell sympathizes with my firsthand, negative response to divine grief: "The words claiming our theology as much as they encourage our hearts. We are not accustomed to thinking of our thoughts and deportment affecting God'south heart. At that place are even aspects of our theology that make united states of america question whether it is proper to retrieve this way. Yet the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks with wonderful intimacy about the nature of our God and his heart for us." We need to recall that the Holy Spirit is not a afar, abstruse deity and certainly non an impersonal force. No, the Holy Spirit is a person, for only a genuine and personable being is capable of this kind of thinking, feeling, and emotion. In fact, when we understand that the Spirit is a person information technology should surprise us only if he would not or could not feel grief in the face up of our sin. "There is some poignancy in the consideration that the Holy Spirit, the One who is our Comforter (John 14–16), is himself grieved past our sin."

We do well, then, to consider the magnitude of our offences confronting God that they could motion him to such sorrow.Sins that bring disunity to the church building as well bring grief to the Holy Spirit. Once again, Chapell says, "The aforementioned Spirit who convicts my heart of sin, generates in me beloved for God, gives me new birth, provides my apprehension of the beauty of grace in the world, and seals my redemption until the coming of my Lord—this same Spirit who loves me so intimately and perfectly, I can cause to grieve."

It is also worth noting what Paul does not say, for there is comfort to exist had here. Paul does not threaten abandonment. Clinton Arnold makes this bespeak and concludes "Under the new covenant, the Spirit does not depart when sin is committed. Instead, the Spirit securely grieves over it. Paul presents this as a truth that should motivate believers non to indulge their sinful desires—whether this might exist filthy talk, stealing, uncontrolled anger, lying, or whatsoever other vice." The true believer does not need to fearfulness that God will respond to sin by giving up and moving out. We are sealed by the Spirit for all eternity.

We grieve the Spirit when nosotros sin and we especially grieve the Spirit when we sin in ways that crusade discord, peradventure because unity is a special work of the Spirit (run into John 17). The obvious and important application is this: "Not wanting to hurt [the Spirit] is strong motivation for not intending the harm of his people or purpose" (Chapell).