Shalom: God,s love,peace.

Shalom:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, led by the spirit of God..

Eph.4:25-32 ::: v.30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption” . The grieving of the Holy Spirit of God defined as defiling one’s Holy Spirit. Paul exhorts through his epistles not to quench the Spirit (1 Thess.5:18) and not to disregard God who gives his Holy Spirit (4:8), thereby attempting to resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51).

However, the idea of grieving the Holy Spirit is unique to Ephesians in the New Testament, and appears to have taken up the similar thought from Isaiah 63:10 that states, “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit”. Here the word, “to grieve” means “to hurt, to cause pain, to provoke to wrath, to irritate and so on”. In other words, the passage can be reread as “But you shall take care and be alert that you do not grieve the Spirit of the Lord” or “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you, and do not extinguish the light which has been lit in you”.

The disappointing and saddening language of “grieving the Holy Spirit” is identified with an individual’s words and deeds. It is not a question of some offense aimed directly at the Holy Spirit that causes grievousness but rather the offenses committed by an individual from the faith community that are being mentioned in the earlier verses – such as, speaking falsehood, harbouring anger against the other, stealing from the poor and needy, deity worship in any form, verity of sins and works of the flesh (Gala.5:19-21) and so on, causes grievances to the Holy Spirit. In other words, any individual within the faith community that commits sinful words and deeds cause more grievousness to the Spirit, because they have been sealed in the Spirit for the day of redemption. Sins that disrupt communal life disrupt and oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, God is hurt when an individual’s sinful action that harms their brothers and sisters. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who want to lead  pure Christian life who set his/her minds on the things of the spirit, they can only please  God (Rom.8:8)

Further, defiling one’s Holy Spirit is connected with sins of the mouth. The scripture states, “they defiled their Holy Spirit and opened their mouth with a blaspheming tongue against the law of the covenant of God. Passages from 1Thess.5:18,19 and Eph.5:18,19 & 6:17 reflects the intimate link between speech and the Spirit. Hence, the misuse of the organ of speech is accordingly a wrong done to and felt by the Spirit who claims to control it. Using the hateful words against one’s brothers and sisters within the faith community distresses the Holy Spirit who binds that community together.

It’s important to note that the language of the Holy Spirit is “reconciliation within diversity”. He does not speak the language of unanimity or uniformity but unity in diversity within the faith community. In fact, the Holy Spirit is not only the God in us but also God between us. He dwells in our midst to create a sense of social quest, thereby building bridges between people and not letting them to live in an island of isolation. Hence, this prominent function of the Holy Spirit in building social, communal and corporate dimension of our faith provides us insight as to the reason for His grievousness. That is, when the language of unity is disrupted with words that divide, then the Holy Spirit is grieved.

Indian Christian theologian like Chenchiah also understands the work of the Holy Spirit within a social dimension, over against marginalizing the work of the Spirit to an individual piety. He finds Holy Spirit being active in all sphere of life. Such an understanding leads us into a new continuing humanity based on the role of the Holy Spirit in the social dimension of the gospel. On a broad level, it accommodates both the regeneration of humanity and the renewal of the whole creation. However, when human living is flagged with corruption and self-destruction to disrupt the creative handiwork of God, the Holy Spirit is grieved.

Therefore, my beloved  let us commit this day not to grieve the Holy Spirit, who is continuously at work both in creation and in the redemptive plan of God in building the community of faith. Lets pledge to speak the language of unity in spite of diversity and not defile our mouth to sin. Lets also confess our sinful words and deeds that caused grievousness to the Holy Spirit, since they have been sealed for the day of redemption. All who are led by the spirit of God are children of God (Rom. 8:14) Who you are....?     

T Manoj edited by Prasad V Abraham, Valanjavattom