Ephesians 4: 30-32 (Paul summarizes chapter 4)

            Summary:  Paul now reminds the church here to not grieve the Holy Spirit but continue to put the things he has just come off pronouncing into practice.  He then gives a short summary of what he has just said before he continues in the next chapter of adding more instant application.

Note:  The Greek word for grieve is lupeo which literally means “to make sorrowful, to offend.”

            Timeless Principle:  Paul is giving another command to the church in Ephesus that echoes to us now.  He commands them not to grieve the Holy Spirit.  It is important that we not offend the Holy Spirit.  This leads to one question, what offends the Holy Spirit? A simple question answered by the obvious answer of sin.  Sin causes the Holy Spirit to literally become sorrowful. This deserves some attention.  In this context the specific sin being referred to is anger and malice caused by bitterness in the church which disrupts unity.  So in not forgiving and forgetting (to forgive means to not ever be brought up again, as not to even be mentioned again) we cause the Holy Spirit to become sorrowful.  This is the same Spirit that has sealed us to “the day of redemption” and we cause Him great distress in the futility of our fleshly desires and actions in reverting to how we were before Christ. In this sin against the Spirit we sin against a triune God, this is sickening in itself and must be dealt with.

            Paul gives a synopsis here of what he has spent chapter four trying to get across.  That of course being fellowship and unity between believers and what that entails as well as calls for.  Step one for good unity as described here, is a putting away of contempt and malice and any other conflict between believers and forgiving simply because you were counted worthy to be forgiven by God therefore giving you no excuse to hold anything against anyone for any reason.  Step two consists of treating one another with tenderness and love.  This is hard for a sinner to do and on this earth we will never fully achieve this perfect unity but that is no reason at all not to aspire for it out of a resilience to see God’s will done out of a love for Him.