"30 And "DO NOT" grieve the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD, by WHOM you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."
The are many instructions in the WORD of GOD. Some are not so clear, seemingly leaving room for interpretation. Others are rather plainly spoken, almost daring us to ignore.
Ephesians 4:30 is one of the latter, stating rather straight forward to "DO NOT" grieve the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD! But do I grieve the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD with my actions from time to time? Ephesians 1:1 says "Paul, an apostle of CHRIST JESUS by the will of GOD,....". Since Paul was "an apostle of CHRIST JESUS BY THE WILL OF GOD" and "the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD" (Ephesians 4:30) "sealed" us for the day of redemption, could the actions of a human being OVERRIDE the WILL OF GOD and the "sealing" of the HOLY SPIRIT? That individual must be awesomely strong to be stronger than the WILL of GOD!
A Bible Study on this topic has helped me. It says "When believers do not allow the Spirit to be seen in our actions, when we do what we know is wrong, we suppress or quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We do not allow the Spirit to reveal Himself the way that He wants to.
To understand what it means to grieve the Spirit, we must first understand that this indicates the Spirit possesses personality. Only a person can be grieved; therefore, the Spirit must be a divine person in order to have this emotion. Once we understand this, we can better understand how He is grieved, mainly because we too are grieved. Ephesians 4:30 tells us that we should not grieve the Spirit. We grieve the Spirit by living like the pagans (4:17-19), by lying (4:25), by being angry (4:26-27), by stealing (4:28), by cursing (4:29), by being bitter (4:31), by being unforgiving (4:32), and by being sexually immoral (5:3-5). To grieve the Spirit is to act out in a sinful manner, whether it is in thought only or in both thought and deed.
Both quenching and grieving the Spirit are similar in their effects. Both hinder a godly lifestyle. Both happen when a believer sins against God and follows his or her own worldly desires. The only correct road to follow is the road that leads the believer closer to God and purity, and farther away from the world and sin. Just as we do not like to be grieved, and just as we do not seek to quench what is good—so we should not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to follow His leading."
None of us are able to live a life that is BLAMELESS before the LORD. JESUS CHRIST's sacrificial LIFE is our ONLY HOPE! The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 about a "thorn in my flesh" that the LORD told him was given to "keep me from becoming conceited"! The same Apostle Paul wrote "DO NOT" grieve the HOLY SPIRIT! We can live for HIM and still make mistakes, as long as we "DO NOT" surrender to our selfish desires and continually grow closer to HIM!!!
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