VERSE 30:
“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”
“grieve not the Holy Spirit of God”
Literally: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”
Who of us has not sometimes grieved the Holy Spirit? By refusing or neglecting to follow his directions. To walk contrary to the risen Christ is to grieve or to pain the Holy Spirit. By giving way to any wrong temper, unholy words, or unrighteous action we do grieve the Holy Spirit. There is not a Person in the universe so sensitive as the Third Person of the Trinity. He is not an influence emanating from God, as the cults would have us believers think; rather, He is a living Person of the Godhead Who indwells the heart of every believer. Everything that is done or said contrary to the will of God grieves Him, for He listens to everything that we say or do, and is forced to partake of everything un-Godly that we do.
Even those who have already a measure of the light and life of God, both of which are not only brought in by the Holy Spirit, but maintained by His constant indwelling, may give way to sin, and so grieve this Holy Spirit that it shall withdraw both its light and presence; and, in proportion as it withdraws, then hardness and darkness take place; and, what is still worse, a state of insensibility is the consequence; for the darkness prevents the fallen state from being seen, and the hardness prevents it from being felt.
GRIEVE: (Gr.-lupeite)–Since this is in the present perfect tense, it would be better rendered as, “stop grieving” or “do not have the habit of grieving.” It literally means “to afflict with sorrow; to make sad or sorrowful.”
This Greek term is rendered, “To make sorry, or sorrowful,” (Matt. 14:9; 17:23; 18:31; 19:22; 26:22, 37; Mark 14:19; John 16:20; II Cor. 2:2; 6:10; 7:8-9, 11; I Thess. 4:13; as, “grieved,” Mark 10:22; John 21:17; Rom. 14:15; II Cor. 2:4,5; Eph. 4:30; and once, “in heaviness,” I Pet. 1:6. The applicable meaning is do not act towards the Holy Spirit in a manner which would produce pain in the bosom of a friend who loves you. There is a course of conduct which will drive that Spirit from the mind as if He were grieved and pained–as a course of ingratitude and sin would pain the heart of an earthly friend, and cause him to leave you. If asked what that conduct is, we may reply,
1. Open and gross sins.
They are particularly referred to here; and the meaning of Paul is, that theft, falsehood, anger, and kindred vices, would grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause him to depart.
2. Anger, in all its forms.
Nothing is more fitted to drive away all serious and tender impressions from the mind than the indulgence of anger.
3. Licentious thoughts and desires.
The Spirit of God is pure, and he dwells not in a soul that is filled with corrupt imaginings.
4. Ingratitude.
We feel ingratitude more than almost anything else; and why should we suppose that the Holy Spirit would not feel it also?
5. Neglect.
The Spirit of God is grieved by that. Often he prompts us to pray; he disposes the mind to seriousness, to the perusal of the Bible, to tenderness and penitence.
We neglect those favored moments of our piety, and lose those happy seasons for becoming like God.
6. Resistance.
Christians often resist the Holy Ghost. He would lead them to be dead to the world; yet they drive on their plans of gain. He would teach them the folly of fashion and vanity; yet they deck themselves in the gayest apparel. He would keep them from the splendid party, the theatre, and the ballroom; yet they go there. All that is needful for a Christian to do, in order to be eminent in piety, is to yield to the gentle influences which would draw him to prayer and to heaven.
“whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”–
Literally: “By Whom you were sealed to {the} day of redemption.”
As in 1:13, believers are said to be sealed “in” Christ, so here “in the Holy Spirit,” Who is one with Christ, and Who reveals Christ in the soul. the Greek implies that the sealing was done already once for all. It is the Father “by” whom believers, as well as the Son Himself, were sealed (John 6:27). The Spirit is represented as Himself the seal. Here the Spirit is the element IN which the believer is sealed, His gracious influences being the seal itself.
The Holy Spirit in the soul of a believer is God's seal, set on his heart to testify that he is God's property, and that he should be wholly employed in God's service. It is very likely that Paul had in view the words of the prophet, Isa. 63:10: But they rebelled, and VEXED His HOLY SPIRIT; therefore He was turned to be their Enemy, and fought against them. The psalmist refers to the same fact in nearly the same words, Psa. 78:40: How oft did they PROVOKE Him in the wilderness, and GRIEVE him in the desert! Let every man, therefore, take heed that he grieve not the Spirit of God, lest God turn to be his Enemy, and fight against him.
SEALED: (Gr.-sphragizô)–Literally: “ro seal, secure with a seal, mark with a seal, set apart by a seal.”
Since this is in the present perfect tense, it would be better rendered as, “stop grieving” or “do not have the habit of grieving.”; marked as the property, and distinguished as the children of God, by the effects which the Holy Spirit produces in you.
REDEMPTION: (Gr.-apolutrôsis)–Our final and complete salvation. The Holy Spirit’s presence now is the seal (assurance) of the life and inheritance that the Christian will possess fully in the end, and should be the inspiration that should lead him to purify his life–“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2).
VERSE 31:
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”
Paul has exhorted us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God; in the next verse, he acquaints us with the particular sins that would grieve Him.
“Let all bitterness,”
Literally: “Let all bitterness”–Both of spirit and of speech: opposed to “kind.” A bitter frame of mind; a secret grudge and a smothered displeasure against your brother.
It is astonishing that any who profess the Christian name should indulge bitterness of spirit.
1. Those who are always critical, fault finding.
2. Those who are unmerciful to the failings of others,
3. Those who have fixed a certain standard by which they measure all persons in all circumstances.
In the last century there was a compound medicine, made up from a variety of drastic acrid drugs and ardent spirits, which was called, (Hiera Picra), the “holy bitter;” this medicine was administered in a multitude of cases, where it did immense evil, and perhaps in scarcely any case did it do good. It has ever appeared to me to furnish a proper epithet for the disposition mentioned above, the holy bitter; for the religiously censorious act under the pretense of superior sanctity. There have been such persons who do much evil in a Christian society, but never an instance of their doing any good.
BITTERNESS: (Gr.-pikria)—Referring to bitterness of both of spirit and of speech. It is astonishing that any who profess the Christian name should indulge bitterness of spirit. Those who are censorious, who are unmerciful to the failings of others, who have fixed a certain standard by which they measure all persons in all circumstances, and unchristian every one that does not come up to this standard, these have the bitterness against which the apostle speaks.
WRATH: (Gr.-orgê)—Or an impetuous fierceness of spirit, upon some real or apprehended injury: passion for a time: opposed to “tender-hearted,” harshness. The word here does not differ essentially from anger.
ANGER: (Gr.-thumos)— An eager desire of revenge; lasting resentment: opposed to “forgiving one another.” Wrath carried to its highest pitch, accompanied with injurious words and outrageous acts, some of which are immediately specified.
CLAMOR: (Gr.-kraugê)—Literally: “tumult.” Loud threatening, or reviling speech.
Loud and obstreperous speaking, brawling, railing, boisterous talk, often the offspring of wrath; all of which are highly unbecoming the meek, loving, quiet, sedate mind of Christ and His followers.
Compared by CHRYSOSTOM to a horse carrying anger for its rider: “Bridle the horse, and you dismount its rider.” “Bitterness” begets “wrath, wrath begets anger, anger begets clamor;" and “clamor” begets the more chronic “evil-speaking,” slander, insinuations, and surmises of evil. “Malice” is the secret root of all: “fires fed within, and not appearing to by-standers from without, are the most formidable” [CHRYSOSTOM].
EVIL SPEAKING: (Gr.-blasphêmia)—Literally: “slander, insulting talk. Slander, backbiting, angry expressions, tale-bearing, reproaches, etc. Blasphemy; that is, injurious speaking-words which tend to hurt those of whom or against whom they are spoken. a rooted enmity, the rage of the devil; and renders a man as like the devil as any sin on this side of hell.
“be put away from you,”
Literally: “be put away from you”
PUT AWAY: (Gr.-arthêtô)—Literally: “to pick up and carry away, to make a clean sweep.”
“with all malice”
Literally: “along with all badness”–Every kind and sort of evil is to be put away, and you are to manifest only that which is good.
MALICE: (Gr.-kakiai)––A rooted enmity, the rage of the devil; and renders a man as like the devil as any sin on this side hell.
All malignity; as anger produces wrath, and wrath clamor, so all together produce malice; that is, settled, sullen, fell wrath, which is always looking out for opportunities to revenge itself by the destruction of the object of its indignation. No state of society can be even tolerable where these prevail; and, if eternity were out of the question, it is of the utmost consequence to have these banished from time.
All these sins do exceedingly grieve the Holy Spirit; they make Him both loathe and leave His lodgings. Every kind and sort of evil is to be put away, and you are to display only that which is good.
VERSE 32:
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”|
In the last verse, as a proper remedy against all the foregoing sins, exhorts them to mutual kindness:
“And be ye kind one to another,”
Literally: “And be kind to one another”–Literally: keep on becoming kind. “Kind one to another” means Christian courtesy. A Christian cannot be a savage, and he need not be a bore. Never put any person to needless pain.
KIND: (Gr.-chrêstoi)–Literally: mild, courteous, polite.
“Finally, {be ye} of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, {be} pitiful, {be} courteous”I Pet. 3:8).
Christianity produces true courteousness, or politeness. The secret of true politeness is benevolence, or a desire to make others happy; and a Christian should be the most polite of people. There is no Christianity in…
1. In a sour, misanthropic temper, nor
2. In rudeness, stiffness, and repulsiveness; nor,
3. In violating the rules of good-breeding.
There is a hollow-hearted politeness, indeed, which the Christian is not to aim at or copy. His politeness is to be based on kindness, Col. 3:12–“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.” The believer’s courtesy is to be the result of love, good-will, and a desire of the happiness of all others; and this will prompt to the kind of conduct that will render his intercourse with others agreeable and profitable.
TENDERHEARTED: (eusplagchnoi)–“Tenderhearted” is a more intense word than “kind.” It means to be full of deep and mellow affection. Compassionate; having the bowels easily moved (as the word implies) to commiserate the state of the wretched and distressed.
Having a heart disposed to pity and compassion, and especially disposed to show kindness to the faults of erring brethren, for so the connection demands.
“forgiving one another”
Literally: “having forgiven one another yourselves”–This literally means, “forgiving one another yourselves.” It means to give and take in relation to the faults of one another. We are to “forgive” rather than magnify the faults of others.
Should you receive any injury from a brother, or from any man, be as ready to forgive him, on his repentance and acknowledgment, as God was, for Christ's sake, to forgive you when you repented of your sins, and took refuge in His mercy.
“Even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Literally: “Even as also God in Christ forgave you”–It is in Christ that God gives forgiveness to us.
It cost God the death of His Son, as man, to forgive us. It costs us nothing to forgive our fellow man.
EVEN AS: (Gr.-kathos)–This word really means more than, “because.” There is to be real likeness between the forgiveness of God and the Christian’s forgiving. The forgiveness of the Christian is to be as free and complete as is the forgiveness of Him Who puts way a man’s sins as far as the east is from the west, and holds them against him no more.
HATH FORGIVEN: (Gr.-echarisato)-–rather, “forgave you” as a past historical fact. He has done this once and for all and completely and without any reservations. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. It is not that we forgive in order to get forgiveness.
All of the before mentioned are to be done on a twofold basis:
1. This conduct will not grieve the Holy Spirit;
2. The basis of forgiveness is not legal, but gracious. This is not a command under law, but is to be on the basis of the grace of God.ace of God.