Pages

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” It is sin, then, that grieves Him...


Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.  
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:29-30

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life.
H. VAN DYKE
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

The Apostle has been referring to certain sins, such as falsehood, anger, bitterness, corrupt speech, and after warning his readers against them, he adds, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” It is sin, then, that grieves Him, sin that pains Him; and this is exactly the answer we should have expected, for He is the “Holy Spirit of God,” and all, therefore, that is evil and sinful He hates with a perfect hatred, and is “grieved” by it. The character of a man is always revealed as much by his deepest sorrows as by his highest joys. And the character of God is revealed in all its purity and holiness by the fact that the only thing in human life that grieves Him is sin.
         He is grieved by insincerity and falsehood, for He is the Spirit of truth.—All that is against truth, all that is against justice and honesty, is hateful to Him. He is grieved at all falsehood, in word or in deed. How much is He grieved then at the insincerity of Christians towards one another, when we change our words towards our neighbors to their face and behind their back; when we speak them fair as long as they are before us, but have quite a different story when they are gone and cannot hear our opinion of them; when we make a show of friendship as long as we think they may be useful to us and do us good, but speak roughly as soon as we have nothing more to get from them. Surely there can be few greater griefs to the Spirit of truth and faithfulness than to see those whom He is striving to bring into the ways of truth so hollow in heart, so full of false professions, and unmeaning, untrue words.
         He is grieved by malice and unkindness, for He is the Spirit of love.—How must it grieve Him to see how love is set at nought among Christian people. How must it grieve Him to see how little some people seem to think of cherishing malice and ill-will in their hearts, to see how hard a matter it is to get them to give up a quarrel and really forgive what they suppose is an injury. How must it grieve Him as He accompanies us through the day, watching our dangers, ever anxious to help our weakness, to hear the words of unkindness, of peevishness, of jealousy, which drop from our mouths as the hours wear on, and which we take no care to stop. How must He grieve at the uncharitable suspicions and surmises, at the obstinacy with which we try to put the worst appearance on things and stretch them from the truth to make them seem as bad as possible.

JAMES HASTINGS

The Great Texts of the Bible-Ephesians

~This Devotional is in honor of CeCe Coss
A woman led by the Spirit of God

No comments:

Post a Comment