---

The apostle, as if to show the serious consequence of corrupt speech in a Christian, says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." That would be a most deplorable result.

I. CONSIDER WHAT IS IMPLIED IS THIS ACT.

1. It implies the holy personality of the Third Person of the Trinity. He is a Person as much as the Father and the Son?

2. It implies that the Holy Spirit is already a Dweller in the hearts of those who are capable of this act. We grieve those we love or those who love us. A very different term than "grief" would be applied in the case of unbelievers who are said to resist him.

3. The Holy Spirit represents himself as susceptible of grief or affront. Not that there is any break in the calm of the Godhead, but to signify that "he carrieth himself toward us after the manner of a person grieved," as if he were a human being capable of grief. When we consider that it is he who applies to us the redemption procured by Christ; that it is he who, as the Spirit of holiness, works in us every pure thought, every chaste desire, every noble sentiment; that he dwells in our very bodies as his holy temple; - our unworthy conduct is manifest in its true light as a grieving of the Spirit. His love is wounded as well as his holiness offended.

4. The effect of our "grieving" him is to lead to the suspension of his influences, to the withdrawal of his comforts, to the temporary loss of our assurance. In a word, he will withhold the manifestations of his presence.

II. CONSIDER THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH THE APOSTLE ENFORCES THE EXHORTATION. "In whom ye have been sealed till the day of redemption." It is ingratitude on our part to grieve him upon whom our salvation depends. The apostle does not make an appeal to our fears as if the Spirit would leave us, but to our gratitude, as any corrupt speech or action on our part would wound the heart of our best friend. The passage implies our perfect security till the day of judgment.

1. There is no hint of apostasy in the passage, or of the Spirit's departure.

2. The term "sealing implies security. A security that may be broken at any time, or the value of which depends on man's own responsive fidelity, is no security at all."

3. The sealing is spoken of as a past act: "Ye have been sealed." Thus their perseverance in grace was secured.

4. The security lasted beyond death: "till the day of redemption." The apostle never regards the day of death as marking the day of final security, but rather fixes it for that day which completes the redemption in the rejoining of body and soul in their changeless incorruptibility. - T.C.

---

---

KJV: And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

WEB: Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.