Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption. If we may speak it reverently of One so far above, out of the reach of all human language, the Holy Ghost is a Being with the tenderest of feelings. We all know the sensitiveness of the affections, the delicacy of thought, the exquisite accuracy of the moral touch, which are required for the sweet offices of consolation. In what an infinite measure, then, must those properties be combined in Him who is characteristically and exclusively "the Comforter" of the Church! Essentially He loves us. 1. Whenever you grieve the Holy Spirit you do then, in the first instance, cause sorrow — it is God's own word — to Him to whom you are bound by every generous feeling to give only happiness. 2. But have you considered, further, that every time you grieve the Spirit, you weaken the seals of your own security? 3. For there are few of us, I trust, who have not long since learnt that the secret of all true comfort and satisfaction in the world, is to carry within us the sunshine of God's love, which is peace and joy. And what is that sunshine but the unclouded indwelling of the Holy Ghost? 4. For mark it yet once more. There are four deep downward steps in the path to death: to grieve the Spirit is the first — to resist the Spirit is the second — to quench the Spirit is the third — to blaspheme the Spirit is the fourth. No one of these is ever reached but by going through that which is previous to it. Consider, therefore, first in everything you do or say — in the pleasures you allow, the friendships you form, the thoughts you indulge — how will this affect the Holy Spirit? remembering always His exceeding sensitiveness, that if you grieve Him He will leave you, till you have not feeling enough to grieve that He is gone; but if you please Him, you will more and more forever find a satisfying pleasure in Him who so graciously condescends to please Himself in you. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses 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. |
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