TOPIC:“Bringing Sorrow to God's Spirit”
“And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live' (4:30, NLT).
As members of God's family we are in a very intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. And because of that personal relationship God our Father in love has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within our lives. Now that demands from us a complete obedience to the leading of this divine Person. And when we don't follow His guidance, we hurt and cause sorrow to the Spirit of God.
Let's understand one important truth: As genuine Christians we cannot cause the Holy Spirit to depart from our lives. As Jesus Himself declared of the Holy Spirit's indwelling: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). Even the Apostle Paul was of this persuasion when he wrote of believers these words: “By whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The consequence of causing sorrow to the Holy Spirit is not that His PRESENCE will be withdrawn, but that His POWER will not be released. But though the Holy Spirit cannot disassociate Himself from His own, we can grieve Him and cause Him sorrow in many different ways.
Before entering into the major thrust of this message permit me the liberty to set forth the different renderings of the first part of verse 30. The NIV makes it read: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” J. B. Phillips renders it: “Never hurt the Holy Spirit.” Williams translates it: “You must stop offending the Holy Spirit of God.” H. C. G. Moule in his Ephesian Studies renders the words this way: “And put not to pain the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.” And then the NLT that I am using here: “And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.” Let us now think about the Holy Spirit and how we can offend Him and cause Him sorrow.
Consider, to begin with, that we can cause sorrow to the Holy Spirit when we are INDIFFERENT to His ABIDING PRESENCE. Read again the words of our text: “And do not bring . . .