In Ephesians 4:30 we are commanded not to grieve God’s holy spirit. What does it mean to grieve God’s holy spirit? How does someone grieve the holy spirit?
According to the Amplified Bible, the Greek word translated grieve in most Bibles, can mean to offend, vex, or sadden.
We can easily understand what it means to offend, vex or sadden a person. Since the holy spirit is a force (see reference at end of article). How can one offend, vex or sadden a force?
Can we grieve something? Can we grieve a force? Can we grieve something impersonal?
We can do so by doing
something that would stop it from working. Let’s illustrate it with an automobile. An automobile needs gasoline to function properly. If we put milk in the gas tank, that could be said that we grieved the automobile by doing a wrong thing so that it got upset (so to speak) and it stopped functioning.God’s holy spirit is a very sensitive force or energy. If we persist in doing things that are contrary to the direction of that energy, because it is so sensitive, it will not want to come near us. So we can actually stop the force of that sensitive spirit to not want to have anything to do with us. As if it was offended and it got upset with us.
What things would grieve the holy spirit so that it keeps its distance from us? That would be thoughts, actions and conduct that would displease God, the source and controller of this marvelous force, the holy spirit.
If we read the whole chapter of Ephesians, we can see that we are told to tell the truth, not to steal and so on. So if we did those things that displease God, God’s holy spirit then senses that in us and it will be repelled and not be attracted to us. Much like we are repelled by someone with strong body odor so that we don’t want to get near that person.
The holy spirit, being holy, cannot function
or be attracted to those that do unholy things. It’s like someone who plays a piece of music badly, could be said to insult the music even though music is not a person.It is like a website where one repeatedly enters a wrong password; the website will no longer accept anymore passwords from this user. An ATM machine might keep the bank card sensing that this is an intruder. If machines can be made so sensitive, imagine how sensitive God’s holy active force must be?
Read Hebrews 4:12 and see how the word of God is given human characteristics. The same is done with wisdom in Proverbs 9:1-2.
Think of a GPS that has been programmed to guide a traveller even though it is not a person. It has been given a voice to give you directions and can detect when you have over passed a destination and will recalibrate to give you new directions from a now different point of reference. See John 16:12-13. However one can choose to ignore the directions given
The Holy Bible is a product of God’s holy spirit. In it God gives instructions on what is pleasing to him and what is displeasing to him. If we do what displeases God, then he will not give us his holy spirit, because we are grieving it.
So, yes we can grieve a force! How much better it is to live holy lives so that we never grieve God’s holy spirit to the point that it will want to have nothing to do with us.
Note: Read Is the Holy Spirit a Person or a Force?
