Efésios 4
William MacDonald · Citado em PreceptAustin
Efésios 4:29
William MacDonald writes that Paul is commanding us to "abandon profitless speech and substitute constructive conversation. The Christian’s speech should be: Edifying. It should result in building up the hearers. Appropriate. It should be suitable to the occasion. Gracious. It should impart grace to the hearers. (Believer's Bible Commentary) The fastest horse cannot catch a word spoken in anger. -- Chinese Proverb Maxie D Dunnam - There may be such a thing as "small talk," but even small talk is powerful in the result it may have in some lives. Persons who are hurting, crying out for hope, famishing for some word of affirmation and encouragement, may go from us still crying in their pain and starving in their hunger because we have given them “small talk” when we could have imparted grace by our words. Talk is not cheap; words are powerful. (See The Preacher's Commentary) Sam Gordon - A person who engages in this is like the fabled slave who took poison into her system a little at a time, and then more and more, until at last her whole being was so full of poison that her very breath would wither the flowers. Warren
Efésios 4:30
William MacDonald - “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption.” (Eph. 4:30) Just as it is possible for us to quench the Spirit in the meetings of the church, so it is possible for us to grieve Him in our private lives. There is a certain tenderness about the word “grieve”. We can only grieve someone who loves us. The neighborhood brats don’t grieve us, but our own naughty children do. We hold a special place of nearness and dearness to the Holy Spirit. He loves us. He has sealed us until the day of redemption. He can be grieved by us. But what grieves Him? Any form of sin brings sorrow to His heart. It is not by accident that Paul here calls Him the Holy Spirit. Anything that is unholy bows Him down with grief. The exhortation “grieve not” comes in the middle of a series of sins against which we are warned. The list is not intended to be exhaustive but merely suggestive. Lying grieves the Spirit (Eph 4:25)—white lies, black lies, fibs, exaggerations, half-truths and shaded truths. God cannot lie and He cannot give that privilege to His people. Anger that overflows into sin grieves the Spirit (Eph 4:26). The only time that anger is ever justified is when it is in God’s cause. All other anger gives the devil a beachhead (Eph 4:27). Stealing is grievous to the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:28), whether from mother’s purse or from our employer’s time, tools or office supplies. Unwholesome speech grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:29). This runs the gamut from dirty, suggestive jokes to idle chatter. Our conversation should be edifying, appropriate and gracious. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice complete the list in chapter 4. One of the favorite ministries of the Holy Spirit is to occupy us with the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we sin, He has to turn from this ministry in order to restore us to proper fellowship with the Lord. But even then He is never grieved away. He never leaves us. We are sealed by Him unto the day of redemption. However, this should not be used as an excuse for carelessness but should be one of the greatest motives for holiness. (Truths to Live By) Robert Murray M’Cheyne Remember, we may grieve the Spirit as truly by not joyfully acknowledging his wonders, as by not praying to him. Lorriane Pintus offers some interesting insights on grieving the Spirit in the Old Testament - The Israelites "rebelled and grieved [God's] Holy Spirit" (Isa. 63:10). Psalm 78 documents the actions that prompted God's sorrow. (1) Forgetting God. "They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them" (Ps. 78:11). God freed the Israelites from captivity, parted the Red Sea, provided bread in the desert, and led His people to a prosperous land. "In spite of all this, they kept on sinning" (Ps. 78:32). God lamented, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you" (Isa. 49:15). But "you deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth" (Dt. 32:18). (2) Grumbling. "They spoke against God" (Ps. 78:19). Daily, God provided the Israelites with the "bread of angels." But they weren't satisfied; they whined for more. Their complaints made God "exceedingly angry" (Num. 11:10). Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses, God's appointed leader. "The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them," and Miriam became leprous (Num. 12:9). When God allowed the Israelites to glimpse the glory of the promised land, they grumbled about the great size of the people instead of being grateful for the great size of the grapes. God sighed, "How long will this wicked community grumble against me?" (Num. 14:27). (3) Disobedience. "They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law" (Ps. 78:10). "Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel" (Ps. 78:41). The Israelites' repeated disobedience saddened God. "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?" He asked (Ex. 16:28). (4) Disbelief. "They did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance" (Ps. 78:22). Ten times God is described in Psalm 78 as being angry, grieved, or vexed. Disturbed by their lack of faith, God cried, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?" (Nu 14:11). (Ed: As an aside Disobedience and Disbelief are two sides of the same coin so to speak as shown by comparing two adjacent passages in Hebrews - Hebrews 3:18-note and Hebrews 3:19-note.) (See the full article - Discipleship Journal) Pintus then goes on to note that in the New Testament, grieving of the Spirit has as different emphasis noting that in the OT "grieving the Spirit was connected to the people's response to God. In the New Testament, grieving the Spirit also includes our response to one another in the Body of Christ. Paul explains this in Eph. 4:29-32 as he illustrates how we can keep from grieving the Spirit: avoid unwholesome talk; build others up rather than yourself; share; rid yourself of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander; be compassionate. The consistent goal of the Spirit in the New Testament is that we achieve unity by maintaining right relationships with one another and using our gifts to serve the Body. Ephesians 4:12-13 says to serve one another "so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith." Jesus' final plea before the crucifixion was that we would all be one and "brought to complete unity" (Jn. 17:23). Paul urges in Eph. 4:3, "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit." But the church in Jesus' day lacked both service and unity, due in large measure to the ruling religious sect, the Pharisees. "Pharisee" is derived from the Hellenized word pharisaioi, which means "the separated ones." By Jesus' day it appeared that the Pharisees had set themselves apart because they secretly believed they were spiritually superior to others. Jesus called them "vipers," "fools," and "blind guides." Stephen included them in his description of those who "always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). Why was God so upset with these leaders? The reasons should be of concern to us because we grieve the Holy Spirit if we are guilty of these same sins. Pride. The Pharisees demanded seats of honor at public events. They loved the esteem of the people and being called "Rabbi." They expected to be served, rather than to serve. Jesus exposed their arrogance in a parable that portrayed a Pharisee as boasting, "God, I thank you that I am not like all other men" (Lk. 18:11). What a contrast to Paul's teaching in Phil. 2:1-3: "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit... then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Self-effort. The Pharisees trusted in their good works to make them righteous, rather than in God. They erroneously believed they could achieve spiritual blessing through the effort of the flesh. But Jesus said in Jn. 3:6, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength" (Jer. 17:5). "Apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5). Scripture condemns all self-effort and warns us to beware of our tendency to act independently of God. "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (Gal. 3:3). Resistance to the Spirit. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt" (1 Thess. 5:19-20). Guilty on both counts, the Pharisees doused the flames of the Spirit by attributing Jesus' works to Satan (Mt. 12:25-32) and thumbing their noses at the Scriptures concerning Christ. The Pharisees' refusal to yield to the Spirit was rooted in their fear of the Spirit. The Pharisees clung to the comfort of the Law, insisting God would never work beyond the Law—at least, not without first consulting them! Jesus was surprisingly patient with their insolence and explained, "Every teacher of the law... is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old" (Mt. 13:52). And "do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets... but to fulfill them" (Mt. 5:17). Still, the Pharisees turned a deaf ear, confident God would work as He had in the past. Their failure to embrace a new work of the Spirit ultimately caused them to oppose the God they claimed to serve. Hypocrisy. The Pharisees were spiritual leaders with no Spirit. They professed to know God yet they failed to recognize His own Son. They put demands upon others they were unwilling to accept themselves. Jesus warned, "Do not do what [the Pharisees] do, for they do not practice what they preach" (Mt. 23:3). "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs... on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Mt. 23:27-28). Jesus' final analysis was sad: "These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me" (Mk. 7:6). Legalism. Intellectualism was the god of the Pharisees. Consumed with order, tradition, and doctrine, they so immersed themselves in the study of God's Law and the explanation of it that they ended up missing God Himself! When the Pharisees scolded Jesus' disciples for failing to wash their hands before eating, Jesus rebuked them, "You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Mt. 15:6). In their zeal for theological correctness, the Pharisees reduced religion to a purely intellectual exercise, effectively squelching the Spirit and eliminating responses of the heart. Emotion was unwelcome, unless, of course, it was permitted by the Law. As a result, their hearts were hardened (Mk. 3:5). Jesus said angrily, "Woe to you... you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness" (Mt. 23:23). Paul, himself a Pharisee, recognized the dangers of legalism and rightly warned, "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). Consequences of Grieving the Holy Spirit - Grieving the Spirit carries serious consequences. The actions of the Israelites grieved the Spirit, and God withdrew His protection and fought against them (Isa. 63:10, Acts 7:42-43). The attitudes of the Pharisees grieved the Spirit and they were condemned to hell (Mt. 23:13, Mt. 23:33). But the most common result of grieving the Spirit in the Old Testament was simply that He left. Prior to Pentecost, the Spirit was given to selected individuals for a temporary period of time. That is why David, who experienced the coming and going of the Spirit in his own life, pleaded in Ps. 51:11, "Do not... take your Holy Spirit from me." Today, the Spirit works differently. The moment a person accepts Christ as his Savior, he is immediately indwelt and sealed forever by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14, Jn. 14:16). We need never question our eternal destiny or doubt God's intentions toward us (1 Jn. 4:16). The Spirit will never leave us, but if we grieve Him, He may temporarily withdraw His fellowship and power. For the Christian who consistently abides in the Spirit, no consequence could be more devastating. We cannot expect to understand grieving the Spirit apart from that aspect of the Spirit's personality that makes Him cautiously respectful of our will. The Holy Spirit never forces Himself upon us. At times, we may even wish He was more insistent, that He'd whack us on the head and shout, "Don't do that... it makes Me REALLY mad." Instead, He quietly, gently, convicts us of sin and leaves us to choose: Will I please Him? Or grieve Him? To compile a list of everything that grieves the Spirit and carefully avoid each item on the list would, itself, grieve the Spirit! God doesn't want to immobilize us with a "don't do" list. (Ed: The essence of Legalism! See Paul's strong warning in Galatians 3:3) And, ultimately, we'd end up trusting in a list to achieve our goal, rather than in God. Instead, God prefers that we are continually aware of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence and sensitive to how deeply sin affects Him, and us. It is good to understand the biblical theology of grieving the Spirit. It helps when we are able to feel God's sorrow over sin. But the surest way to avoid grieving the Spirit is to know Him and walk in a moment-by-moment, love relationship with Him. Then, grieving Him becomes unthinkable. (Ibid) Quick Check: Are you grieving the Holy Spirit? Do you resist God on an emotional level? Do you restrict the Holy Spirit, insisting He operate only as He has in the past? Are you prideful? In the course of your day, do you forget God? Are you critical of others? Do you look at what God has provided and pronounce it "insufficient"? Are you afraid of the Holy Spirit? Do you worry? Does work weigh you down, leaving you frustrated and exhausted? Do you assure others that "God is in control" but fail to believe this yourself? If you are grieving the Spirit, CRY: 1. Confess your failure and ask for forgiveness. 2. Receive the grace God freely offers. 3. Yield yourself afresh to the joy of His fellowship. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk. 11:13). (Ibid) A W Tozer - HE CAN BE GRIEVED —Ephesians 4:30 Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved…. He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief. Suppose you had a seventeen-year-old son who began to go bad. He rejected your counsel and wanted to take things into his own hands. Suppose that he joined up with a young stranger from another part of the city and they got into trouble. You were called down to the police station. Your boy—and another boy whom you had never seen—sat there in handcuffs. You know how you would feel about it. You would be sorry for the other boy—but you don’t love him because you don’t know him. With your own son, your grief would penetrate to your heart like a sword. Only love can grieve. If those two boys were sent off to prison, you might pity the boy you didn’t know, but you would grieve over the boy you knew and loved. A mother can grieve because she loves. If you don’t love, you can’t grieve. When the Scripture says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30), it is telling us that He loves us so much that when we insult Him, He is grieved; when we ignore Him, He is grieved; when we resist Him, He is grieved; and when we doubt Him, He is grieved. Lord, forgive me, for I have grieved Your Holy Spirit. Bathe me in His love, I pray. Amen. (Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 365-Day Devotional) David Jeremiah - SEALED BY THE SPIRIT Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. EPHESIANS 4:30 It would be nice to be told, when we leave on a long car trip, something like this: “I want you to know that you are going to reach your destination safely and on schedule. Regardless of what happens en route —you may get lost, you may encounter a fierce rainstorm, or you may have a flat tire —don’t worry. I am here to promise you that you will arrive.” We have been given such a promise by God concerning our spiritual journey. And the promise comes in the form of a seal —the seal of the Holy Spirit. Paul uses language common to the ancient world in his letter to the Ephesians. A seal affixed to documents by kings and authorities made them official and inviolable upon pain of death or punishment. No one dared to violate the terms of a document that bore an official seal. And no one in the spiritual realm would dare violate the plan God has for those He has sealed. As Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). The Holy Spirit, dwelling in every Christian, is God’s seal. Don’t let obstacles along the road to eternity shake your confidence in God’s promise. The Holy Spirit is God’s seal that you will arrive. I am packed, sealed, and waiting for the post. JOHN NEWTON Grieving the Spirit J. Wilbur Chapman “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” Ephesians 4:30 Of all the epistles that ever came from the heart of the great Apostle Paul, this letter to the Ephesians seems to me about the sweetest and best. It is the epistle in which we find “the heavenly places” mentioned so many times; it is the epistle in which we find so many different names applied to our Father in heaven; and I suppose it is the letter in which we find the very highest spiritual truth presented in all the Bible. But while we find the very highest idea of spiritual things, we also find the Apostle Paul turning to give us instructions concerning the most ordinary affairs of daily life. Some rules are here concerning Christian conversation. Some suggestions are made touching the relation which the husband sustains to the wife, and the wife to the husband. Indeed, if one should live in the spirit of this letter to the Ephesians, he would do nothing less than live what has been called by some “the life of surrender,” and others “the victorious life,” but which Paul calls “the life in the heavenly places.” Paul makes all these different suggestions, and then adds: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,” as if He could be grieved by a wrong atmosphere in the home, or by a wrong use of the lips; and this is true. While many of us would shrink from doing things plainly inconsistent with our Christian profession, we would be astonished if we could be made to understand that the way we have used our lips has grieved the Holy Spirit. First of all, the very fact that we may grieve Him proves by inference His personality. You cannot grieve an influence. It seems to me that we may grieve the Spirit by even stopping to prove that He has a personality equal to the Father and to the Son, for it is so self-evident. Yet many men and women do not seem to have grasped the truth of His personality, and thus must grieve Him. In the second place, the fact that we may grieve Him proves His sensitiveness. In John 1:32, it is said: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove.” The dove stands for all that is sensitive in the family of birds. I have been told that the dove has been known to tremble when there was held before it one single feather of a vulture’s wing. The Spirit of God is so sensitive that that which has even the appearance of the evil in it hurts Him. This idea of sensitiveness presents to us the thought of His love. If I do not love you, you cannot grieve me, but just in the proportion that I love you, you find it easy to grieve me. You cannot grieve an indifferent person. You may possibly hurt his feelings; you may anger him; but you grieve only the one whose heart is filled to overflowing with affection for you. The feeling that a mother must have when her offspring breaks her heart by evil-doing, is the feeling — but multiplied by infinity— which the Holy Ghost must have when we grieve Him. There are several different expressions in the New Testament in line with my text. “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51). I believe that only the unregenerate resist Him. In his letter to the Thessalonians Paul says, “Quench not the Spirit.” That may refer especially to the life of the Holy Ghost in the church, so that we may quench Him by ignoring Him in the government of the church. If we would have a blessing sweeping over our land from sea to sea, from north to south, I believe that we must begin by conforming the life of our churches to the teachings of the Holy Ghost. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” Only a child of God may grieve the Spirit, and that is the sad part of it. How many times we have heard these words referred to and read as if they admonished us not to grieve away the Spirit of God! It seems to me that we must at least grieve the Spirit when we add to or take from any part of revealed truth. It would be contrary to Scripture to say that we could grieve away the Spirit. If the Spirit of God comes to abide in us, He comes to stay, and there is no power on earth that can separate us from Him, when once He takes possession of us. We have been born of the Spirit, and we cannot grieve Him away. That would mean a change of all God’s plan for us, for we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. I believe that I am a part of God’s great plan for ages to come, and if I should fall out it would mean a change of all God’s plans for time and eternity. We cannot grieve away the Holy Spirit of God; no, but we may grieve Him. 1. We may grieve Him by disobedience. Disobedience of children always raises a barrier between them and their parents. There may be ever so much love in a father’s heart, and he may have ever so much desire to pour forth that love, but he cannot do it so long as there is this barrier of disobedience between him and his child. The father of the prodigal son never ceased to love him, but the barrier of disobedience was there, higher than the highest mountain. Never until the son crossed that mountain could the father begin to pour forth his love upon him. (Click here for the rest of this message) Are You Under A Cloud, Or Following The Cloud? You may recall that during the Jews’ migration across the desert God guided them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The cloud was the visible symbol of God’s presence. When the cloud moved, it was the Jews’ responsibility to observe the movement and to respond accordingly. When the cloud settled down over the Tent, they also were to settle down. If however, they were inattentive, preoccupied or indifferent to the cloud’s movement, they could easily miss God’s direction and protection. “At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out.” (Numbers 9:23) Responding to the movement of the cloud is a beautiful illustration of our being prompted and led by the Holy Spirit. Today, the Holy Spirit, like the cloud that guided the Jews, quietly, gently, and unpretentiously guides us … if we are spiritually attuned to His urging. Depending upon our spiritual sensitivity, we can either be guided by the Spirit or we can grieve the Spirit: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) How easy it is for us to be under a cloud, so to speak … fogged in by spiritual dullness and insensitivity to the things of God, thereby missing His leading, convicting, and sustaining force. So today, are you under a cloud of spiritual mediocrity, or are you following the cloud in response to God’s direction and purpose for your life? (Facts of the Matter: Daily Devotions - Dwight Hill ) F B
Efésios 4:32
William MacDonald explains that charizomai expresses "A readiness to pardon offenses, to overlook personal wrongs against oneself, and to harbor no desire for retaliation. The greatest example of One who forgives is God Himself. The basis of His forgiveness is the work of Christ at Calvary. And we are the unworthy objects. God could not forgive sin without proper satisfaction being made. In His love He provided the satisfaction which His righteousness demanded. In Christ, that is, in His Person and work, God found a righteous basis on which He could forgive us. Since He forgave us when we were in debt “millions of dollars,” we ought to forgive others when they owe us “a few dollars” (Mt 18:23–28). Lenski counsels "The moment a man wrongs me I must forgive him. Then my soul is free. If I hold the wrong against him I sin against God and against him and jeopardize my forgiveness with God (Ed: cf Mt 6:12, 14-15). Whether the man repents, makes amends, asks my pardon or not, makes no difference. I have instantly forgiven him. He must face God with the wrong he has done; but that is his affair and God’s and not mine save that I should help him according to Mt. 18:15, etc. But whether this succeeds or not and before this even begins, I must forgive him." (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson) S Lewis