SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2019
11:50 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3
“From Unwholesome Words to Wholesome Words”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:29-30
Message of the verses: “29 Let no
unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is
good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may
give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Paul
speaks about speech in Colossians 4:6 when he writes “Let your speech always be
with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you
should respond to each person.” Although
it is not used as a preservative in today’s world like it was in times past
that is what salt is as it helps retard spoilage. So we can see from this verse that the
gracious words of Christians help retard the moral and spiritual spoilage in
the world around all of us. Another
thing that they provide is strength and comfort to those who are in need. Our graciousness reflects the grace of
Christ, who uses our graciousness to draw others to His grace.
As
we now begin to look at verse 30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” we can see that by not wanting
to grieve the Holy Spirit is a powerful motivation for putting off unwholesome
talk, as this grieves the Holy Spirit of God.
John MacArthur writes “When His children refuse to change the ways of
the old life for the ways of the new, God grieves. The Holy Spirit of God weeps, as it were,
when he sees Christians lying instead of speaking the truth, becoming
unrighteously rather than righteously angry, stealing instead of sharing, and
speaking corrupts instead of uplifting and gracious words.
“Whatever
violates the will of God and the holiness of the heart will grieve the third
Person of the Trinity. Grieving can lead
to quenching (1 Thess. 5:19) and to a forfeiture of power and blessing. It should be noted also that such responses
by the Holy Spirit indicates His personhood, which is seen in the use of
personal pronouns referring to Him (cf. John 14:17; 16:13; etc.). His identity as Comforter, or Helper (John
14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7), indicates that He is like Christ, who is a
person. The Holy Spirit has intellect (1
Cor. 2:11), feelings (Rom. 8:27; 15:30), and will (1 Cor. 12:11). He works (1 Cor. 2:11), searches (1 Cor.
2:10), speaks (Acts 13:2), testifies (John 15:26), teaches (John 14:26),
convicts (John 16:8-11), regenerates (John 3:5), intercedes (Acts 8:26), guides
(John 16:13), glorifies Christ (John 16:14), and directs service to God (Acts
16:6-7).
“Specifically
in light of this text in Ephesians, the personhood of the Holy Spirit is seen
in the fact that He can be treated as a person.
He can be tested (Acts 5:9), lied to (Acts 5:3), resisted (Acts 7:51),
insulted (Heb. 10:29), and blasphemed (Matt. 12:31-32).
“Paul
asks, in effect, ‘How can we do that which is so displeasing to the One by whom
[we] have been sealed for the day of redemption?’ (see 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is God’s personal mark of
authenticity on us, His stamp of divine approval. How can we grieve the One who is our Helper,
Comforter, Teacher, Advocate, Divine Resident of our hearts, and guarantor of
our eternal redemption? How can we
ungraciously grieve God’s infinitely gracious Holy Spirit? He has done so much for us, that out of
gratitude, we ought not grieve Him.
“The
command not to show ingratitude to the Divine Spirit is based on the fact that
He has secured our salvation. Paul is
not saying we should avoid sin in order to keep our salvation, but rather that
we should be eternally grateful to the Holy Spirit for His making it impossible
for us to lose it.”
It
was not my plan to quote this much from MacArthur’s commentary, but because of
the importance of this section which speaks of the Holy Spirit I though once I
got started that it was the best way to handle these verses about the Holy
Spirit.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is important to remember that when I
sin that I am grieving the Person of the Trinity who gave me the call to become
a believer and then sealed me as God’s own down payment to assure that I will
one day be in heaven with my Lord Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To serve the Lord by becoming more humble as
He teaches me humility.
Scripture verse that goes along with
yesterday’s quotation: “One thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things
which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-13).
We began looking at these different
quotations on the 12th of March, and then one day I knocked them off
of my desk and they got all mixed up and so even though we may not looked at
all of them I want to start over and use them again for the next 94 days. I shuffled the cards with the quotes on them
and so they will be in a different order as we go through them once again.
5/14/2019 12:35 PM
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