Texts in Conversation
In Ephesians, believers are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Shepherd of Hermas echoes a similar tradition but describes sadness as what grieves the Holy Spirit in a person and keeps that person's prayers from rising to God's altar.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ephesians 4:30
New Testament
25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. 27 Do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. 29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it would 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. 31 You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice. 32 Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
Shepherd of Hermas 42:2
Early Christian
1 “So clothe yourself in cheerfulness, which is always pleasing to God and acceptable to Him, and rejoice in it. For everyone who is cheerful does good and thinks good, and despises sadness; 2 but the sad person is always doing wrong. First, they sin because they grieve the Holy Spirit who was given to them—a cheerful Spirit. Next, by grieving the Holy Spirit, they act lawlessly by not pleading with or confessing to God. For the plea of a sad person never has power to ascend to God’s altar.” 3 “Why,” I said, “does the plea of a sad person not ascend to the altar?” “Because,” he said, “sadness sits in that person’s heart. So sadness mixed with the plea does not allow the plea to go up pure to the altar. For just as vinegar mixed with wine in the same vessel does not have the same pleasant taste, so also sadness mixed with the Holy Spirit does not have the same effect in pleading. 4 So cleanse yourself of this evil sadness, and you will live for God; yes, and all who cast away sadness from themselves and clothe themselves in complete cheerfulness will live for God.”
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Notes and References
“... The worst way that Hermas imagines the deposited holy Spirit being harmed is by causing it to grieve. [...] And at various points in Mand. 10, a commandment that promotes cheerfulness (ἱλαρότης) and dissuades from grief (λύπη), we find a form of the very same phrase in Eph 4:30, namely “grieving the holy Spirit” (λυπεῖν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον). [...] The fact that Hermas adopts not only the general idea throughout Mand. 10.2–3 but also the identifiable five-word phrase from Eph 4:30 with only one minor change—he modifies the form of the prohibition—means he must be quoting that letter. [...] First, he speaks not only of a generic “grieving” the Spirit but of grief itself. That is to say, Hermas focuses the idea of a damaging action (i.e., grieving) by extrapolating a damaging agent (i.e., grief) ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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