The Apostle Paul is busy with our sanctification. It presents a struggle still being in the body of the flesh and Paul says "you have not put on Christ! Put off the flesh and walk in the Spirit!" He speaks of the devil and the Holy Spirit...the sanctifier among us. The ultimate grieving of the Holy Spirit is to ignore and/or sideline Him and His work within us.

Astonishing: We are almost astounded of Paul's admonition not to grieve the Holy Spirit within us. This is the first work of regeneration as the Holy Spirit is within us as it works where it "listeth" not needing you or I. In light of all those things, Paul says to us "grieve not the Holy Spirit!" Sometimes we seize on the doctrines to "justify" our actions (justification as an excuse for lax living.) He takes a human attribute to practically explain the Holy Spirit. Can the Holy Spirit really grieve?

Possible: Here we focus on the Spirit who takes His abode within us and bears witness within us, He who guides us, and also works sanctification within us. (Not speaking of the Trinity here.) We ought to take this admonition serious! The Holy Spirit who live within us "has some skin in the game!" It is His work, His passion within the child of God for a sanctified and holy life! (Just as parents establish good virtues in their children who set them aside later...it hurts! It is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. He has taken His abode within us and made us His temple! Every action we take or the place that we go He is there as He lives within us! The Holy Spirit is within the child of God BEFORE he even hears the Word and He comforts and works within us in our justification, but also works within us for our sanctification! Oh...to recognize that He is ALWAYS within us! Would we not give place to a person who is in our live that is there for our advancement??? Oh...to be able to realize that His is within us each and every morning!!! Give Him a LARGE place in your life! It is the ULTIMATE insult to ignore Him. He binds Himself to the Word of God and will not speak to us any other way. To ignore Him is to ignore the Word of God and vise versa! To give Him place is to learn and know the Word of God. The Kingdom of God is the Holy Spirit's passion...the Word of God! He influences every word you and I speak, the actions we do, every desire in our soul He passes judgment on and we have to ignore Him to get passed it! Have we not experienced this ourselves?

Grievous: A VERY serious matter because He is the seal of God to our final redemption! (5th point of Calvinism.) God will bring us to glory, but we are still a work of God by the Spirit here below! The Sanctifier within us that we grieve and then God chastens us and will not leave us along. Read the story of David and Bathsheba. We are led into temptation and grievous.