The Seal of the Spirit I ~ Imparting Grace: Ephesians 4:25-32, especially vss. 29, 30:
"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
During the Baptismal Mystery, the priest applies Holy Chrism to the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands as well as over the heart and on the back. As he applies the Chrism, he says, "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." In today's Epistle, the Apostle Paul reminds us that this sealing in the Spirit brings the Spirit of God within us. Hence, St. Paul exhorts us not to "grieve the Holy Spirit" (vs. 30), Who now resides in our hearts. Let our senses be sealed by the Spirit, and not be used for any purpose other than to receive grace and to impart its blessings to others. The Apostle's exhortation is two-sided: to control our sensory life, and to impart God's grace to others. St. Paul first addresses our speech. He contrasts lying with truth-telling, the latter which especially imparts grace to others. He quotes from the Prophet Zechariah (vss. 25,26). The verse from Zechariah is from a passage in which the Prophet declares God's commandments. The prophetic pattern and the Apostle's exhortation are parallel: "[I have] taken counsel...in these days to do good to the house of Judah...These are the things which ye shall do, speak truth every one with his neighbor" (Zech. 8:15,16). There are three special areas where truth-telling needs to be practiced: in making judgments, in policy formation, and under solemn oath (Zech. 8:16,17).
The Apostle emphasizes the spiritual reason for truth-telling - "We are members of one another" (Eph. 4:25). St. John Chrysostom, building on the Apostle's point (that we are members of a common body), uses a concrete simile: "If the eye were to spy a serpent or a wild beast will it lie to the foot? Will it not at once inform it, and the foot thus informed by it refrain from going on?" Continuing with concerns about speech (vss. 29,31,32), the Apostle adds, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment" and "let all...clamor and slander be put away from you...and be kind to one another" (NAS). We must control our speech before God imparts His grace.
This same message of control also applies to the passions. First, St. Paul commands us to control our anger, "do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (vs. 26). Then he gives the reason: uncontrolled anger gives "place to the devil" (vs. 27). Similarly, he warns against the urge to steal, commending honest work instead (vs. 28). Later in the passage, the Apostle considers several forms of anger: bitterness, wrath, and malice (vs. 31). St. John Chrysostom notes a progression in these. "Observe the progress of mischief. Bitterness produces wrath, wrath anger, anger clamor, clamor railing, that is, revilings; next from evil-speaking it goes on to blows, from blows to wounds, from wounds to death." Control is urgent! The most profitable approach, as the Apostle shows, is for us to combine control and self-restraint with positive efforts to impart grace to others. We are to "be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you" (vs. 32). Control lays the groundwork for the imparting of grace to others.
The primary obstacles are our defiled passions. Therefore, our inward efforts should be to restrain and quiet, remembering the words of St. Diadochos of Photiki: "Only the Holy Spirit can purify the nous." Therefore, let our efforts be Spirit-led. Let us respond to His promptings and seek not to grieve Him in Whom we are "sealed for the day of redemption" (vs. 30).
All-Holy Spirit, cleanse, save and sanctify all those who know Thee as God.