Grieve not the Holy Spirit

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30

Take a quick look at the meaning of grieve:

Break the heart of; cause to feel sorrow.
To cause to be sorrowful; distress
To mourn or sorrow for:
To hurt or harm

The meaning of grieving is something you and I also know within ourselves: emotional pain, distress, sorrow, or heartbreak. But what distresses or breaks the heart of God? Many speculate based upon Biblical precepts, and while there's nothing wrong with such precepts I think Paul's main reason for writing what he did gets overlooked. Not only that, but the usual reason this verse gets brought up makes Paul's statement blown out of proportion and turns it into something altogether.

Look at the placement of this grieve not the Holy Spirit of God statement. The context is all about how we deal with one another. This is not about grieving God as an individual, it is about grieving God's SPIRIT, the one by whom we are joined together in one body. I know many have found personal salvation comfort in the statement by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, but the overwhelming sense of you is less individual and more corporeal (of the body as a whole). In Christ we were all sealed together in this life.

Everything Paul had written up to this point is a testimony of our common life together in Christ. And it should be overwhelmingly obvious that the reality of union and unity and oneness is found all throughout the letter. Here at this point he was contrasting their former manner of life with their new life in Christ. The former is totally antagonistic and divisive to life itself, while the new self...

...has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth Ephesians 4:24

The grieving of God's righteous and holy spirit is directed at the disunity that seeks to rip the one body apart. As we consider one another it must be in recognition of having been joined together in Christ, through God's spirit. The only other option is to see one another according to the flesh, which in turn causes us to view ourselves in the very same way ... despite all our words to the contrary.