Ephesians 4:30
Ephesians 4:3030And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
JWs acknowledge the language of "grieving" the holy spirit but interpret it as figurative — the way one might "grieve" a parent's wishes by disobeying, without the parent being personally present. The NWT renders it "do not be grieving God's holy spirit, with which you have been sealed" — using the neuter pronoun "which" rather than "whom," reinforcing the impersonal-force reading. The lowercase "holy spirit" further supports the Watchtower's position.
Paul commands believers not to "grieve" the Holy Spirit (). Grief is an emotion that requires a personal subject — you cannot grieve electricity, wind, or any impersonal force. The verb lupeite ("grieve") is the same word used for human sorrow throughout the NT (, ). Combined with the broader testimony — the Spirit speaks (), teaches (), can be lied to (), and distributes gifts "as he wills" (, where the verb bouletai attributes volition) — the cumulative case for personhood is decisive. The NWT's use of "which" instead of "whom" is a pronoun choice driven by theology, not grammar: the Greek pneuma is grammatically neuter, but Jesus consistently uses the masculine demonstrative ekeinos ("that one") when referring to the Spirit in John 14-16.
The NWT renders "do not be grieving God's holy spirit, with which you have been sealed" — using "which" (neuter) rather than "whom" (personal), and keeping "holy spirit" in lowercase. The Greek pneuma is grammatically neuter, but Jesus uses the masculine pronoun ekeinos for the Spirit in John 14-16, overriding grammatical gender with personal reference. Every major English translation uses "whom" or equivalent personal language here.