Letter 76

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~381 AD Context: A pastoral instruction on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, addressed to the Milanese congregation during the season of Pentecost. Ambrose to the faithful. At Pentecost we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I want you to understand what that gift means for your daily lives. The Spirit is not an occasional visitor. He is a permanent resident. When you were baptized, the Spirit took up dwelling in you — not as a guest who might leave, but as the rightful occupant of a temple consecrated for his use (1 Corinthians 6:19). You carry the presence of God within you, and that changes everything. It changes how you speak, because the temple of the Spirit should not be a source of slander, gossip, or obscenity. It changes how you act, because the hands and feet of the Spirit's temple should be instruments of justice and mercy. It changes how you think, because the mind that the Spirit inhabits should be occupied with things that are true, honorable, and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). The gifts of the Spirit are various — wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discernment, tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). Not everyone receives every gift, and no gift is superior to another. The eye cannot say to the hand "I have no need of you." The congregation that despises any member's gift impoverishes itself. But above all the gifts stands one: love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1). The Spirit gives many gifts, but they are all expressions of one purpose — to build up the body of Christ in love. Do not grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). He dwells in you willingly, but he is not indifferent to how you treat his dwelling. Live in a way that honors the presence within you, and the presence will transform you from the inside out. Farewell in the Spirit.

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