"Nobody likes...a Thief"
“He who steals must steal
no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is
good, so that he will have something to share with one has need.” –Ephesians 4:28
NASB
The Scripture is pretty
cut and dry here. Any time I hear the word steal it makes me think of thief.
Growing up, I often heard my elders say, ‘Nobody likes a liar or a thief.’ Looking
back, I get what they were talking about. If you can’t trust a person not to
take your things, then that creates a rather uncomfortable situation. If a
family member or a friend helped themselves to your wallet whenever you
visited, that would create tensions and resentments. Personally, I would love
them regardless and just lock my valuables in the car while praying they grew
out of that season of life. However, at the heart of the matter stealing creates
an environment of distrust.
Interestingly, the Greek
word for steal is klepto. That is the same word we use today to
describe someone who is addicted to stealing; and kleptomaniac is the
very word that psychologists use to diagnosis someone with the compulsion to
take things that do not belong to them.
The first time I read
through this verse and prayed on it, I imagined Paul addressing the folks at
Ephesus and being like, “Stop being lazy. Don’t take things that do not belong
to you! If you want something be willing to bust your rear-end for it.” This is
something that is definitely applicable today. Whatever we do, we are commanded
to work hard for it! Whether we are in construction, landscaping, cutting hair
or even if we are in ministry. We are to give all of ourselves while we are
toiling. Further, anyone who has had something taken from them knows that
feeling that pierces the heart when something has been stolen. There is a sense
of violation that is left inside a person that is awful.
Yet, as clear as all of
that is, the fifth or sixth time that I looked at this passage, God began to
unpack something for me that I had not considered. I mean, I see that God
commands us to live according to His word, and to meditate on His principles
and I can see how we may allow ourselves to get distracted and take away from praying
to God, studying the Word, which in its own way is stealing from our ability to
glorify God. However, that is not what began to make sense the fifth or sixth
time I read through this verse.
God commanded us to stop
stealing, to start working hard and performing with our own hands what is good—not
for all the reasons that I could come up with for why stealing is bad—but
so that we might have something that we can share with
someone else who is in need.
Think about that. Are we
studying the Word the way that we should so we can share the Gospel to those
who have need of it? Are we working hard on our own tongues so that we aren’t
speaking lies and discord into other people’s lives? Are we putting in the work
to look at ourselves in the mirror, rather than pointing out everything someone
else is doing wrong? What about you? Where are you hardly
working? What could you work harder on so you can give to someone who has need?
Until Next Time
God Bless
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