Ephesians 4:28
“Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
Ephesians 4 is such a rich, convicting, and powerful chapter of the Bible. If you have a minute, I challenge you to go and read the entire chapter now before finishing this newsletter. It gives instruction on how to preserve unity in the church, a call to grow in spiritual maturity, and practical steps to live out those exhortations. Verses 22-24 are well-known for the directions to put off sin, renew our minds, and to put on righteous ways of living instead. Our opening verse, Ephesians 4:28, comes in the middle of the following section on “Instructions for Christian Living.” The framework Paul uses to talk about how a thief should repent is important to consider as we study the pain caused by every sin we commit. Today I’ll be digging into the sin of stealing and showcasing some of the ways it causes pain.
When we come to see that sin is sin, as God has defined it, we are not able to erase the effects of our sins from the world around us. While we experience freedom from the slavery to sin and the hope of being made perfect in Christ in eternity, we will continue to face the consequences of our sins during this lifetime. Therefore Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 4 are essential for growing in our relationship with the Lord and with others. We can’t just stop with calling our sin “sin”—we must actively work to keep renewing our mind and putting on righteous works instead.
Now please don’t write this sin off as one that doesn’t apply to you because you’ve never shoplifted or committed a burglary. Stealing doesn’t have to be physical items from a store—it could be stealing time and resources, which I know I (and probably most of us) am guilty of! This could look like taking office supplies from your place of work to use at home (if your company has not given you permission to do so). It could be purposely wasting time at work or at home so that you don’t “have time” to get to a task you needed to do. Maybe it’s taking advantage of every free handout even when you don’t need what’s being given away. Ultimately stealing comes back down to taking something, or taking advantage of something, that we do not own or that we did not earn. It’s the mindset of “what can I take” rather than “what can I give.” Just like with lying, when we steal we are believing that easier is better.
I want to use a pretty extreme example of stealing from the Bible to display the pain this sin causes—King David stealing someone else’s wife. This story can be found in 2 Samuel. Chapter 11 talks about how David saw Bathsheba, desired her sexually, and had her brought to his palace to sleep with her even though she was a married woman. Then, when she sent word to David that she was pregnant with his child, David had her husband Uriah sent to the front of the battlefield where he was left to die. With Uriah dead, David took the grieving Bathsheba back to his palace to be his wife.
This was a horrible sin that displeased the Lord (2 Samuel 11:27), so God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David’s sinful actions and unrepentant heart:
2 Samuel 12:1-10
The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’”
I think one of the worst parts about the sin of stealing, is that we so obviously see it in the lives of others, but it is so easy to ignore ways we ourselves are thieves. That’s exactly what happened with David. When he heard Nathan’s story about what the rich man took from the poor man, he was enraged at how someone could take something so precious to someone else. Yet he had literally just stolen another man’s wife! We are so often blind to our own sin, and honestly we don’t want to be labeled a thief. But God gave the 8th of the Ten Commandments for a reason—we all are going to be tempted to steal!
Stealing reflects a heart that is not thankful or grateful. When we steal, we either believe that we need something that God has not chosen to give us, or we act as if we own something that we don’t. Stealing possessions and stealing time and resources may look slightly different, but they are still taking what God has not given us and claiming it as our own. Why do I sometimes waste time at work yet complain that there’s not enough time in the day? Because I think time is mine to use and control. Why do people take things illegally from the store? Because they believe it will provide a need or satisfy a desire that they view as not having been met. The result of stealing is pain and loss for the person who was stolen from.
To fight the temptation to sin by stealing, we must practice gratitude and thanksgiving. Part of how God reprimanded David was focused on all that God had done for him and what he had been given—made him king, delivered him from his enemies, gave him land to rule. Yet David still lusted after more and chose to steal and kill to get it, rather thank giving thanks and seeking the Lord to continue providing his needs. God’s Word gives us so many examples of His provision and of our need to give Him thanks in all things (many of which are Psalms of David!):
Psalm 145:15-20
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
When we choose to steal, we are choosing to act like the wicked rather than the righteous. Not only are we ignoring our Creator and Sustainer’s perfect law, but we also are hurting those we steal from. Stealing doesn’t happen in a vacuum—when we’re taking, there’s always someone who is being taken from, who is suffering from the theft. When we choose to practice gratitude instead, we are remembering all that has already been given to us—not just our physical and material needs, but our spiritual need as well. Giving thanks is giving what’s due back to the Lord, as well as trusting Him to continue meeting our needs.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
“…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Stealing hurts because it takes from another and reveals an ungrateful and untrusting heart towards God. When we think of all we’ve been given by God, from our daily needs to our salvation through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, we can start training ourselves to use everything wisely rather than to seek more and to steal. Living with a heart of gratitude toward our Savior protects us from believing the lie of the enemy that easier is better. I pray you will walk away with the encouragement to focus on all the Lord has done for you, and that you’ll ask the Lord for a heart to give rather than to take away.
Thank you as always for joining me in this discussion, and I look forward to walking through other ways that sin hurts in the next posts. Thanks again for listening or reading to Speaking Truth!
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