Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
Some have read this verse as follows: “Let him that stole steal, no more working with his hands.”
There was a game warden that came home one day to discover a couple of men loading his wood pile into the back of their pickup. He decided to have a little fun. “I’m lost. Could you guys give me some directions?” he said as he got out of his pickup. The men did. “Thank you. Let me give you a hand loading the wood.” When the pickup was loaded he invited them to come into the house for a cup of coffee. They were terrified and said that they were sorry and would unload the wood. “No, no! You must need the wood pretty bad if you are willing to steal it. Come on in a have that coffee.” I don’t know how this ended. I hope it was life-changing for the thieves.
Our text is talking about a thief being called to labor. In a sense, we are all thieves before we meet Jesus. We are His creation. The earth and everything in it is His. Psalm 24:1 states, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
The next time we pick up a stick of wood we should ask, “Can I have this Lord?” He would probably answer, “Go ahead, I made it for you.”
The key is that we are called to labor. God has a calling for each of us. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” Our text says to work with our hands the thing which is good. We often want a vocation that does not require working with our hands. Some want to work from home instead of out in the heat of the day. We often choose a vocation for ourselves where we can make easy money. As a preacher, my dad would often say when I left from visiting him, “If you find work, write.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;”
When Peter preached to Cornelius he spoke of Jesus as being anointed by God with the Holy Ghost and power: “…who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). We all have a calling to do good. Does it pay off?
“If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It never was between you and them anyway.” (Author unknown).
The ministry of doing good is usually not up-front on the stage. It is found often in the cup of cold water. “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).
John ends his gospel with these words: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” According to Ephesians 2:10, in Christ we are created “unto good works.”
