Living Right in a World Gone Wrong…Studies in Ephesians
Ephesians 4:28
If you would, please, take out your program, I want you to take a look at the front cover. See that statement there? “Real Life…Real People…Real God.” That is a statement of the core values of this church. Our mission statement, which is found on the back – reads – “to present practical application of God’s truth…” But the problem with being real, the struggle with being practical – is that it’s so…well…practical – it hits awfully close to home sometimes. How many of you found Dino’s message on Anger to be a little close to home last week? OUCH!
Ephesians is that kind of letter. Paul has spent the first three chapters of this book laying a theological base for life – then the last three chapters take that theology and make it practical. Listen to how practical these words are:
Tell the truth!
Control your temper!
Don’t take what’s not yours!
Talk nicely to others!
Be kind and compassionate to each other!
Forgive each other!
That’s what Paul says in Ephesians 4:25-32:
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin,” do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Well, today, on this Super Bowl Sunday, 2006 – we are going to talk about the Stealers. No, not the Pittsburgh Steelers – but the “stealer” that lives in all of us – the thief within each of us that lives just below the thin veneer of our lives. Now before you get all self-righteous on me – cool your jets. Pilfering is much more pervasive than any of us wants to admit.
Zig Ziglar tells of man named Emmanuel Nenger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers, which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can’t be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger’s home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is an amazing artist and is individually painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It’s true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself. (Signs of the Times, Oct. 1988, p. 22-3.)
The fact is, when the stealer within becomes the thief without – we steal most from ourselves.
Take a look at verse 28 from our text. It reads:
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his hands that he might have something to share with those in need.
Could this be any more straightforward? Could it be any more practical? Let’s just quickly look at the three statements at are made here:
He who has been stealing must steal no longer.
Here’s an idea. Stealing is bad and should be stopped! Why is it that we have such a hard time with the basics? I mean, this is one of the basic moral codes that God set down in the 10 commandments – “Thou Shalt Not Steal!” But somehow it seems that we take those basic, straightforward, “make no mistake about it” commandments, and soften them into suggestions. “Thou shalt not steal” becomes “”Don’t get caught…”
While working out at the TAG Center this week, Carol was watching a news program where employees were suing their employers because they were “spying” on them to try to cut down on personal time on the web while punched in. The company had the audacity to track the use of their computers by their employees on their time and then punish the offending workers. A recent survey conducted by Vault.com showed that 25% of employees use the Internet for personal use during office hours. Thirteen percent of workers use the Internet for at least two hours per day for personal use – that one out of every 8 workers spending ¼ of their day doing personal Internet surfing! And the employees, who never denied their deed – are suing their boss for invasion of privacy!
Are you a Stealer? The people of Israel bristled at being called thieves by the Lord. In Malachi 3:8, he said to the people of Israel, “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” But the people asked, “how have we robbed you?” God responds, “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Are you robbing from God by withholding that which is rightly his?
Are you a Stealer? Ever burn a bogus disk? Spent time on the Internet while punched in at work? Paid for all those pens in your desk drawer? “Borrowed” a stamp from the office? Is all the software on your computer officially licensed? Those may seem like pretty minor offences, but the Greek word that Paul chose for “steal” in this verse means, “to pilfer.” It specifically means “petty theft” or “to steal in small quantities.”
Look back at verse 17 of chapter 4. This verse introduces this entire passage – it says, “So I tell you then, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do…” We must remember that Paul is laying out for us an outline for all Christians to live different from the rest of the world. Maybe everyone else does it – but as a follower of Christ – as a disciple – we must live differently! He who has been stealing must steal no longer!
You must work, doing something useful with your own hands.
The second statement here is presented as a contrast to the first. Instead of stealing – get to work. The Bible does not leave us without answers. There’s not just a list of “Don’t do this, Don’t do that!” Along with the negative, we are given the positive – get a job! Instead of robbing others of the fruits of their labor – get out and labor yourself! Let me make two quick observations here:
First, God has ordained work, not stealing, as the way of getting what we need. Work is not a curse. Adam was put in the garden to tend it before the fall. Work was part of the garden of Eden – part of God’s perfect creation. Work became a four-letter word when sin entered the world. But work itself is a good gift of God. How could it be otherwise since God is the greatest worker of all and we are created in his image?
The other observation from this second command in verse 28 is that the work we do for a living should be the doing of something good. Literally it says, "Let him labor working with his own hands the good." God is not indifferent to what you do for a living. You belong to him first. He is your main boss and you will give an account to him of how you spent your work life as well as every other part of your life. The text says, instead of stealing work, but it doesn't just say work, as though any and all work is acceptable for the Christian. It says, "Perform the good." So test your vocation! Is it the performing of what is good?
Share with those in need.
But now as we close by looking at the third command in the text notice that a shift of focus takes place. At first Paul seems to be focused on what we do -- don't steal, work! But in this last part of the verse his focus turns to the motive for working and not stealing. Don’t work to have – work to give!
He says, the goal and purpose that God has for his people is not reached when they simply quit stealing. And the goal and purpose that God has for his people is not reached when they labor hard with their hands even doing good in order to possess the money they earn. But he says finally that the goal of God for his people, in all their gainful employment, is reached when they work in order to have so that they can give to those in need.
Jon Piper writes,
This is utterly revolutionary. Do you see what it does? It takes the whole of your life, including your secular job, and turns it into a work of grace. Paul wants you to think of your secular job as means to display God's grace. No more stealing in the service of illegal greed. No more working in the service of legal greed. But now everything is in the service of grace not greed. Don't steal to have. Don't work to have. But work to have in order to give.
In each of the practical teaching that Paul gives us in this passage the bottom line is the motive. When Paul tells us to speak the truth, in verse 25, it’s because, “We are members of one body.” When he tells us to not sin in our anger, it’s so that we “don’t give the devil a foothold.” Now, when he tells us to stop stealing, but work, it’s so that we can help those in need.
Giving now becomes our motive for getting – we get in order to share more with those in need. I’ve seen that generous spirit at work in this church this week – we have families in crisis here – who have been hit by personal or financial tragedy – and I have seen the church rise to help. I encourage everyone to find the truth of this passage – to discover the heart of God when it comes to our possessions – to allow Him to turn us from greedy, grabbing people into generous, giving members of the family of God.
This week, as I did my personal study, I was reading Proverbs chapter 30, and re-read some wonderful words of wisdom:
Two things I ask of you, O Lord,
Do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches,
But give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or I may become poor and steal,
And so dishonor the name of my God.
When we steal, we ultimately dishonor the name of our Father. In this day of trivializing morals, diminishing values and relative thinking, may God give us the strength of character to not live like the rest of the world – but to demonstrate what it means to live a real life, by real people, who love, serve and honor a very real God.
Prayer