Passages from the NIV on Bible Gateway
Introduction
Have you ever wished that you had grown up in the first century; being a part of the church at the very beginning? Being in the crowd as the apostles are preaching on the day of Pentecost hearing them speak in our own language. After hearing the word we repent of our sins and are baptized in that first round of believers! Oh, what a glorious day that would have been to be a part of the new Church. Then being there as the Church starts to grow and being a part of church as described in Acts 2:42-47.
"42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
What an exciting time in history, to be a part of that first church, having all things in common with everyone, and sharing and taking care of others people’s needs. What a fantastic time that would've been to have been there and to be able to have experienced that excitement and enthusiasm.
Oh, what wonderful pictures that come to mind, everybody getting along with each other. Eating meals with each other. No problems within the church...right? It is the big beautiful picture of the perfect Church. Although we like to see the past with these beautiful pair of rose colored glasses, the reality is that people were still fallen sinful people who were in dire need of a savior.
When we read these pages in Ephesians chapter 4, we don’t see perfection instead we see something quite different going on. As Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus what they should be doing and not doing, we see by implication what the Christians were actually doing. As we read through the New Testament letters, we see that Paul and others have to deal with a lot of problems in the church.
Today as we continue in our series on Christianity 101 we may be shocked to find out what Paul has to correct within the church. The believers were stealing and Paul has to tell them in Ephesians 4:28, “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.”
Are you saying that Christians were stealing? Yes I am. The gentile believers Paul is writing to here are people who were walking in the futility of their minds. The sinful ways that they lived before becoming Christians were what they would have called normal or like saying “It’s just the way that it is” type of mentality. So when they became Christians, did they all of a sudden have this miraculous change where they were instantly transformed in their thinking? Of course not. It is the same as today, we must surrender ourselves to Christ and God’s Word, then slowly, as we work and God’s power works within our lives, we correct these false attitudes we have within ourselves. Listen to Ephesians 4:20-24:
“20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Today as we look at the next attitudes we need to work on within our lives, let us who have been Christians for a long time remember what the Church in the 1st Century was actually like. Then we will be able to be more gracious to the new Christians who are just learning. Point out the error in their ways and like Paul, let them know that that they should steal no longer.
Stealing
Ephesians 4:28, “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.”
Now when we first look at this passage it is pretty straight forward when it comes to stealing. If anyone here has been stealing, you must stop doing it. Christians do not steal. This one is a lot easier to talk about than my last lesson on anger, because we do have in the 10 Commandments, a commandment number 8 that is found in Exodus 20:15, “You shall not steal.” Is there any question in anyone’s mind as to what God is talking about here? That is good I see a lot of heads bobbing letting me know they understand. But do we truly understand this concept of not stealing?
What if you are walking down the aisle here after services and you see a $50 bill laying on the floor. Is it “Finders keepers, losers weepers?” What, it’s laying there on the floor with no one’s name on it, so it is mine, after all possession is 90% of the law! Are you getting my point here? We have so many cute sayings we use that justify stealing. When we find a $50 dollar bill on the floor or anything else of value on the floor and it is not ours, we need to find the owner of it and return it to the owner. You know how important $50 dollars is to you, so why don’t you think the person that lost it does not think it is important to them? If you had lost $50 dollars would you be happy if someone returned it back to you? Then do the same to others as well.
Now for a tougher one than that. What if you are capable of working and you don’t. Instead you live off of handouts from others, the government, or maybe you lie a little bit and get some help from the church. Is that stealing? Listen closely to the context of this passage again in Ephesians 4:28
“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.”
In what context is this type of stealing in? Yes it is in context of work!
You may be thinking, but government programs are designed to be a safety net to provide protection to those who are in need, so how is that associated with stealing? Yes, those programs are designed to help those who are in real need and in that context it would not be stealing, but have you heard the saying, “I can’t afford to work!” If I take this job, I will lose money, from what I am getting now not working.
We are seeing this attitude permeate society and if it is permeating society it is also permeating the church, just like it was in the 1st Century Church. We are even seeing this attitude arise in the Affordable Care Act. People who are working full time jobs are quitting or going to part time positions and claiming a low income so they can have reduced health insurance premiums. It isn't that they are in a tight spot financially. It isn't that they don’t have the job skills to earn a decent wage. It is that they don’t want to work anymore than they have to and the Affordable Care Act provides them the opportunity to work less. This attitude of stealing is so prevalent that our President commends this as a selling point for Obama Care.
The problem is what does God think about this subject? He says it is stealing and wrong. Now I might be stepping on some toes this morning and you might be feeling a bit uncomfortable in your pew. But I see that the reason we feel uncomfortable dealing with this subject, is that we do not understand God’s design for the realm of labor.
Labor
If we are going” 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” As Ephesians 4:23-24 tells us, then we need to first look at God to see him working for us to begin to understand what work is all about. To do this we need to go back in time before the earth and everything else was created. We won’t read the creation story in Genesis chapter 1 this morning, but what a chapter. Genesis 1:1 gives us the thesis statement for the chapter, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” We see from the creation story that God spoke and when he spoke such power was released! Let there be light. Boom There was light. Let there be vegetation, Boom there was vegetation!
Just think on that for a second. Think of all the verities of trees, of grass, flowers, herbs, bushes that there are in this world. Let there be and it was so.
Genesis 2:1-3 says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
Oh, my! Those 6 days God worked. But does an almighty, all powerful God need to rest? Or to say it in a different way, does God get tired? Was God a couch potato on the seventh day, laying on his couch with the remote control in his hand flipping through the stations? Verse three gives us a clue as to what God was resting from, God was resting from the work of creating. Not that he was tired from another long week in the salt mines! No, work was wonderful, he used his energies creating and now he took a break from his creative work.
He also knew that we would need rest from creating as well, so he established the Sabbath day of rest. So back to the 10 Commandments we go in Exodus 20:8-11 it says:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
For many years I misunderstood this passage. I always felt that God had to put limits on the taskmaster. You can only work Arthur Miller like a dog for six days. You must give him one day off a week to rest. I held this view because I held a worldly view on labor.
Think about our societies view on work. “Thank God it’s Friday,” or, “Back to the salt mines I go,” or, “It's what I have to do for money,” or “the only way to get to Friday!”
But when we look at this command it is tied back to God’s creative work at creation. My view on work was totally wrong. Six days we have the privilege to create, but God knowing that since this realm of labor is so exciting and so full of wonder and exploring that if we had the opportunity we would create all the time without taking a break. God knowing this and knowing this from His own nature, he put a limit on creating. 6 days you have the opportunity to create. On the seventh you must stop from creating and spend your time resting to the Lord.
God who created and rested has given us the opportunity to create and take a rest as well. We see God giving us the opportunity to work in the very beginning as well, Genesis 2:15 - "15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
God created Adam and then allowed him to work, just like God himself worked! We have been blessed with incredible intellect’s that are very creative and can find all sorts of ways to labor and prosper, but we must first realize what a gift God has given to us to be able to work. When we start seeing the great honor and value of work, then the statement of “If I work I’ll earn less than I am now not working,” becomes a very silly statement because we have been given an opportunity to work, it would take a crazy person to turn it down!
Purpose for Our Labor
When we look at the purpose of labor, I believe we need to understand a few principles first. The reason we need to look at these is because our society has taught us some wrong ideas about working. Just like the concept of working being a real bummer, there are other attitudes we have about work that we need to understand, so that we can better understand the purpose of work.
Are ability to produce wealth is from God
Let’s look at Deuteronomy 8:17-18, “17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
When we work, when we put forth the effort and develop a skill set that allows us to produce wealth, we need to remember the Lord our God. Why? Because it is God that has given us the ability to produce wealth. Without God giving us some of the creativity that He has, how would we produce anything? Without God we would not even be here having this conversation today. God has blessed us with creative minds that can create fantastic things. Just think of this phone that I have in my pocket. I remember not too long ago my father purchasing this big calculator that would add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was so exciting to see this $100 machine churn out answers without ever being wrong! Now compare that to this crazy little phone! God has given us the ability to create and we need to be about using this God given gift, but we must always stay humble and realize who ultimately the one who blesses us with our wealth is. God. Ultimately, the jobs we have and the work we do belongs to God.
Everything we earn and produce is ultimately God’s
We also need to know who the owner is of everything we create. Turn to Psalms 50:7-12.
“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.
8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it."
We also need to understand that everything is God’s. The world is his and all that is in it. Therefore, everything you earn through your labor is his, everything you create is his. God is the creator and we are in and a part of his creation. We are his stewards and God allows us to use his stuff to create and earn.
There are more principles we can look at here, but for today’s lesson I believe dealing with those two will allow us to understand why God wants us to labor.
Putting it all together, the purpose of labor
Let’s read this passage Ephesians 4 again:
“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.”
In this passage lies the beauty of labor. You see the person who steals takes away from another person putting them into poverty. It is destructive in nature. A society that does not respect the ownership rights of others and justifies stealing with the Robin Hood mentality will end up destroying that society. God has a different plan in mind. God wants us to use our creativity, our skills, and our strength to produce wealth so that we will be in a position to share with those in need.
God is always concerned about the helpless and he is calling us to stop using the system and taking and start producing so that we can give and be generous with the blessings he gives to us.
That is why in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 we have this seemingly harsh command.
"6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread."
If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat! Wow, how politically incorrect is that. If your are able to work you need to discipline yourself and get to work. God desires you to work so that you will be able to help others in need.
God has consistently throughout scripture told us that our work is to produce wealth to help those in need. Listen to a couple of passages.
Leviticus 19:9-10 - 9 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God."
1 John 3:16-18 - "16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
God who works, who is creative, who cares for those in need has given each of us the ability to work and create so that we can care and help those in need. God has entrusted so much to us and what a privilege and honor it is to be able to work. The world has taught us many lies and we need to look to God’s word to correct our thinking. And we must make sure that we understand the great honor God has given to us to create so that we can gather wealth and give the wealth away to help those in need.
We so often horde our wealth and spend if foolishly. Let’s start reevaluating our finances with what God teaches within his word. Let us take off the rose colored glasses so we can see things truthfully.
I am blessed to be part of a congregation that gives so generously to those in need. My prayer is that those we help will become Christians and start disciplining their lives and start working and earning so they can then be able to give and help others who are in need like they were at one point in time.
May we praise God as we labor. It truly is a gift from our heavenly father.
