Look who's coming to church!

Ephesians 4:28 - Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

It’s easy to read a verse like this and think of it as a type of universal proverb for all, that it’s the church’s job to ensure that thieves everywhere stop stealing, get jobs, and contribute more to society. But Ephesians was written to a church, not to the “world” at large. Paul is writing to Timothy and the other Ephesian elders, saying, “This message needs to be communicated to your people.”

What’s often missed, then — in light of the plain language of the verse — is that this means that thieves were sitting there in the pews. And I don’t mean non-Christians who were interested in the faith, but actual Christians who were also thieves.

This doesn’t condone stealing at all. The Bible clearly says here, and elsewhere, that it’s wrong. But it is to say: look who’s coming to church! Without precondition! The New Testament letters assume that the worst of people are a part of the church — you know, people like us, people who sin, people who struggle to shake off the old self. It reminds us of how Jesus invades the hearts of sinners rather than the more religious notion of him allowing the clean to come near. He dines with his enemies and betrayers, he touches the diseased, and he chases down the outcast. Church communities, by their very make-up, are emblems of this idea.

So, it makes sense that instead of quoting the 8th commandment from the Old Testament, which carries a “Do this, or else” condition along with it, Paul says, “Let the thief learn to do honest work so he can be generous.” The gospel is an invitation, not a threat. It’s the good news that Jesus Christ, the most generous being in the universe, was crucified among petty thieves, essentially becoming a thief himself so that he might die for thieves and in the wake of his death procure a salvation for us that we would never be able to accomplish ourselves. When we come to terms with the beauty of this gospel-truth, we start to steal less, not simply because we were told to (even from the Bible!) but because the fact that Jesus welcomes thieves to dine with him takes our breath away. And so the New Testament’s call to be generous is not so much a law to keep, but a gospel to embody, so that others might see and believe in a God who poured himself out rather than a God who took things away.

CHRIS WACHTER / LEAD PASTOR