Working and Giving

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

WORKING AND GIVING

 

Eph 4:25-28

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 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.

NIV

We must now deal with the elephant in the room and that is stealing. Of course, no one in the body of Christ is a thief, yet what was the reason that Paul was inspired by the Spirit to make this statement. What we do know is that as sinners, stealing may well be in our veins, that is by our very nature man looks to take from others if he can. We also know  from the history of the Jewish people, the Rabbis would steal in a sense, by taking collections on the pretense of helping the poor, but would keep the largest portion for themselves. We are certainly aware of some of those silver-tongued purveyors of deception corrupting the word of God for their own abundantly lifestyle out of the wallets of others. If that is not stealing, we don’t know what is. We also know from our research that the Ephesians as Gentiles were not the most honest people in that it was not uncommon among them to take what belonged to others, if they could get away with it. But how does this play out, if it even does, in the local church today? Who among us in the local church would even conceive of taking something that does not belong to us? Yet, how do we apply the word of God to our lives in regard to the whole word of God, which includes this statement about not stealing anymore, but we must work doing something useful with our hands, so that we can share with others who are in need. We would think that as we bring our tithes and offerings into the church that there is a portion of that money which is designated to giving to someone in need. We would think we within the church are not at all like Ananias and Sapphira who because of greed, their hypocrisy about their property, basically lying to God, caused their immediate deaths. It is not about how much we give, or tithe, if tithing does, in fact, stand up doctrinally in the New Testament. The word “tithe” only appears in the Old Testament, but we have responded instead to a call to give in proportion to our income. We think, for the most time, many of us still use the ten percent rule in our giving. But the point is that we are able to give whatever amount we are inspired by the Spirit to  give, and that giving is a result of our working with our own hands. It is unlikely that we have pan-handlers in the church seeking to take, rather than give. But at the same time we should be careful that our giving is not used solely for the support of those who are like either those silver-tongued deceivers, or those who profess to work in the church, but have produced no evidence of their call, nor of their supposed ministry, similarly to those Rabbis of Israel, seeking an income from the church, just because they are supposedly called to that task. But again, it is highly unlikely this occurs in most churches. Yet, we must also see this in that personal concept, that we are to work with our hands so that are able to help others who are in need. Of course, we need to keep some for ourselves, to support our own lives, as so we simply give what we can in accordance with what we have, without obligation or guilt, but out of our love for God.