Always with something to share (Ephesians 4:28)

As believers, we’re not called to take but to give. In Ephesians 4:28, Paul calls Christians to abandon the old life of idleness and selfish gain and instead work diligently with their hands so they always have something to share with those in need. True Christian stewardship and generosity flow from a transformed heart—a life centered on Jesus Christ that labors not for self but for His glory.

In this study, we explore what it means to work hard for the Lord, live as channels of God’s provision, and reflect His heart of giving in a world that constantly takes.

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Key Passage: Ephesians 4:28

He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
– Ephesians 4:28

Put Off / Put On (Review)

Ephesians 4:22–24 – … lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

• 4:25 – Lying / Truth … for we are members of one another
• 4:26–27 – Anger motivated by self / Anger motivated by love … don’t give place to the devil
• 4:28 – Stealing / Work … that you might have something to give those in need
• 4:29 – Corrupt language / Edification … may impart grace to the hearers

Paul is Talking to Believers

Many of the early believers were coming out of pagan cultures … and as Christians, they still needed instruction in righteousness and godly living … otherwise, Christians can easily slip back into old habits, routines, and sin. We are in a constant state of sanctification as we grow in godly maturity and Christlikeness.

• Galatians 5:19–21 – Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 – Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Steal No Longer

• Ephesians 4:28 – He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
• Steal (kleptō) – to steal; to commit a theft; to take away by stealth
  • kleptomaniac: someone who can’t stop stealing
  • Used 13x in NT, same word as “steal” in 10 Commandments
    • 4 of the 13 are in references to 10 Commandments (3x in Gospels, 1 Romans)
• Exodus 20:15 – You shall not steal.
  • Second time Paul has brought up the 10 Commandments (lying, stealing)
• Why no stealing? God’s nature … He is not a thief and thus His people can’t steal
  • Romans 13:9 – For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 
  • [Also see Mark 10:19, etc.]

More than Material

• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – Stealing really means taking possession of and using as your own something that does not belong to you, appropriating something that is not yours, to serve your own ends and your own gratification. So it applies to many things besides actual material things. We can steal money; yes, but we can steal time also; we can steal almost anything, we can steal thoughts, we can steal ideas, the offence that we call plagiarism, the taking of another man’s ideas and giving them out as your own. … Stealing is to take possession of anything that belongs to another and that is not really yours, and to possess it and to regard it as yours, and to give the impression that it is yours.⁽¹⁾
• William MacDonald – Stealing may take many forms—all the way from grand larceny to nonpayment of debts, to witnessing for Christ on the employer’s time, to plagiarism, to the use of false measurements, and to falsifying expense accounts.⁽²⁾
• Stealing can be more than money …
  • Steal time (ie: on the job – you are hired to work not play angry birds)
  • Wasting time in your day
  • Steal ideas
  • Steal money / resources / possessions / material goods
  • Steal credit (accomplishment)
  • Steal God’s glory
• Ephesians 4:28 – He who steals must steal no longer …

Siding with the enemy when we steal

• John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
  • Rather …
  • Ephesians 4:28 – He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

The Contrast (don’t steal … instead work hard)

• Labor (kopiatō) – to grow weary, tired, exhausted (with toil) … working to the point of fatigue or extreme exhaustion
  • 2 Timothy 2:6 – The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
  • Matthew 11:28 – “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
  • performing with his own hands what is good – laboring/working in what is useful, good, upright, honorable
  • 2 Thessalonians 3:10 – For even when we were with you, we used to command this to you: if anyone is not willing to work, neither let him eat.
  • Warren W. Wiersbe – Paul was not writing to believers who could not work because of handicaps, but with those who would not work.⁽³⁾

For the Purpose of …

• Ephesians 4:28 – … so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
• The point of laboring is not so I have something … but so I always have something to give others.
  • » to share with (metadidonai): impart, give
    • Word “give” with the prefix “with”
    • Not just giving something but having an investment (share) in the person/giving
  • found 5 times in New Testament
    • Luke 3:11 – And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.”
    • Romans 1:11 – For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be strengthened …
    • Romans 12:6, 8 – … but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us … he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
    • 1 Thessalonians 2:8 – In this way, having fond affection for you, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become beloved to us.

Always with Something to Give

• wouldn’t it be amazing if we always had something to give
  • time, resources, wisdom, finances, etc
  • what if the reason we studied the Bible, spent time in prayer, etc wasn’t just for our own personal edification but so that we’d always have something to give 
• OT: Law of Gleaning
  • leave the edges and corners for the poor, needy, foreigner
  • rather than be greedy, selfish, hoarding – always have something to give
• William MacDonald – This is radical and revolutionary. The natural approach is for men to work for the supply of their own needs and desires. When their income rises, their standard of living rises. Everything in their lives revolves around self. This verse suggests a nobler, more exalted view of secular employment. It is a means of supplying a modest standard of living for one’s family, but also of alleviating human need, spiritual and temporal, at home and abroad. And how vast that need is!⁽⁴⁾
• John Wesley – “Work as hard as you can, make as much as you can, then give as much as you can.”
• Paul speaking to the elders of Ephesus: 
  • Acts 20:35 – “In everything I showed you that by laboring in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
• 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 – Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows with blessing will also reap with blessing. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed …

FOOTNOTES

(1) David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17–5:17 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982), 243–244.
(2) William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1939.
(3) Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 42.
(4) William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1939.

Photo Credit: Rufel

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In Our Next Study Together …

I invite you to join me on this journey from the book of Ephesians to discover God’s eternal purpose, His plan for your life, and learn how to practically live out an abundant and fruitful Christian life. 

• The focus of our next study: Ephesians 4:29
  • We are going to dive into the concept of allowing what is in our lives to come out.
  • I encourage you to read through Ephesians a couple of times this week and focus specifically on Ephesians 4.