“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
God’s giving is work, and His works are all gifts. God calls His acts of creation “work.” All that God does—in creation, in the outworking of history, in salvation—are His “good deeds,” His mighty works. God is not a workaholic, but He is always working—even though He is the greatest at “resting,” enjoying His labors, as well. God, in His character, is a worker. And again, His work is all tied to His giving. The different Persons of the Trinity work to give to Each Other, and God is always working on our behalf as well.
We may think God has it easy because He is God. We tend to think of God like Mary Poppins who can clean up a room with the wave of a hand. But the Bible doesn’t really portray God like that. Although God can bring worlds into being at the sound of a word, He is also a God of strength, a Man of War, and a God who is able to do all His mighty works because He is strong.
He is also a God who enjoys His labor and looks upon it all as “good.” Likewise, although our work may be unpleasant at times and difficult, we should see our labors—and the fruit of those labors—as good; and we should always be strengthening ourselves in our labors so that we might be strong for the sake of others.
That is why the Scriptures contrast working and giving with theft: “Let him who stole steal not longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28) As Christians, we are called to be like God, and that means we will be industrious, workers, and our working will be motivated by giving not taking. While it is certainly the right thing to work to provide for our own needs, that is not enough: we are to work in order to provide for the needs of others.
Stealing, on the other hand, is just the opposite. Rather than working in order to give, theft is all about taking what I have not worked for. And this can be seen in every facet of our lives, not simply in terms of money. Sometimes we love to receive glory or praise or honor even though we have done little or nothing to deserve it. Husbands and wives are often guilty of wanting good marriages without having to do the hard work it always takes to secure one of those. (And that is often what leads to adultery: we think we can “steal” a good relationship rather than having to work on the one God has already given us.)
We enjoy the benefits of the labors of others who have worked on our behalf, and all that we have is due to the work of God. This should lead us to lives overflowing with gratitude. But it should also lead us into our own labors—away from all theft and covetousness—that we might give back to God something of what He has given us, and that we might be like Him in our giving to others.
“Lord, we praise You this day for all Your glorious wonders, all Your mighty works. We give You thanks for all of Your working on our behalf, for all the gifts from Your hand for which we did not labor but You did. We pray that You would make us like You, that we would be hard workers, that we would enjoy our labors, that we would see them as good. We pray that You would strengthen us in our work, and that You would bless the fruit of our hands, that we might bring glory to You and joyful rest to others. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
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