Steal No Longer
Lenten Devotional Series Day 30. Today’s meditation is on Eph 4:25-32.
In some parts of the world, people use an elegant method to trap monkeys. They hollow out a gourd or coconut and put a hole in it just big enough for a monkey’s open paw to squeeze through, put something desirable inside it like rice, and then stake it to the ground. Then all they have to do is wait. A monkey comes along and finds the rice, squeezes his hand inside to get it, and then finds his hand will not fit back through the hole while holding the rice. He can either let go of the object and be free, or hold on and remain stuck. Soon the hunters return, and the choice becomes clear. Let go or die. What most often happens? As I said, it is an elegant way to trap monkeys.
What are we to make of this? It’s certainly not logic at work. This isn’t rational behavior, even by a primate’s standards. What is it then? Ultimately it’s not the monkey’s grip on the rice that kills it. It’s desire’s grip upon the monkey. In that moment, the desire to have is more important than the desire to live. But this is only true for monkeys, right? It’s pretty foolish, isn’t it?
It’s almost as foolish as Esau when he traded his God-given birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew; almost as foolish as Achan when he disobeyed God to get a few trinkets; almost as foolish as Judas when he betrayed Jesus for a bag of coins. The Bible is full of examples of what it looks like to be dominated by desire.
When Paul says in Eph. 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,” he is describing what life looks like when one is not dominated by desire. And he’s not speaking to inmates at a prison ministry outreach, but to ordinary Christians. Not the kind of people who rob banks or mug pedestrians, but rather the kind of people who steal from their employer by spending the work day surfing the internet or chatting on Facebook. People who underestimate their income to the IRS, or “borrow” a little too much from other sources when writing for work or school. He’s writing to people who enjoy all the benefits of Christian community without ever contributing anything themselves. He’s writing to people like you and me.
We are all thieves by nature, and the fact that we steal is just an outward sign. Even if you stop stealing, you’re just a thief between jobs. The real issue is our desire-driven mentality that means we remain focused on getting, taking, and having. Life is about looking out for myself first and foremost. I work many more hours than I should, which robs my wife and son of the care and attention they need from me. Why?Because I am gripped by the desire to be successful, because it’s really all about me.
That mentality is part of what Paul calls the old self, the self whose thought was clouded by selfishness, unable to resist desire, hard of heart and alienated from God (Eph. 4:17-19). But, he says, it is possible for us to discover an entirely new way of being, a new self, with a renewed spirit of mind, meaning an imagination that covets and desires the things of God above all else. How? It happens, as Paul says, when we, having come to know Jesus, begin to live our lives in him, which means our lives become so permeated by him that everything is seen and experienced through him.
Thieves like us who come to know and love Jesus intimately find that the more we experience what it means to be desired by him, the less we ourselves desire everything else. It’s not so much a lack of desire as it is a reorientation, a repurposing of desire. Life with Jesus gives us the courage to move our hearts away from our own wellbeing and toward that of those around us. How? While we might scoff at a monkey that would give his life for something as small as a piece of rice; we are undone by a God who would give his life for someone as small as us.
What happens to thieves in the presence of Jesus? We become people who would rather work in order to give than steal in order to have.
Today in prayer, begin with the Collect of the Day (below). Give thanks to God that he desired you so much that he gave his Son as a ransom for you. Consider your value before the Lord because of this gift, and the desire he has for your entire way of living to be redeemed. Ask him to empower you, by his Spirit, to live a life of working and generous giving rather than stealing. Finish with the Lord’s Prayer.
Collect of the Day. Almighty God, we pray that although we deserve to be punished for our evil deeds, yet by the comfort of your heavenly grace we may mercifully be relieved, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.