Today's Devotional

February 10,  2006

 

Subject:  The Repentant Thief

Ephesians 4:28 - "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."

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Lately, I've had a few run-ins with people for stealing.  In each case I was able to sit down and talk with the people and I brought them to the point of confessing their acts of thievery.  In all of the cases thus far, the person thought that they had a legitimate need for the items they sold.  That may or may not have been the case, but my point to them was that that point is irrelevant.  The real question is "did you have the right to take something from someone else to meet that need?"  

If you look at the passage above, it talks about the repentant thief.  Instead of taking from others without concern for whether it is right or wrong, the repentant thief is admonished to work to give to those in need.  If the thieves believe that they had a legitimate need then perhaps God used that to show them that there are people out there with needs and those who work to earn their own keep should consider helping them.  The repentant thief needs to understand that he no longer works for his selfish aims if he is truly repentant, but instead to help those in need.  

I'll be making this point to the thieves that I've dealt with lately and see if they can indeed be classified as "Repentant."

Carlen