Ephesians 4:28

him that stole Another moral inference from Christian incorporation. Here again, as above (see on Ephesians 4:25), and more obviously than ever, the Christianaspect of the duty has also a universalreference. The Gr. is a present participle, and may equally well be rendered him that stealeth. It is possible, surely, that St Paul (like many a modern missionary and pastor) was prepared to find inconsistency so serious in the Christian community as to warrant the assumption of presentthieving in some cases. (See above on Ephesians 4:25). Such things were surely to be found in the early CorinthianChurch.

The duty of strict restitution is not explicitly mentioned here. But in the Epistle to Philemon, written at the same time, it is both insisted upon and acted upon.

his hands Better, perhaps, his own hands. If personal activity has been spent on wrong, let nothing less than personal activity be spent on "working that which is good," with a view to honest getting and gain.

that he may have to give Impartation of good is of the genius of the Gospel; and there would be a special call now to impart where there had been unholy appropriation before. Christian morality, as Monod remarks, is never satisfied with reform; it demands conversion.