Learning to share is pretty difficult for some children. Among other things, Leslie and I are trying to teach Anna to share with other kids and especially with her little brother. Parents and grandparents help their children and grandchildren learn how to share what they have. From my experience, it is mostly toys and snacks. Isn’t it ironic that sometimes parents and grandparents are not very good at sharing what they have with other people? Paul ends Ephesians 4:28 by talking about how we are to “have something to share with anyone in need.” When it comes to our money, time, possessions, and energy, we oftentimes are not very quick to share what we have with people who are struggling. Before teaching our children and grandchildren to share, perhaps we need to learn how to do that ourselves. Looking to Ephesians 4:28 and its surrounding context, I believe God’s Word gives us at least three ideas that help us learn to share with those who are in need.
First, if we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must be different from the world around us. Going back to 4:17, Paul gives this instruction: “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” He then goes on to describe how pagan people live “in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (4:17–19). We must be different. We cannot walk as they walk. We cannot live as they live, especially if we are going to learn to share with those who are in need. Our world is filled with greed and stinginess. People are often concerned only with themselves and the next dollar they can make. It is like the proverbial person who is said to still have eighty-five cents of every dollar he has ever made. If we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must step outside the influence of our culture. We must think and live differently from the world around us.
Second, if we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must be changed by Jesus. We have learned Christ (4:20). We have heard about Him and been taught the truth that is only found in Jesus (4:21). As Christians, we are not who we used to be. We have put off the old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires (4:22). We see the world differently because we have been renewed in the spirit of our minds (4:23). We have put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (4:24). Just as children do not learn to share on their own, we cannot learn to share on our own either. If we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must know, love, and allow ourselves to be changed by our living and risen Savior.
Third, if we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must realize one of the main purposes behind working and making money. As Paul continues through the rest of the chapter, he shows us what it practically looks like to put off the old man and put on the new man in our daily lives. One of the areas he covers is found in 4:28, which says in its entirety, “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.” As we live out our new lives in Jesus, we are not going to steal to get what we need. Instead, we are going to labor and do honest work with our own hands. But why? Why do we work and make money? Certainly, we must provide for ourselves and our families (1 Timothy 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:10–12). But we also need to notice the reason Paul gives in this verse: “so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Going to work every day and earning a paycheck is not just for you and your family. We are not just talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, relatives, friends, or those we deem worthy. Paul talks about having something to share with anyone in need. If we are going to learn to share with those who are in need, we must realize one of the main purposes behind working and making money. When the opportunity arises, we want to have something to share with anyone in need.
Let’s learn to share. We are to “be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:18). “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:16).
Tyler Alverson
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