{"id":2178,"date":"2022-11-13T02:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T02:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:47","slug":"work-incentive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2178","title":{"rendered":"WORK INCENTIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">In Ephesians 4:28, Paul has advice for thieves who come to know Christ.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">The first part is pretty obvious: &#8220;<i>Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer<\/i>&#8220;.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\">Again stating the obvious, Paul offers<span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\">\u00a0the alternative: instead of stealing, &#8220;<i>he must work<\/i>&#8220;.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Paul then clarifies what kind of work he has in mind: &#8220;<i>doing something useful with their own hands<\/i>&#8220;. What the NIV translates as &#8220;useful&#8221; is the Greek word for &#8220;good&#8221;.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Paul ends his advice with the reason why the repentant thief is supposed to get a job.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Notice he does not say, &#8220;Get a job so that you can support yourself.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">Instead Paul gives this motivation: &#8220;<i>that they may have something to share with those in need<\/i>&#8220;.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;color: #001320;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">How is that for an incentive to earn an income?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Ephesians 4:28, Paul has advice for thieves who come to know Christ. The first part is pretty obvious: &#8220;Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer&#8220;. Again stating the obvious, Paul offers\u00a0the alternative: instead of stealing, &#8220;he must work&#8220;.\u00a0 Paul then clarifies what kind of work he has in mind: &#8220;doing something useful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}