Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Ephesians 4:28 - 4:28
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Eph 4:28. Ὁ κλέπτων, who stole) This a milder expression than ὁ κλέπτης, the thief. The participle is that of the imperfect tense, while the present here is not excluded.-μᾶλλον δὲ) but even rather [let him labour more] than [he would] if he had not stolen. In every kind of sin which a man has committed, he ought afterwards to practise the contrary virtue.-κοπιάτω, let him labour) Often theft and idleness go together.-τὸ ἀγαθὸν, good) An antithesis to theft, first committed in an evil hour with thievish hand [lit. with a hand covered with pitch[75]].-ΤΑῖς ΧΕΡΣῚΝ, with the hands) which he had abused in committing theft.-ἵνα ἔχῃ, that he may have) The law of restitution ought not to be too strictly urged against the law of love. [He who has stolen should also excercise liberality beyond the restitution of what was taken away.-V. g.]
[75] Said of hands to which others’ property seems to stick; thievish.-Mart. viii. 59.-ED.