Ephesians 4:28

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.

The ignorant person called upon to read this chapter publicly almost broke up the meeting when he read:

Let him that stole, steal; no more let him labor with his hands!

This is repeated here to show how much depends, at times, upon the proper punctuation; and it should always be remembered that the original writers of the New Testament did not punctuate it, punctuation marks having been added much later.

It is very obvious from this entire section that the persons who were addressed in this epistle were quite possibly doing some of the very things Paul condemned here. We are bound to be struck by these implications. Beare said, "The church was welcoming into her fellowship members of the criminal classes."[35] Words like these have the impact of "cease and desist from all sin." While those who "had been" criminals were welcome, their sins were not welcome.

The word of God reveals some acceptable methods of acquiring property, these being: (1) by inheritance, (2) by work, (3) by reception of it as a gift, (4) through merchandising, (5) through investment, etc.; two of the acceptable methods and one of the unacceptable methods appear in this verse, the latter being, of course, stealing.