This is my 27th entry in my 30-part series on the word “let” in the Bible.

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. 

This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. The complete 180-degree turn described here is the perfect model of what the Lord works to do in us by His Holy Spirit. The thief used to steal, taking from others. Then (assuming a salvation and the beginning of a reversal of sinning), the thief turns to “honest work with his own hands,” using those hands that used to steal to do something productive. Then, being productive, he has the means to use his hands to give where he used to take.

That is how the transforming power of God works in a person’s life—and note the word transforming. God doesn’t just want us to stop sinning, but he also wants us to use our members (hands, legs, mouth, etc.) to start doing the opposite from whatever sinning we were doing. He isn’t as interested in us simply discontinuing sins as in letting Him transform our sinful thoughts and actions into avenues of His love and grace.

So the question is: Will we let the Lord’s transforming power fully into our lives? It’s a victory to stop sinning, to be sure. But it’s incomplete if we think we are “there” spiritually by not doing something negative. There is a positive that His Holy Spirit is leading us to that will demonstrate the fullness of what His power can do in us.

If we, like the thief, no longer sin, then we, like the converted thief, need to “let” God finish the transformation that He is working in us. We need to allow His transforming grace to work its way to its appointed end in our lives. This is where we need to believe as we may never have before. In John 6:29, Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Believing God is sometimes a real struggle when we can’t see how He might accomplish something. If we have stopped a particular sin, we may not have realized how much His transforming power has already been at work in us; we may think (or half-think) that it has been our determination and self-discipline that has led to this “half-way” victory. But it was the transforming power of His Spirit that has brought us to this point, and His Spirit will continue to work toward full transformation.

To continue in this journey with Him, we will need to take steps of faith: working to fully believe that He can fully transform us, serving in some new area, resolving an unresolved relationship, or some other act of obedience. If we’re serious about “letting” Him do His heart’s desire in us, we’ll give up our own plan for transformation and trust that simple obedience will move us along His path.