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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Seest thou what are the members of the old man? Falsehood, revenge, theft. Why said he not, "Let him that stole" be punished, be tortured, be racked; but, "let him 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." Where are they which are called pure; they that are full of all defilement, and yet dare to give themselves a name like this? …
Theophylact of Ohrid
You see what the members of the old man are: lying, bearing grudges, stealing? And he did not say: let the one who steals be punished — but: let him cease, he says, from this evil. For the former is the business of secular courts, while the latter is the teaching of Christ. Where then are the so-called Cathari, who are in reality filled with all manner of impurity, and who reject repentance? Let them hear that to strip off the shameful name means not merely to cease from sin, but also to do something good. …
Theodoret of Cyrus
Idleness is a major source of sin. So it is reasonable for Paul to set honest work over against it. The text contrasts theft, which is an evil work, with honest labor, which is a good work.
Western Saints
Jerome
Those who live in the midst of this life's intense business appear to be forced, for the sake of food and necessary provisions, to buy and sell certain things and to seek unfair profit from business. It is difficult even for those who have been set free from the other passions—namely fornication, idolatry, adultery and murder—to escape being caught by this subtle vice.
Thomas Aquinas
Having banned the age-old corruption in man's rational and irascible powers (4:25), here he proscribes it in regard to the concupiscible emotions when they desire temporal goods inordinately. Stealing pertains to the concupiscible appetite's old ways; it arises from a corrupted and inordinate desire for a temporal object. …
Bonaventure
But we cannot possess these three in relation to others unless we have them first in relation to ourselves. Wherefore there are three more commandments: one that straightens all deeds, another that straightens all speech, and yet another that straightens all affective dispositions. That which straightens deeds is as follows: You shall not steal, which not only prohibits stealing from others, but commands to give from one's own goods. …
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