Before
we get into what this commandment that says “You shall not steal” really means, I want to caution you against
something. I want to caution you against
hearing these words and thinking that since you have never committed the crimes
of theft or robbery that you have nothing to worry about here. You see, we, both Christians and most anyone
else, are very prone to think that this commandment, which literally says “no
taking anything by stealth” refers only to the taking of someone else’s
property illegally. Well, much as we
have seen with all of the other commandments thus far, especially those dealing
with how we relate to one another, there is something much greater that is actually
commanded of us here. Now, I want to
preface all that I’m going to say here by stating that I have been blessed
throughout my life. I have never wanted
for anything that I absolutely had to have.
I have never wanted for food to the point where I had to eat or I would
die and I had no means of obtaining food.
I have never wanted for money to the point where I had no means by which
to secure the basic necessities of life.
I have never had the mindset of the person who steals just to provide
for themselves or their family. I
acknowledge those things. I acknowledge that
I have never been in that type of situation.
However, even though I do have the deepest sympathy for those
situations, I do not condone them. You
see, if we are going to live according to God’s word, then we must take His
word at what it says. Notice that this
commandment just says no stealing (or no taking anything by stealth). It doesn’t give a from whom, when, or what
you may not steal. It doesn’t provide
loopholes for things that are permissible to steal. It doesn’t state any circumstance where it is
alright to take something from someone else.
It states, very matter-of-factly, that stealing is wrong; stealing is a
sin.
We
may want to ask ourselves why stealing is such a big deal. After all, especially during Jesus’ time,
with all of the corrupt civil authorities and the exorbitant taxes, the only
way some folks could survive was stealing.
Well, I would like to point out a few things to show the severity of
stealing. One, from an Old Testament
perspective, stealing wasn’t just a crime between one individual and another,
but a crime against a whole community.
If one person to stole something, it hurt the entire community. It’s basic economics, providers of goods and
services have to recoup their losses from stolen items, so they pass the burden
on to the person who acquires goods honestly.
The second, and more important reason why stealing is so severe is that
it shows a distrust in God, specifically in His providence. It shows that the person who steals does not
trust that God will provide for their every need. Thus, they are saying that God does not
fulfill the promise that He has made to care for our every need.
Now,
there are many specific examples of stealing that are listed throughout the
rest of the Pentateuch. Unfortunately, we
don’t have time to look at each of them fully this morning. So, I’ll just briefly say that kidnapping,
stealing of animals, failure to return borrowed items, extortion, paying for
goods later than agreed upon, unfairly withholding payments, and even overly
taxing someone are all considered to be violations of this commandment
according to Scripture. So, it’s not
just burglary, but it’s a whole host of other things, including not dealing
honestly and in a timely manner with someone when it comes to a financial
transaction. We are to respect our neighbor’s
life, liberty, and property, because they are, like us, made in the image of
God. Do you see how many of these
earthly relationships that we’ve talked about before (honoring parents, no
murder, and no adultery) are all connected to one another? We’re called to have such a high standard of
caring for, respecting, and loving one another, because we are image bearers of
God Himself.
Now
it’s not as if the Old Testament, specifically the first five books of it, is
the only place where we find anything that condemns stealing. As I said earlier, the issue of stealing was
very much a reality during the time of Jesus as well. There are some folks out there who when thinking
of Jesus, all they think of is his giving to the needy and his compassion. Now, I certainly think of giving and
compassion when I think of Jesus, but when those two things are so overly
magnified and then taken into consideration along with what some perceive
(wrongly I might add) as Jesus’ distain for civil authorities, they end up with
a theology or a worldview that somehow works out to see that taking something
required to survive from someone who has more than enough is alright. There are people out there who view theft in
order to provide for family and children as acceptable; God-fearing,
Bible-believing people who say that situational stealing is okay. However, I want us to hear what Jesus has to
say about it in Matthew 19. This is
after he is asked by the rich young ruler what he must do to inherit eternal
life. Jesus says, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not
steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 19:18-19 ESV). That doesn’t sound to me like Jesus has a lax
view of stealing. That sounds like Jesus
has a very high view of the Law, which he does.
The words of Jesus here sound to me like there are no exceptions to
violating any commandments, which there aren’t.
For an even more definitive proof of this view of the Law, and
specifically this eighth commandment, we could look at Paul’s words in Romans
13 or John the Baptist’s words in Luke 3.
Both of these statements are made with the mindset that if someone says
they are converted and have repented, yet continue to steal, then it is
questionable whether they are truly converted.
You see, when we become Christians, then the focus should be aimed less
at us, and more at fulfilling the Great Commandment and loving our neighbors as
ourselves. If our hearts are truly
changed, then the result should be that we long for a keeping of God’s Law
instead of looking for every loophole we can find for violating it.
Now,
all of this biblical evidence against stealing is well and good, but you may
still be sitting there asking yourself how this applies to you. You haven’t kidnapped anyone. You haven’t extorted anyone. You’ve been on time with all your payments
your entire life. You’ve never even
charged someone more for something than you should have. Maybe you’re even one of those people that if
you’re undercharged for something then you alert someone so that you can
rectify the mistake. Well, how does this
commandment apply to you? Let me first
offer up some simple examples of modern-day or contemporary stealing. You see, stealing today can range anywhere
from cheating in school to the robbery that we first think of when we hear the
word steal. So, let’s work our way
through some of these examples shall we.
Cheating in school is stealing the labor of someone else or another
student. This could come in the form of
copying or plagiarizing (taking credit for something that you didn’t do). I know this is a simple one, but don’t get
comfortable yet, you’re about to feel a little less at ease the further we get.
After all, cheating (taking credit for
the work of others) probably happens just as much in the business world as it
does in the education system.
Defrauding
others in business is a very common example of stealing. This can take the form of not paying bills on
time that we’ve talked about already, but it is much more than that. Did you know that the IRS estimates that 17%
of federal taxes went unpaid due to either not filing or underreporting? That comes out to be somewhere in the neighborhood
of $20 billion per year; a cost that is then passed along to those who actually
do pay their taxes. It’s also estimated
that some $40 billion is stolen from employers every year, and not by outside
persons, but by employees. This comes
from when you add up company equipment, utilities, time, and personnel used for
personal tasks. Also, it’s estimated
that some $350 billion is lost per year due to sick days taken dishonestly. Now, you may want to know what this has to do
with stealing. Well, according to these
numbers, American businesses are forced to charge somewhere in the neighborhood
of 15% more for goods and services because of this stealing done by
employees. Like I said, stealing is a
crime against the whole community.
Now, there are
several more areas or examples of stealing depending how strictly you interpret
this commandment, some of which are quite controversial, that I could get into
as to modern examples of stealing, but I want to talk about the most chilling
of them all: Christian giving. By this, I mean man robbing God (or
attempting to at least). We’ve looked at
Malachi 3 before, and we’ve seen that when a man withholds his full tithe from
God that he is seen as having robbed God.
We’re supposed to give to God out of our firstfruits and our best or
else we are stealing from Him. Not only
are we guilty of violating this commandment, but the offended party is God, the
very one who wrote this commandment.
Have you ever
dealt unfairly with someone either in business, finances, or in any type of
transaction? Have you ever sold a house
or a car and made sure to do something to hide that imperfection in the wall or
the dashboard? Now, I know that these
are the seemingly negligible examples of violating this commandment. We would never in a million years put
covering up a leaky pipe on the same level as kidnapping. We would never consider embezzlement the same
as covering up a hole in the carpet with a couch. However, we have to remember that when it
comes to God, sin is sin. There is no
such thing as degrees or levels of sin.
God doesn’t look at one sin and compare its severity to another. In the eyes of the Lord all violations of His
Law, no matter how minute and seemingly minuscule, are sin in His eyes.
When we really
get down to it, what this commandment ultimately is is a command that requires
our respecting of our neighbor’s person and property. It is a commandment, a directive from God as
to how we are to act, which is rooted in the principle of the providence of
God. If we really believe that God is
who He says He is, then the desire to steal should never even be
considered. We should trust that the
Lord is going to provide for us, even in those moments where we don’t see any
way out of it. We all have those stories
about how we were down and feeling like we were soon to be out, when God
provided. If our conviction and our
belief in God’s Word is such that we fully believe in the fulfillment of all of
God’s promises, then the desire to deal unjustly with others ought to make us
sick even thinking about it.
I want to close
by reading to you what I think is a brilliant way to sum up this
commandment. It comes from Dr. Ligon
Duncan and it says: “The problem of stealing, the problem of a
violation of the eighth commandment, is a matter of the heart and so the
solution is found in the heart with Jesus Christ. If you, in thinking through some of the
applications of this sin today, realize that you are a thief, that there is a
pattern of stealing in your life, it may be respectable stealing, it may be
secret stealing, it may never have been uncovered by anybody else, but there's
a pattern in your life, then there's only one solution. That solution is the grace of God in Jesus
Christ. You know, it's interesting,
isn't it, that there were two thieves once, one on each side of the savior, and
one of them, one of them saw his sin and when he saw his sin, he ran to the
Savior and he said to Him, ‘Don't forget me when You come into Your kingdom’
and to that changed thief Jesus said, ‘Today you will be with Me in paradise’.” Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment