8th Commandment

I'll Take That!

Eighth Commandment

Exodus 15

Now we come to the 8^th Commandment: “You shall not steal.”  And as I mentioned before as we work down through this list from 6 to 10, because there is more heinousness in the former commandments than in the latter, the tendency is to regard them as progressively less and less a concern. “Yes, we should not murder.  That’s serious.  But adultery is much less serious and stealing, lying and envying are even less so than that.”  “These things are common,” we think.  “Everybody does these things every day.”  And so we think that because they are so common – perhaps even in our own thought and practice – therefore, they are not really that serious to God.

But that way of thinking of these things is wrong.  These commandments are all violations against God first and only then against the one he has created in his image, second.

For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Eph. 5:5)

And so this is the way we should regard these things: while

            murder is the taking the image of God unjustly, and

           adultery is the giving away the image of God cheaply,

           stealing is the possessing what belongs to the image of God unrighteously.

 Whose Life Is It Anyhow?

Now the place to start with this commandment is to remember this:

“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.” (Ps. 89:11)

Everything belongs to God.  You are given the privilege and the right to temporarily possess certain things, positions, opportunities, skills, etc. but you are also charged to remember that possession of all these things is temporal and fleeting.  And God has also made it clear that he charges you with responsibility over these things and that for the time of your possession you will render account.

With all that in mind, how then do we define ownership or private property?  The fact of private property comes across very clearly right here in the words of this commandment: “You shall not steal” which, if we invert it into a positive commandment would say: “You shall regard and respect the right and responsibility of ownership.”

The very idea of “stealing” implies ownership, private property.  And that is confirmed for us in the teaching of Gen. 1 and 2: when God first created the man it was with the intention of granting unto him dominion and ownership.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, … let them have dominion … over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 
(Gen. 1:26)

And his command (and, therefore, his requirement) was that the man subdue the earth given to him.

Then God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion. . .” (Gen. 1:28)

            When God placed the man in the garden it was for the purpose of acting on this command.

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (Gen. 2:15)

The man was to tend the garden and keep it, to name and categorize the animals.

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.  And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (Gen. 2:19)

We see this same principle applied in God’s covenant with Israel.  In that unique and special relationship, God gave to Israel a land and, as we know today, that land was a real gift from God for the Israelites to possess.  But in reality, that was only a shadow of the true gift that waits for the church in glory – a mansion being prepared by Jesus and a city with heavenly foundations designed and built by God himself for his people to possess with great delight.

 
Proper Procedures for the Procurement of Private Property

So, man is to have a right to and responsibility for private property.  And stealing, then, is a violation of the reality of private property.  Stealing violates God’s gift of ownership.  In the civil legislation of the Old Testament, there were laws of reciprocity that were in effect against stealing – if someone stole something from you not only did he have to return your property to you but he also had to turn over what was rightfully his to you as well so that he might know what it was to be without that property himself (see Ex. 22:1-15).

How may we rightfully gain private property?

1)  Inheritance – the giving of owned property from one generation to the next.  “For the children ought not to lay up for parents, but the parents for the children.” (2 Cor. 12:14)

 2)  Wages - the fruit from our labor – and because these are biblically appropriate ways to gain property, to have property, to accumulate property and wealth it is not wrong to own a wealth or property gained in such ways  The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it. (Prov. 10:22).

 
Wrong Ways of Wrenching Wealth

But stealing is obtaining property in virtually any other way as it takes that property away from someone else who has already received it by these proper means.  What are some of the ways this happens?

1)  The taking, taxing or robbing of property given by parents to children.

2)  The demanding of fruit (or wages) from labor that is really not done, such as in the breaking of a contract or agreement, lying on a timecard, taking from an employer time, opportunity, or money, abusing an employer’s equipment simply because “it isn’t mine”.

3)  The taking of property that belongs to someone else – either by taking it out of his hands or by not giving that person his due compensation for it.

4)  The taking of property already in your possession and misusing it (such as in not regarding your accountability before the Lord):

      a) not tithing from your income – not recognizing the Lord’s gift or charge

      b) not budgeting your money, time and priorities – that is, not taking control of what has been placed in your hands

       c) failure to make the most of the opportunities given to you, the unwise or short-sided spending and purchasing, or gambling of any kind.  (Gambling can be simply defined by the nature of the risk: when the odds are obviously and excessively against you, when you have not studied a possible investment properly, or when your sole purpose is to get “something for nothing”.)

There is a whole host of applications for this commandment that go unsaid, unspoken, and unmentioned.  The simple fact is that people in the world

 5)  don’t care about stealing – they do it because they can and they don’t care that they don’t care.

 But the sad truth is that this is also true among Christians – we also do violate this commandment casually, and merely for the same reason unbelievers do: because we can and because we don’t care.  And as long as we don’t have to talk about it, our consciences remain quiet.

But we must remember that the reason we obey this commandment not to violate private property eagerly is because we ourselves were bought with a price – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor. 6:20).  We are not our own, we belong to Jesus.  And when we break this commandment we take what belongs to him and abuse it – our consciences are seared and hardened.  That makes us unChrist-like.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (Jn. 10:28)