The 8th Commandment: “You Shall Not Steal”

<Ex 20:15> “You shall not steal.”

Dictionary

“Stealing”: The action of taking another person’s property without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q 110. What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?

God forbids not only outright theft and robbery, punishable by law.
But in God’s sight theft also includes all scheming and swindling in order to get our neighbor’s goods for ourselves,
whether by force or means that appear legitimate, such as
inaccurate measurements of weight, size, or volume;
fraudulent merchandising; counterfeit money;
excessive interest; or any other means forbidden by God.
In addition God forbids all greed and pointless squandering of his gifts.

3 broad categories of theft:

• Outright theft (punishable by law).
• Non-obvious stealing.
• All greed and squandering.

Examples of non-obvious stealing:

• Stealing office time, supplies, taking dishonest MCs.
• Didn’t give employees fair wages and treatment.
• Illegal use of copyrighted stuff.
• Didn’t pay or always delayed in paying owed money.
• “Fraudulent merchandising”: Selling flawed or non-beneficial goods/services.
• Stealing people’s ideas or credit.
• Stealing people’s time when we have habit of being late.
• Didn’t try to return a lost item to its owner.
• Tax evasion.
• Etc, etc.

“All greed and squandering”

E.g.: Gambling.

Stealing even from God

<Mal 3> 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

• Everything we have comes from God.
• When God gives us something, He has His purposes, and when we do not use them according to His purpose, we are stealing from God.
• We are to be good stewards of what God has given us.

The evils behind stealing.

• Not loving our neighbours, but fundamentally selfish.
• Lack of trust in God.
• Rejection of God’s sovereignty in resource distribution.
• The thief scorns the all-knowing and all-seeing God.
• Laziness, wanting to reap without sowing.
• <Ep 4:28> Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
• The thief rather prospers or meets his needs through sin than holiness.
• God will punish the sin of stealing.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q 111. What does God require of you in this commandment?

That I do whatever I can for my neighbor’s good,
that I treat others as I would like them to treat me,
and that I work faithfully
so that I may share with those in need.

• <Ep 4:28> “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
• Diligence, honesty, faithfulness, generosity.

But how can we turn from the sin of stealing?

• Salvation through Christ.
• <1 Co 6> 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlerswill inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
• Be cleansed by Christ’s blood for past sins of theft, then “go and sin no more”.
• Change in our perspective from cherishing the earthly to treasuring the heavenly.
• <Mt 6> 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• God, not possessions, is what can meet our needs. God is more trustworthy than possessions.
• Fear God, then will naturally shun evils.

Reflection:

1. After hearing today’s message, are you made more aware of how you could be guilty of “stealing” too? How then can you practically repent of those sins?
2. Do you find yourself struggling with the attitudes behind stealing (e.g.: selfishness, greed, laziness, lack of trust in God/love for others)? How can you overcome them?
3. How can you change from a tendency of “taking” from others to “giving” others?