Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. . . . 15 You shall not steal.[1]The eighth commandment forbids stealing. In a moment we will examine ways we steal. But before we do, we should pause and think about what the commandment assumes - the private ownership of property. The thief takes what belongs to another. As one person puts it, I mustn’t steal your car because it is your car, not my car. Forbidding theft makes sense only if private ownership of property is a given.[2]
Wayne Grudem has an excellent little book called Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business. He writes that:
ownership of possessions is a fundamental way that we imitate God’s sovereignty over the universe by our exercising ‘sovereignty’ over a tiny portion of the universe, the things we own. When we take care of our possessions we imitate God in his taking care of the whole universe, and he delights to see us imitate him in this way. In addition, when we care for our possessions, it gives us opportunity to imitate many other attributes of God, such as wisdom, knowledge, beauty, creativity, love for others, kindness, fairness, independence, freedom, exercise of will, blessedness (or joy), and so forth.[3]Parents teach their children to care for their possessions. Waste isn’t just bad because it’s harmful; it reflects poorly on the image of our heavenly Father, who governs his creation wisely. We want our children to reflect our Father’s wisdom by wisely ordering their time, wisely employing their gifts, and wisely managing their possessions.
But even as we talk about private ownership of property, we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). You and I talk to each other about your property and my property, but we must never speak that way to the Lord. Everything belongs to him. We’re God’s stewards, using what belongs to him the way he commands. We enjoy his world as we provide for our families, care for the poor, advance the work of his church, and pay the taxes the government requires to perform its God-given functions. Our possessions always belong to God. We must say, “I manage my possessions as God’s property.”[4]
In America, any conversation about the private ownership of property and accumulation of wealth raises questions about our capitalist economic system and the morality of American business. So, a few words about Christians and business.
At two of the graduate schools I attended some students railed against the evils of American business and corporate America, which were declared to be morally bankrupt, cruel, and exploitive. I confess that I was confused. My confusion was not because I don’t believe businesses can do terribly evil things; they most certainly can and do. Indeed, all institutions, including the government, family and church, are capable of inflicting injury and death. Sinners treat fellow sinners horribly. This isn’t a news flash.
No, what concerned me about my fellow students’ opinion was not that businesses at times act recklessly and wickedly, but their assumption that businesses are inherently wicked. It struck me that the schools they attended depended heavily upon the wealth generated by businesses and corporations and would not exist without them. Moreover, the students themselves received financial aid and scholarships made possible by corporate generosity and profitable business investments. It seemed to me a case of biting the generous hand that feeds you, a failure to appreciate the moral complexities of life in a fallen world.
Later I worked for a very successful businessman who belonged to a mainline church. With broad brushstrokes his pastor denounced greedy American businesses. Then the same pastor would show up at his office soliciting funds for the next church project. My friend wondered whether his pastor was hypocritical or mentally incapable of connecting the dots.
Sadly, a gnawing suspicion about the morality of business persists, especially on college campuses and universities. Even if business is not roundly condemned as immoral, many believe that is a less than desirable place for young men and women to invest their lives. For example, the wife of a prominent American politician said about her and her husband: “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do. Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that.”
Her words are disturbing. Don’t misunderstand me: I am all for young Christians becoming teachers, social workers, and nurses. But these can be treated as selfless professions, and then pitted against the greed-motivated men and women of business. That’s wrong. Any profession has its share of incompetents and manifestly wicked people. However, business performs a necessary function as it creates and builds wealth. Businessmen are at their best when they seek to glorify God in the building of wealth. Christians can honor God in business in many ways – by providing financially for their families and for those they employ; by contributing to the well-being of communities; by the financial support of Christ’s church in the world; and by managing their businesses in a way that reveals God’s attributes of kindness, prudence, care for people, and humane workplaces and communities.
Money can be terribly abused. We can love it, and make it our god. The things money buys can become all consuming, stealing our hearts from God and stopping our ears to the needs of the world. But money is also a powerful tool in kingdom service. I believe it was Margaret Thatcher who said: “No one would have remembered the good Samaritan if he hadn’t had money.”
The eighth commandment assumes ownership of private property. We should encourage young men and women to be responsible stewards of what God has given them. And, should God prepare them to undertake work that allows them to create and build wealth in business, they should have our blessings.
Now to what is forbidden by the eighth commandment.
The eighth commandment forbids robbery.
Biblical law demands more than the thief’s punishment. The one who steals must restore what is taken, and also pay additional compensation to the victim. “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 22:1). Tax collector Zacchaeus comes to faith in Jesus, and is a changed man. He declares: “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). Restoring what was taken, and more – that is the biblical pattern of restitution.
I’ve known parents who’ve found stolen property in their child’s possession and their actions impressed me. It may have been a five-year-old who snatched a candy bar in the checkout line and was only found out later in the car, or more serious infractions. Embarrassment did not paralyze these parents. Little Johnny was taken back to meet the storeowner or manager. A confession was made, the property returned, and an extra penalty added. The child was encouraged to acknowledge his sin to the Lord who died for sinners, including thieves, that they might be forgiven and experience eternal life. So, the child was corrected in an atmosphere of personal responsibility and grace.
I remember one young man who went joy riding and did figure eights on a local ball field. Fortunately, the police nailed him. (By the way, we want our children caught. Don’t you see the Lord’s mercy when our children are caught red-handed, and we can deal both with their behaviors and the defiant motivations of their hearts? When a child gets away with sin after sin, he can begin to think he’s not accountable for his actions. If he doesn’t experience ruin in this life, he will in the life to come as he faces God’s judgment, a fate we want our children spared.) But back to our young vandal, who was caught. His church’s elders expected him not only to pay for the damages he caused, but also to do some of the repair work. Oftentimes young people need these hard lessons to learn responsibility for their behaviors. Our children need parents and elders who care enough to confront them, and demand personal responsibility for theft and property damage.
Don’t be your child’s defense attorney. In one town where I lived, a young lady who was hanging out late one night with a group of her friends. They decided to vandalize the door of a local recreation center. Let’s just say they weren’t America’s “best and brightest.” They made a videotape of themselves destroying the door. The police apprehended them, and, videotape in hand, took them to their parents and told them what their children had done. The young lady’s mother protested: “My daughter would never do anything like that!” The policeman then asked, “Do you have a VCR?” Case closed. Don’t be your child’s defense attorney.
Don’t defend your kids when what they need is accountability – a gospel-rich accountability – one that not only seeks confession and correction, but also sends them to the Lord for his mercy, his forgiveness and his empowerment to walk obediently to his commandments.
I move on to other violations of this commandment: the commandment forbids plagiarism. We must not take the thoughts and ideas of others and pass them off as our own. The cut-and-paste features on computers make this so easy. We must respect the intellectual property of others.
Failure to return borrowed money is theft. Unless the loan agreement is renegotiated, we must repay money under the terms it was borrowed.
You’ve run up huge credit card debts, and now complain: “The credit card companies are predatory lenders.” Maybe so. But no one held a gun to your head while you purchased items you couldn’t afford. We can talk about corporate greed and economically irresponsible government policies all we want, but the biggest culprit in the current mortgage scandal is people buying homes they could not afford with borrowed money they could not repay. The crisis we face is first of all moral. Without thinking, we are in danger of becoming a nation of thieves. Individual Christians can do nothing to resolve a national scandal, but what we can do is witness to God and his righteousness by being responsible stewards of the wealth he entrusts to us.
Sometimes we fall on hard times because of unexpected sickness or job loss. Even careful savers and planners can be put on the financial ropes by overwhelming challenges. We need our family, friends and churches in such times. They help get us back on our feet.
But most of us who get into financial trouble and run the risk of defaulting on our debts because we have failed to be responsible stewards. We’ve coveted, we’ve bought what we don’t need, and we’ve paid for it with money we don’t have. Is that where you are? In our own church, there are mature people who can help you set a budget, live within your means, hold you accountable, and advise on how to get out and stay out of debt.
Some forms of theft are subtler, and we must be alert, lest we thoughtlessly violate the eight commandment. We steal from our employers when we use their time to conduct our personal business; when we surf the Internet instead of work; and when we extend our breaks. There’s much written today about workplace evangelism. Nothing commends the faith better than Christians who are serious stewards of the time their employers entrust to them.
Withholding your tithe is theft. It is stealing from God. In the book of Malachi, God confronts his people. He asks: “Will man rob God?” Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.” (Malachi 3:8) When we withhold our tithes we keep for ourselves what belongs to God. We deprive his church of the resources it needs to accomplish its mission.
Tithing may seem beyond your reach. You say, “I don’t know how I can tithe, it seems almost foolish. I already spend every dollar I get, and it’s not enough.” Tithing isn’t foolish. In fact, it establishes a habit that, over time, changes lives. In faith, begin tithing. Discipline yourself, root out excess spending, trim what’s inconsequential, stick to a plan of paying off your debts. You will join the many others who find that as you tithe the remaining 90% goes much further than the 100% did before.
Why? I believe the Lord’s promise that accompanies his challenge: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” (Malachi 3:10)
Moreover, I know that when we discipline ourselves in one area of life, we begin to discipline ourselves in other areas of life, too. Habits form. We learn to make kingdom priorities our priorities, and there is nothing more satisfying than striving for those things that please the Lord. Moreover, we experience the joy of giving, and giving in a bigger way than we ever thought possible.
Tithing is not a burden; it is one of the Christian’s joyful duties.
Finally, be careful not to steal hearts. Joachim Douma makes this point in his brilliant exposition of the Ten Commandments.[5] Far and away his book is the most helpful I’ve ever read on this portion of God’s word.
He gives examples of those who steal hearts: Adolph Hitler used his extraordinary oratorical gifts to steal the hearts of many Germans and led his country to destruction. Advertisers steal hearts when they convince people that they are missing out on life if they don’t purchase a product. I would add that a man who makes promises and raises expectations of marriage and commitment in order to obtain physical intimacy with a woman wrecks a life. He obtains what he wants, abandons his human prey, and moves on to his next victim.
Don’t steal hearts. But don’t let your hearts be stolen. We have a responsibility to guard our hearts against those who would take them away.
The eighth commandment forbids theft. But it obligates us to so much more. As we cultivate a life of obedience, we will use all that we have to the glory of God, day-by-day living as responsible stewards whose true and eternal treasure resides in King Jesus and his priceless kingdom.
Moreover, a life of obedience to the eighth commandment is a life content with God’s benevolence and providence. He gives us enough.
We abhor stealing because very theft insults the benevolence of God. To steal is to declare God’s provision unsatisfactory. The thief’s creed has many articles of unbelief, two of which are that God isn’t good and can’t be trusted.
Finally, we enter into the time of the year when the incarnation of the Son of God is especially on our mind. How unlike Adam our Savior is. Idolatrously pursuing equality with God, Adam took what was not his – he plunged the human race into darkness, depravity and ruin.
The eternal Son of God, equal with his Father in power and glory, surrenders his privileged position at the Father’s right hand, and for us and for our salvation assumes the position of a servant, becoming obedient to death on a cross. His perfect life is our righteousness; his death, our redemption; his life, our example. In view of who we are in Christ, our duty is clear: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5).
The thief takes what’s not his, and gratifies himself – leaving others hurting and wanting and fearing. The servant of Christ takes what’s been giving him and looks to the interests of others, so that among God’s people hardships are relieved, the hurting comforted, and the fearful protected.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
__________
[1] All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Wayne Grudem, Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business (Crossway: 2003), 19.
[3] Grudem, 19-20.
[4] J. Douma, The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life. Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman (P&R: 1996), p. 298.
[5] Douma, 289-290.
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