You Shall Not Steal (Par 2)

Introduction

Exodus 20:15 ESV

“You shall not steal.

Mark 10:17–22 ESV

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

English Standard Version Chapter 12

The Parable of the Rich Fool

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

This week we’re picking up where we left off looking at the 8th commandment, “you shall not steal.” In our last time we considered, specifically, the nature of the 8th commandment. In doing so we began by answering the question, “Why is theft sin?” or “Why is stealing wrong?” And to answer that question we considered, first, that God owns everything. That “to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it,” (Deut. 10:14) for the Lord declares that “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills,” that “I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” (Psalm 50:10-11)

Second, we considered how God has made man a steward of his creation, a manager of his assets. That we’re to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” that God has (Genesis 1:28) “given [man] dominion over the works of [his] hands; [that he has] put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”

And, thirdly, that God has alloted each of us a portion of those assets, just as Jesus illustrated this in his Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 where Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to “a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.” The parable is meant to teach his disciples that they’ve been given a responsibility to steward and use the resources given to them to serve their master, to put their alloted resources to work, and to provide their master with a return on his investment. However, the parable also teaches us that God has alloted each of us a different portion, “to one he gave five talents, to another two,” and “to another one, to each according to his ability.” That God gives to each of us a different portion, as he sees fit.

Theft a sin against God

Therefore, stealing isn’t wrong merely because it hurts other people, but first, and foremost because it’s a sin against God. That stealing violates God’s authority and prerogative to give you whatever portion he sees fit, which differs from your neighbor. That stealing, not only harms your neighbor, but insists that you know better than God, that you believe you would be a better manager of his assets than him. That he’s given your neighbor too much, and not given you enough. And it’s important for us to recognize this, because, otherwise, we’ll find all kinds reasons or justifications to steal from our neighbor. It’s not enough to say that stealing is wrong simply because it hurts people, rather stealing is wrong first and foremost because it’s a sin against God.

So, because God owns everything, and possesses the authority and prerogative to allocate his assets as he sees fit, it is therefore forbidden for us to deprive our neighbor of his property. We do not possess the right to “redistribute” the assets that God has already distributed, not under any circumstance. Neither the government nor the individual possess such authority.

Scope and application

So, in light of the nature of this commandment, I want to consider, today, the scope and application of the 8th commandment. And as we’ve seen before, the scope of the 10 commandments are consistently much broader and deeper than most of us realize. Which is why most of us are inclined to think that, of all the commandments, we’ve likely kept the 8th commandment pretty well. In fact, you might be inclined to think that you’ve never stole anything at all, but the truth is the 8th commandment includes much more than petty theft.

So, let me start by highlighting some of the implications of this commandment with just a few examples. These aren’t necessarily in any particular order or exhaustive, but should help you to see just how far reaching this commandment is, and how it’s intended to govern our lives. For example, because the 8th commandment forbids theft, it therefore forbids man stealing (such as enslavers or other forms of human trafficking, like sex trafficking), cheating (like during a board game, on test, or when competing), swindling (when you use deception to take someone’s money, like knowingly selling someone a lemon without them knowing), scams, fraud (such as insurance fraud, or stealing someone’s identity), counterfeit money, excessive interest (e.g. predatory loans that seek to take advantage of someone), taking advantage of the poor, borrowing without asking, borrowing without returning, neglecting to pay back your debts (like defaulting on a loan, or filing for bankruptcy), late paying back your debts (e.g. not paying back bills on time), piracy (such as software, movies, music, etc.), using someone else’s media subscription, taking advantage of errors (such as keeping duplicate shipments of products, etc.), failing to disclose damage when selling an item, overusing free samples (e.g. Costco), sneaking into a movie theatre or gym, cutting in line, taking credit for someone else’s work, plagiarism (taking credit for someone else’s ideas), unequal weights and measures (i.e. pressing your thumb down on the scales), neglecting to pay your employees on time or at all, underpaying your employees, extortion (such as a ransomware that holds your data hostage in exchange for money, false lawsuits, bribery, emotional manipulation), gambling (for example, casino’s are purposely built for material gain without paying a price and preying on the poor, and promoting the desire to get wealth without work), stealing time (such as wasting or stealing your employer’s time, or not showing up on time to your appointments, stealing the time of others), slacking off, tax evasion (stealing money by lying on your taxes), using company resources for personal gain without permission, claiming lost property without reporting it, and so on.

And we usually have a multitude of excuses for breaking the 8th commandment. We say things like, “They already have enough.” “They can afford it.” “They’ll never miss it.” “Everyone does it.” “They owe me.” “It’s just a big company.” “I deserve this.” “I need it more than they do.” “I was desperate.” “It’s not illegal.” “They deserve it.” “They’ll replace it.” “They’re overcharging anyway.” How many of you have thought or said something like that before? If you have, it’s a sure sign you’ve broken the 8th commandment. And if stealing was wrong merely because it hurts people, then many of these excuses might be valid reasons to steal. Whereas, because stealing is first and fundamentally a sin against God none of them hold any water.

Laziness

Another sin we ordinarily don’t think about in the context of the stealing is laziness. Laziness is a violation of the 8th commandment because it says, “Someone else will do it.” Laziness is a manifestation of selfishness, and it usually results in stealing from others. Laziness often takes advantage of charity (e.g. government programs, free room and board from a friend or a family member, etc.). And more fundamentally, laziness steals from itself, stealing from what God has entrusted to it and spending it exclusively on itself. This is often referred to as squandering your wealth, or stealing from yourself, a parallel to suicide, or self-murder as is forbidden by the 6th commandment.

If you recall, in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, the servant who was given one talent buried it in the ground, and when the master returned he said to the servant, “You wicked and slothful servant!” The servant was rebuked for being lazy. One of my daughters made this connection two weeks ago. She had been looking for a job recently and had been somewhat reluctant for various reasons, but realized that, as she put it, “God has given me the ability and strength to work and get a job, [therefore] if I choose to be lazy and not do it, that I am not fulfilling the 8th commandment.” And she’s right.

Subsidizing laziness

Furthermore, this also means that subsidizing laziness is an 8th commandment violation. When we subsidize or support laziness we become complicit with it, in essence, we subsidize theft. Which includes subsidizing the laziness of your children, your friends, or in the society at large. The Apostle Paul famously wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

We often feel this conflict when we see someone on the street asking for money. On one hand, we want to help the poor, and we don’t want people to go hungry, so we’re inclined to help, as we should be. However, on the other hand, we also eventually come to realize that many of these people are actually seeking to exploit us, and intend to squander anything that we give them on alcohol or other drugs. Therefore, we have to be very discerning when helping the poor (or anyone for that matter) in order to avoid subsidizing laziness.

This is also why government social programs are particularly dangerous, because many of them can be easily exploited to subsidize a person’s laziness. This is also important for parents to understand, because we’re inclined to help our adult children when they’re in need, even if their need is the result of their own laziness. We have to recognize that we’re not doing our adult children any favors by subsidizing their laziness, and that we make ourselves complicit in it when we do.

We might be tempted to think that loving our adult children demands that we support them even when it means subsidizing their laziness, but nothing would be further from the truth. As I pointed out at the beginning of our series on the 10 commandments, biblical love is never at the expense of truth or the law of God, instead the law of God defines love for us, it defines how we love God and how we love our neighbors. Which means loving your neighbor will often result in making hard and unpopular decisions (or what some call tough love), and it won’t necessarily look like love to the world, because the world loves sin, and the law stands in opposition to sin.

You see, the world will attempt to exploit your obligation to love your neighbor, therefore if you don’t understand how love is defined by Scripture then you’ll fall prey to the world’s efforts to take advantage of you. If you don’t recognize that laziness is fundamentally theft, then the world will inevitably convince you that you’re obligated to subsidize their laziness in order to show love to your neighbor (they’ll pull on your heart-strings). We must realize that theft is frequently committed in the name of loving our neighbor. Therefore, it’s critical, as we survey these 10 commandments, that we recognize how they define love for us, and that they’re a guide on how to love your neighbor, whether that’s a family member, someone at church, at work, or your neighbors elsewhere.

Greed at the heart of theft

Now, not only is the scope of the 8th commandment much broader than we usually realize, but like the other commandments, it also reaches the heart, to the very motivations behind stealing. The 8th commandment not only forbids the act of stealing but also it’s motivations. The 8th commandment is intended to reach and govern the affections of your heart.

And while our motivations can sometimes be complex and difficult to discern, at the heart of violating the 8th commandment is greed. You see, as Rev. Adriel Sanchez puts it, greed views the quest for temporal goods as ultimate. Greed believes that temporal goods or riches will make us happy, and as a result temporal goods and riches become an idol. Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler, but we often don’t understand Jesus’ point when he tells the man to sell all that he has and give it to the poor. Listen to the their interaction recorded in Mark 10:17-22,

Mark 10:17–22 ESV

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Many Christians have wrestled with whether or not Jesus' command to the rich young ruler, to sell all of his possessions, was a universal requirement for all of his disciples. In fact, I had a conversation with a brother, not long ago, who asked if he should sell all of his possessions as result of this text, but I assured him this wasn’t what Jesus was instructing his disciples to do.

Instead, Jesus’ point, was that, while this man thought he had kept all of the commandments, the truth was, he hadn’t, and so Jesus cleverly revealed this by telling him to sell all of his possessions to the poor and to follow him, but then Mark tells us that the man went away sorrowful. Why? Because “he had great possessions.” In other words, this man’s quest for temporal goods was so great that it made him unwilling to sell them and follow Jesus. His possessions had become an idol, fueled by greed, and a stumbling block to following Jesus.

Treasures in heaven

Greed views temporal possessions and riches as a source of happiness. Greed treasures temporal possessions and riches, it treats them as if they were treasure, or to be treasured. How often have you heard or used the phrase, “This is a treasured possession.” This is why Jesus taught his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:19-21,

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus isn’t teaching his disciples that they shouldn’t work hard, earn a living, provide for their families, and seek to make a return on their master’s investment, no, Jesus is teaching them that they shouldn’t make their temporal possessions and riches their treasure, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but that their treasure should be in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Whereas, the rich young ruler’s treasure was his temporal possessions and riches, therefore his heart was there also.

Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions

We also see greed at work in Luke 12:13-15 when Jesus is approached by someone in the crowd who asks Jesus to settle a dispute over an inheritance, we read,

Luke 12:13–15 ESV

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Listen again to that last phrase, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” This phrase describes greed well, greed believes that life consists merely in the abundance of possessions. Greed treasures temporal possessions and riches above all else, even Christ.

Christ our treasure

While we’re intended to be stewards of the talents entrusted to us and to make a return on them for our master, those talents must never become our treasure, rather we’re commanded to store up treasure in heaven. Which is also why Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 13:44, that,

Matthew 13:44 ESV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

or just one verse later, in Matthew 13:45-46

Matthew 13:45–46 ESV

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

In other words, the kingdom of heaven, is worth selling all of your temporal possessions and riches in order to possess it. You see, to the Christian, Christ is our treasure, not our career, not our house, not our boat, not our children, not any of our temporal possessions, or riches, but Christ alone!

Consumers

Greed also breeds a consumerist mindset, where a person seeks to spend all of their riches solely on their own pleasures, living primarily to consume whatever they can, and for themselves. Now, while we’re certainly stewards of God’s assets and intended to make a return on our master’s investment, this does not mean that God intends for us to spend all that he gives us solely on our own pleasures. James pointed this out to in his letter, in James 4:1-3, when he said,

James 4:1–3 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

It’s not that it’s inherently sinful to desire the things that we need, or even to want something we don’t need, but it is wrong when our motivations are rooted in greed or covetousness. The desire becomes sinful when we believe possessions will make us happy, when we think that we won’t be happy unless we have what we want. The desire becomes sinful when it turns our temporal possessions into an idol.

We’re not meant to approach wealth with a consumer-like mindset, wealth isn’t intended to be merely spent or squandered on our own pleasures. The goal isn’t to accumulate as much wealth as we can to spend it on ourselves. But this has become particularly prevalent in our culture, and we could list many examples, but I’ll list just a few.

For example, a consumeristic view of children often results in parents having very few, or no children at all, because, as consumers, we view our children as competing for our wealth, that we would otherwise prefer to spend on ourselves. There have been many times when I’ve found myself angry with my wife for spending money on new winter boots for our four children, not because we didn’t have the money, or because they didn’t need them, but because I wanted that money to spend on myself. And I’m sure, at times, I cloaked (whether knowingly or unknowingly) my desires with virtue, arguing, for instance, that we needed to be more frugal and to save our money, but over time I’ve come realize that I was often angry because my children’s needs were competing for my resources. I also remember earlier on in our marriage when our children were very small, and I would get angry or even pout to make my wife feel bad when I realized the responsibility of my children was getting in the way of some far off hike or other outdoor activity that I wanted to do. I was selfish and wanted to spend my resources, including my time, on myself.

Generosity

This attitude is also at odds with generosity. Greed is fundamentally opposed to generosity. While generosity seeks to spend its wealth and its resources on others, greed seeks to spend it’s wealth and resources on itself. I feel this tension every time I give, whether it’s to the local church or someone in genuine need. Generosity doesn’t come naturally to sinful man, because generosity is an exercise of faith that our flesh stubbornly opposes. But it’s important for us to remember that generosity is intended to exercise our faith and it actively lays up for us treasures in heaven, rather than on earth. And as a result, orients our hearts away from our earthly possessions and riches, and toward Christ. Which is undoubtedly why Jesus taught that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

Furthermore, you can be full of greed whether you’re a spender or a saver. Sometimes we think that people who are living paycheck to paycheck and can’t control their spending are the only ones who struggle with greed, but this isn’t all the case. When Jesus told the man from the crowd that his life didn’t consist in the abundance of his possessions he went on to tell them a parable in Luke 12:16-21, we read,

Luke 12:16–21 ESV

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Notice how this man is described, he’s described as someone who hoards his wealth. He’s obviously very capable of multiplying his wealth, but he’s also very good at holding onto it. So, don’t assume that just because you’re good at saving your money that you’ve overcome greed. Furthermore, we should recognize that hoarding our possessions usually a sign of greed. In fact, this has become such a phenomenon in our day that we have shows like Hoarders that serve as entertainment.

Stealing with the eyes of your heart

Now, the words greed and covet are both translated from the same Greek word pleonexia in the NT, which means “the state of desiring to have more than one’s due” or “a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need.” Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian from the 13th century, defined covetousness, or greed, as “the immoderate love of possessing.”

In other words, greed is not content with what it has, or with God’s provision, but is constantly discontent or dissatisfied. This is because temporal possessions and riches do not have the capacity to satisfy the human heart, therefore greed cannot be satisfied and will never be content with a particular quantity of riches or material possessions. And as a result, greed eventually aims its desires at its neighbor. Which is why the 10th commandment in Exodus 20:17 forbids coveting,

Exodus 20:17 ESV

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

As one writer put it, greed is “stealing with the eyes of your heart.”

Conclusion

Obviously, it’s impossible to consider the the 8th commandment without considering also the 10th commandment, as we’ve spent time looking at today, so we’re going to have to wrap up our look at the 8th commandment in our next time. And at that time we’ll consider the positive side of the 8th commandment, what it looks like to uphold the 8th commandment. So, until then, let’s pray.

Prayer