The Eighth Commandment: What's Mine is Yours

Big Idea

Tension: What should I do rather than stealing?

Answer: Use my wealth and possessions as a gift from God to benefit others.

Exegetical Stealing: Rather than stealing, God gives wealth and possessions to his people to benefit others.

Theological Idea: God does not give wealth and possessions to us arbitrarily to be stolen and to steal, but rather so that the recipients might bless others.

Homiletical Idea: Rather than stealing, God wants me to be generous to others because he has been generous to me.

Outline

Other Exodus Law: Exodus 21:16, 26, 28-32, 33-36, 22:1-15, 19, 25-27, 23:4-5; Deut 5:19, 24:7

Intro/Law as Acquaintance

Brothers arguing over the crystal ball lego.

“Human life is a series of opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. If we play our cards right, we can work with others to enlarge the pie that we ultimately share… Our ancestors faced the adaptive challenge of repaying these benefits without getting suckered. Those whose moral emotions compelled them to play ‘tit for tat’ reaped more of these benefits than those who played any other strategy, such as ‘help anyone who needs it’ (which invites exploitation), or ‘take but don’t give’ (which can work just once with each person; pretty soon nobody’s willing to share pie with you).” - Jonathan Haidt

Exposition of the Law

We should not take what belongs to others.

Everything that we have is a good gift from God (James 1:17).

Now, we’re going to be equal opportunity offenders here. Because if you are too committed to one political ideology or to the other, this will stretch you.

First, the Bible upholds what we call property rights. When God gives the promised land to Israel, he expects them to take it and to pass it on to each generation as a possession. (Joshua 13-21)

However, the major difference between the property rights of the ancient world and the property rights of our world is that everybody had equality of starting place. So God gave every family a relatively similar piece of land, and God instituted a 50 year jubilee system where every debt would be cancelled. So while there would always be some who were rich and some who were poor, in theory, this would have ensured most people started out from the middle class. In other words, God doesn’t like polarized wealth structures.

Second, the Bible upholds what we call a welfare system. God expected people to use their wealth for the good of those less fortunate than those around them (Lev 19:9-10).

Now, the difference between God’s system for welfare and ours is that it was so much more relational. Today you go to an office and pick up a check or get one in the mail. You feel no sense of community. But in the way that God set it up, you would go and seee and know the people who were providing for your needs. They would know who was gleaning from their fields.

Stealing is wrong because it tells God that he has not been good to me. Stealing is wrong because it tells others that they have no God-given right to property. Stealing is wrong because it neglects the process God set down for welfare. So if that’s why it is wrong, what does it mean to steal? How do we break this commandment?

Law as Enemy

We violate this when we take something that does not belong to ourselves.

We violate this when we take advantage of others’ (Job 20:19; Lev 19:13; 2 Thess 3:6-12). God does not care about technicalities.

We violate this when we fail to use what we have to bless others. (Matt 5:38-42)

We violate this when we give to others to manipulate the situation (Matt 6:1-4)

We violate this when we forget that everything we have is a gift (1 Tim 6:6-10).

Illustration: David and Bathsheba “If this were too little, I would add to you as much more.” - At the bottom of this is that David felt that God had not given him enough.

Christ

At the heart of the gospel is God’s generosity towards us thankless, hopeless, greedy thieves 2 Corinthians 8:9

Christ paid our debt and we get his reward (Mark 10:45).

Law as Friend

This law reminds us that God is fundamentally good to us. (Eph 1:3-14).

This law reminds me not to take advantage of others, but empowers me to do good for others (Eph 4:28)

What has God given you that you can use to bless others with?

Conclusion: