Do Not Steal

There are three uses of the law. First, it is useful for civil government. What is contained in God’s law is beneficial to society, especially the last six commandments, as they pertain to human interaction. Honour parents, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t bear false witness, and don’t covet. When obeyed, these commandments are a benefit to any society. Indeed, these laws are written into most societies around the world.

Christians use the second use of the law as a teacher of sin. The commandments act like a mirror. They reflect the standard God requires. When a Christian looks at them, he sees how far short he’s come to living up to God’s commands, how far removed his character is from God’s character.

Paul describes this in Romans 7where he says, if it wasn’t for the law against coveting, I wouldn’t have known what coveting was.

Likewise, after the exiles returned to Jerusalem, as they rebuilt the temple, they discovered the book of the law, which had been not only been missing, it had been ignored for decades. On reading it, the discoverers realised how badly they and their forefathers had sinned against God. Thus it acted as a teacher of sin, it revealed to them the sins they had committed in willful ignorance.

In fact, the king, upon hearing the law realised how justified God was in destroying Israel and sending his people into exile. He also recognised God’s grace, patience and willingness to forgive. He understood that God’s people had sinned against him for hundreds of years, and yet he dealt with them patiently. He could have destroyed them earlier, but he waited and relented in the hopes that they would repent and turn from their sin.

The third use of the law is as a rule of gratitude. It teaches us how we can live our lives in such a way that gives thanks to God for salvation bought by Jesus Christ. When we read the law, we should read it in this light. By default, it seems, we use the 2nd use of the law, as a teacher of sin, so that it becomes for us a burden, an impossibility. We identify ourselves as sinners before God’s holiness and law.

But if we focus instead, train ourselves instead to live under the third use of the law, our attitude changes. We understand that we are God’s redeemed Children, redeemed by Christ’s precious blood. Instead of using the law to learn what sin is, or to avoid sinning, we use the law positively, how we may honour God.

We Want To Obey

We obey God’s law now not because we have to, but because we want to obey.

The old way of understanding the law was in order to win God’s favour. But the way we look at it now, is with the knowledge that in Christ, we have God’s favour already. There’s no amount of good deeding, good works that can make us more right with God.

Instead, our attitude is, “How can I honour God with my life? How can I do God’s will? How can I show my happiness? How can I demonstrate my delight in God’s love? How can I love God? By doing his commands. His commands become the vehicle that gives honour to him, and still, and this is how good God is, if I follow God’s commands, I experience blessing in my life.

So when we look at the catechism’s instructions on the law, we see two of the three uses of the law. In explaining the eighth commandment, the catechism describes what the sin of stealing is in answer 110. Then in 111, it shows how Christians can move beyond mere sin avoidance into true worship/expression of gratitude.

Now, as to the sin avoidance, answer 110 is quite helpful. It might be tempting for us to think we’re off the hook stealing wise. I mean, we don’t go out and steal cars and bikes, do we? We don’t steal from stores.

So, it is tempting to look at the eighth commandment and say to myself, I’m pretty good at keeping this one. I can skip this and go onto another commandment. I mean, I don’t think I’ve stolen anything since I was a kid.

Look Deeper

But then, look a little deeper. It gets to the heart of the command, where we intentionally or unintentionally harm others. Cheating and swindling; Setting up fraudulent schemes.

Well, I don’t do any of that. What about downloading movies and songs without paying for them? What about copying music from the library? What about walking out of the grocery store with a bag of flour that you put in the very bottom of your cart, and forgot to pay for it?

In the passage in Isaiah, the Israelites complained to God that he wasn’t answering their cries. He was ignoring their prayers. He wasn’t paying attention to their worship, which they were doing through fasting.

You see, they were being righteous in their own eyes, but they weren’t being righteous in God’s eyes. They thought they were giving him the worship he wanted, but they were missing the mark. Yes, they might have had the right attitude in the sense that they were participating in a fast, but their hearts were not in it. Or it is possible that they did have their hearts in it, but that somehow it was all that God required of them.

In some sense, their attitude was, if I do this, then God will bless me. If I keep my end of the bargain, God will keep his. So they were treating God as a talisman, as a good luck charm, as a deity that could be manipulated, rather than a person.

And that makes a huge difference in how we see the law.

Suppose you come home and there’s a stone tablet lying on the kitchen counter. On it, etched in the stone are the words, “Thou shalt take out the garbage.” How would you feel about that?

I’d be like, “Hey Renee, I think this is for you!”

No, seriously, you’d probably be, “well okay. It’s not my favourite job, but I’ll do it if I have to.” And you might be inclined to grumble along the way, “I can’t see why I have to do it, he’s perfectly capable of doing it, I already do countless things around the house, like laundry, cooking and dishes, she just works all day.” Or something like that.

Now suppose you come home and you see a note on the kitchen counter. It says, “The stuff you do around the house shows me you love me, even taking out the garbage shows me you love me. I appreciate it a lot. I love you.”

That’s different, isn’t it? That changes the attitude, doesn’t it? “Wow, I can show I love my spouse, my mother and father by taking out the garbage?” It doesn’t necessarily make the chores more pleasant, but it does change the attitude toward them. Knowing that it is appreciated gives a positive perspective. Knowing that it is an expression of love makes the work a bit easier. However, it is easy to lose this focus and turn it into dull drudgery. We need to remind ourselves of why we do what we do. Everything we do is an act of love, an act of worship. It grows out of our relationship with God, whom we love because he loved us first.

Act of Love

So that’s how we ought to read the commandments in light of Christ. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Or another way of putting it would be like this, “You demonstrate your love for me by keeping my commandments.”

But, of course, we’re in the second table of the law now, not the first. But the principle is the same. We show love to others as an expression of our love to God. Because God loves us, and we love God, we can love others. This of course, is sometimes much more difficult to do than loving God is, even though we’re told that if we don’t love our neighbour, our friends and family, then we cannot love God either.

God’s love transforms us. It is transforming me. I’m starting to see people differently. I’m starting to see people in my neighbourhood as potential Christians. Maybe they are Christians already, I don’t know. But I’m starting to look less at appearances and behaviour and instead at their inherent worth as God’s image bearers.

This of course, should have a huge impact on how we deal with our neighbours. From borrowing and lending tools to making deals and keeping them—character is huge. Character is huge because if we have a greedy character, we will look for ways to exploit others. But if our character is one of thankfulness, then we will see others as beings that we can relate to, not people to manipulate.

A greedy person is completely consumed with self. They are self involved. They are looking for satisfaction in things, in power, other people.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

A contented person, however, is not consumed with self. A contented person finds satisfaction in what they have, in God himself. A contented, non-greedy person is able to deal with temptation and is able to use his wealth for the benefit of others.

Now, when we consider worship, how much do we focus on others?

The prophet Isaiah taught that the Israelites were going through the motions of a ritual fast, a ritual worship, but at the same time they were neglecting the needs of other people.

In our selfish, narcissist society, it is easy to see people who are completely self centred. And if we are honest, this attitude has crept into the greater church as well. And if I am honest, I admit that it has crept into my heart also. That’s why we hear phrases like, “I didn’t get anything out of it. I didn’t like the songs today. It didn’t do anything for me today.” I’ve heard myself say things like that. Of course, not when I’m preaching!

However, that’s the opposite of what worship is all about! Worship isn’t about us. Giving and being generous isn’t about feeling good, though there’s nothing wrong with that, just as there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good sermon, enjoying good music.

Worship has its primary focus on God, and its secondary focus on loving our neighbours. When we sing our songs, we sing them to one another in encouragement of others. When we go about our daily activities, we think about how we can glorify God, as well as how we can be a benefit to other people, our neighbours near and far.

Can you see the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Can we see it in our church? Yes, we can. I can. I can see it, however incremental, in my own life. I can see that God is slowly transforming my attitude to be less inward focussed and more outward focussed.

Our congregation is not as inward focussed as some might make us to be. How about the hard work and labour that each member does in order to share with others? The members of this church work hard and you give well. I’m not boasting, I’m stating a fact. You give to people far away, and you give to your neighbours. Be encouraged! Keep up the good work! You give also to one another in this church. We look after one another. It is God glorifying, yes it is.

Now, we must be on guard. We must guard our hearts to remain focussed on God in worship, both in this space, and in everything we do. John Calvin calls the heart an idol factory, so we must be careful, be under constant vigilance that we keep God and God alone on the throne.

We must look for opportunities to show love to God and to others. As an expression of the gospel, the good news of forgiveness through Christ, we bring forgiveness to others. Humanly speaking, this is most difficult, but nothing is impossible with God.

Let us continue to be agents of the transformative power of the Gospel. Do not grow weary of doing good. Though you may not see results, keep plugging away. God is faithful, he will not let his word return empty! Amen!