Summary 

The eighth commandment appears simple on the surface, but its true meaning encompasses much more than obvious criminal acts. While most people don't consider themselves thieves, focusing only on dramatic crimes like bank robberies or car break-ins, biblical teaching reveals that theft manifests in countless subtle ways throughout our daily lives.

Historical Protestant documents like the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Larger Catechism provide comprehensive definitions that include fraudulent business practices, inaccurate measurements, excessive interest rates, time theft from employers, taking credit for others' work, and destroying someone's reputation through gossip. Modern examples include extended lunch breaks, false sick days, inflated time cards, and undermining colleagues for personal gain. Perhaps most significantly, we steal from God when we fail to acknowledge Him as the source of all our blessings and treat our possessions, time, and abilities as entirely our own.

The commandment addresses fundamental heart issues about ownership, trust, and dependence on God's provision. When we steal, we demonstrate a lack of faith that God will provide for our needs and act as if His provision isn't sufficient. The command calls us to honest work, generous living, and recognition that we are stewards rather than owners of our resources. True fulfillment of this commandment involves integrity in all dealings, making restitution where necessary, and finding security in the abundant life Christ offers rather than in what we can grasp for ourselves.

Transcript

I am going to read another part of Sermon on the Mount. Because that's what I thought we were going to read.
This is chapter six, verse 19. 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. We pray, Lord God, we pray that as we turn to this next commandment, Lord. That we would find your law to be lovely and to be desirous.
That we would want. We would seek to walk in your ways. That we would see the beauty of Jesus. Who walks in them perfectly. And desire to be his disciples.
Those that follow him. God, I pray, Lord, we know. I think of the reading that Gordon read for us, for the confession. We know that there's so many. It is such a temptation to be religious and empty.
And we see that in the Gospels. Whitewashed tombs. Just going about the ways, trying to look good. God, I pray that that would not be the effect of looking at your law. Not puffing ourselves up, not trying to look good.
But seeking to really love you. With our whole heart and mind and soul and strength. All of our being laid in worship to you. And so, Lord, do with this time what you will. And conform us to the image of our Lord.
The image of beauty and goodness and truth. In whose name we pray. Amen. All right. Some of you, I'm sure, know this because one of the most famous covers of the Saturday Evening Post.
Those famous ones that were painted by Norman Rockwell. Is the painting from 1936 called Tipping the Scales. Some of you might know what I'm talking about as soon as I mention it. But it's a great painting. There's two people in it.
And in between the two, there's a scale. And one of them is this older woman. She's in this lovely flower dress. And she has this cute black hat with all these flowers around it, too. She just looks really quaint.
Silvery hair that's nicely done up underneath her hat. And she's come to the butcher, maybe for a Sunday chicken. Or maybe it's big enough. I kind of doubt it. That it's like a Thanksgiving turkey.
She's come to the butcher. And so on the other side of the scale is the butcher. And he's got this big, bushy, butchery white mustache. And these beautiful spectacles. Glasses, small, that fit his head just perfectly.
And here's what's happening. They're both smiling, they're both grinning in this because in some ways they think they have kind of won one over on the other. What's happening is that under the paper, the butcher paper that's holding the bird. You can see hidden by that paper, from the view of the woman, the butcher pushing his finger down on the scale. And on the other side, this woman with this just lovely grin, you can see that she's so warm.
And she's also thinking she's won the day. Hidden by the scale itself, from the view of the butcher, she's pushing up on the scale. They've figured out how to win the upper hand. They're both pleased with themselves and totally unaware of the other. And of course, like most of Rockwell's paintings, it's just this depiction of American life.
Normal, wholesome, American everyday life. They look like charming people, but, man, they are both breaking the Ten Commandments or the Eighth Commandments. And, you know, what would they pro. They look like people. She certainly looks like somebody that would protest strongly being called a thief.
You know, thank you very much. I'm a good, upstanding, hardworking American citizen. Not some Bonnie and Clyde, not some Butch Nelson, Baby Face Cassidy, you know, not robbing banks, doing some bank heist and jumping on the train, Cutting town. I imagine this butcher would be, like, pretty. Pretty indignant if somebody said, hey, don't go to that butcher.
Pushing down the scales. Not trustworthy. But I also imagine that he would. He might call the police. Maybe not the first time, if the check bounced, maybe the second time.
Be like, this person's trying to rob me.
I imagine this older woman is cooking up this roast chicken or roast turkey for her grandchildren, whom she dotes upon and who she dreams will be the leaders of the future.
And neither of them seem to be fazed by the idea of sort of padding their pocketbooks at the expense of another. Right.
So last couple weeks, we've looked at the Sermon on the Mount a little bit in relation to this couple of the Ten Commandments, because Jesus does. And we saw in chapter five that Jesus makes it really clear that we cannot let ourselves off the hook for murder and adultery. Anger and lust are thrown in there, and they are rightly done so because they are also so easily connected with harming the other and faithlessness. And I think it's possible for us to get to the Eighth Commandment because Jesus makes it so explicit that, you know, the 6th and 7th are related to us, that we get to the 8th Commandment and we can all Collectively go.
Let's just breathe a sigh of relief here.
Finally, we can exhale, y'. All. There was a survey done by the Barna group several years back. 86% of adults, this is in the US said that they completely satisfy the commandment, do not steal. 86%, that's a pretty good number.
I imagine you'd put yourself in that number. Statistically, you would if it.86% is a pretty high number. You know, maybe some of you are like, I might. So it's 50% of you, right?
Like, the second command, commandment that prohibits the making of idols. And our inclination when we hear that to think like, oh, that applies to the Hindu family that has little, you know, like, incense that they burn and stuff like that. We tend to think of this command, do not steal, as kind of applying to the guy that walks down Green street late at night, one in the morning, pulling on door handles, just going, is this one unlocked? Is this one unlocked? Maybe if we're thinking a little bit more, with a little more.
Greater complexity. We're like Bernie Madoff, Wall Street Ponzi scheme. We certainly don't tend to think of ourselves.
But just like Jesus spoke of anger and lust, murder and adultery, there in chapter five, what did we hear in chapter six? That we're not supposed to lay up treasures in heaven where rust, moth and rust destroy. And we're thieves, break in and steal, right? To shun this kind of idea so as to find that our treasures are in heaven.
It's not just because there are thieves here on earth, but that our own thieving is always a reflection of where our treasures are, Right? Our own grabbing onto things have to do with what our faith is in, what our trust is in. Okay, so this morning, I want us to consider just a question, like, what is stealing and why does it matter? Pretty easy. What is stealing?
This is the last. So there's three commands that are really short, right? Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. And this is the last one, don't steal.
The other ones have a few more words in them. But quite literally, these three commands in the Hebrew are just two words, right? Two words. We've talked about this last couple weeks, and these two words are lo. The same words as the last couple weeks.
But, Loganath, which is really, don't take stuff that doesn't belong to you. Don't steal. Don't take something from somebody else without their permission that is not properly yours to have. Don't take something that doesn't belong to you and doesn't it again just strike you as so simple? I think it kind of does.
And so one of the things that I've been doing in this series on the Ten Commandments is I've been looking at the great catechisms of the Protestant Reformation, because if you read Luther's catechism, or if you read the other catechisms, pretty much all of them explain with some great detail the Ten Commandments. So I'm going to read to you a couple of those. One of the great catechisms that came out of the Protestant Reformation was the Heidelberg Catechism, written in Heidelberg, Germany in 1563. And so that was part of the German reformed tradition. Which second church, when it was started in 1864, was the second German Reformed Church in Harrisburg.
Okay. The very first church in Harrisburg was actually Salem German Reformed Church, and it was built by John Harris, who laid out Harrisburg. We're the second German Reformed Church. And so let me read for you question 110 from the Heidelberg Catechism. 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 an inaccurate measure, such as inaccurate measurements doing this and this right of weight, size or volume, fraudulent merchandising, counterfeit money, excessive interest.
All of the reformers talk about excessive interest in some of their writings, actually. But I mean, all the great reformers, they would have hated payday loan places that hurts the poor so much, or any other means forbidden by God. In addition, God forbids all greed and pointless squandering of his gifts. Fairly extensive. Right.
It's kind of getting us to think more broadly about what does it mean to steal. Well, so that's one of the great catechisms of the Protestant Reformation, the German Reformed Church, specifically the Heidelberg Catechism, 1563. If you go forward a little bit, what you find is actually the great confessional documents of the Presbyterian tradition, which is the. And we're part of that as a church in the Presbyterian Church in America. And those great documents were written in 1643-47 at the Westminster Assembly.
And so they're called the Westminster Church Confession of Faith and larger and shorter catechisms. The larger catechism is the best part. They're all great. But the larger catechism is where you get the Ten Commandments sort of expounded and I want to read to you some of that. Okay, so here's question 141.
What are the duties required in the eighth commandment? The duties required in the eighth commandment are truth, faithfulness and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man. So honorably business dealings, right? Good contracts that honor the other person, rendering to everyone his due. Restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof.
Restitution. Think about how actually Zacchaeus says, I'm going to pay back fourfold. And Jesus says, salvation has come to your house today for all that I took unjustly. Giving and lending freely according to our abilities and the necessities of others. Lending towards the necessities of others.
Moderation of our judgments, wills and affections concerning worldly goods. A provident care and study to get, keep, use and dispose of those things which are necessary and convenient for the sustenation of our nature.
That's maybe a long convoluted statement, but one of the things that maybe that applies to is, hey, Flora says, I want to think, I think I can be a nurse and that would be a good way to sustain myself and love others. That's maybe a proper application of this as well. What it's saying, it's one of the things that you can do is actually seek. How do I work in the world? Well, a lot.
A lawful calling and diligence in it. Your work, frugality, avoiding unnecessary law suits and surety, ship or other like engagements, and an endeavor by all just and lawful means to procure, preserve and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own wildly expansive. I'm not done question 142. What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment? The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties.
So it's like all that other stuff that I just said, you know, that stuff are theft, robbery, man stealing.
By the way, I actually read this week there was a statement about different, different ways that man stealing happens. This was written in also in Germany in the 17th century. And one of the ways that was listed was stealing children for the growth of a monastery.
Man stealing and receiving anything that is stolen, receiving things that are stolen, fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures. There's that one again. Removing landmarks, meaning unjust disputes over the border between your land and your neighbors. This is upholding the surveyor's job as a just and good job. Injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man are in matters of trust, oppression, extortion, usury bribery, vexatious lawsuits.
Unjust enclosures and depopulations. Unjust enclosures and depopulations. Unjust annexations maybe of one area towards something else for maybe the sake of gain. And grossing commodities to enhance the price. Engrossing commodities to enhance the price.
Ah, supply and demand. Maybe we can limit the supply of this so that we can increase our pocketbooks.
Unlawful callings and all their unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him or of enriching ourselves. Covetousness, inordinate, prizing and affecting worldly goods. Distrustful and distracting. Cares and studies and getting, keeping and using them. Envying at the prosperity of others as likewise idleness.
Prodigality. Wasteful. I should have looked it up. Prodigality, wasteful. Overindulgence.
Right. Excessive extravagance. Wasteful gaming. So a type of gambling and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate and defraud ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God has given us.
That's a lot, isn't it? I mean, in so many ways you can see how it doesn't apply just the 17th century in England, but the 21st century here in the United States. And of course I could go on and the Bible could go on and so we will. No, but not with the same kind of way. Okay, I mean, think about this in some of the ways.
What's the way that people steal so much in our day? I mean, think of time, how often time is stolen? An employee has a contract to work a certain amount of hours in a given time frame. And that lunch break extends another 15 minutes here and there. And the coffee break extends here around the coffee machine.
And just this taking of what has been agreed upon, you know, filling out false time cards is in this rare places that those still exist. I remember. So I had a great job in college. I loved it. I worked for Seattle City Parks Department my first summer.
At the beginning of the day, I would walk along Alki beach and pick up trash and I loved it. And then the next couple summers I walked along the beach at Lincoln park in West Seattle. It's just a great way to begin the day. Trim trees throughout the day. I love that job.
Well, I mean, there were a couple people that I worked with who I got along with very well. And I'm not going to name, even though I don't think they're ever going to watch this sermon, but I remember very clearly how they would Just joke about how they would lie about sick days because, man, it was a nice day out, and their buddies were going for a motorcycle ride and they wanted to go, too.
They'd steal time.
Stealing time. This is wild to me, but I looked it up. Time theft costs US employers between $450 billion and $550 billion annually. Time theft. That's how much it costs employers for an individual business.
It accounts for 1 to 8% of payroll. So up to 8% of payroll is just lost because of time theft.
Of course, it's not just the employee. Employees. Employers can do that too, right? Demand that which is beyond actually what was agreed upon. It's a way of theft, right, that the employers are doing to the employees, and they can take advantage of it because, hey, no one paying.
You need to show up. All this other time, even if we didn't agree to that. Get this. This is pretty wild. I read about this hotel that reported that in the first year of business, it had to replace 38,000 spoons.
Why is everybody taking the spoons and 350 coffee pots and 100 Bibles, which I was like, oh, praise the Lord. Somebody took the Bible. That's great. Take the Bibles, y'. All.
If you need to take a Bible today, you can have one of our Bibles, okay? But it's just so pervasive. Stealing someone's reputation is an application of this commandment. That's something that's talked about in the Bible. And it's something that happens a good deal, destroying somebody's character, right?
Gossiping about somebody, trying to talk about them bad so that you can maybe get the promotion for somebody else, you know, and cut down somebody else taking credit for somebody else's work so you can look good, right?
It's just applied so much, even if the villain. Lago. Right, Jed. And Shakespeare, Othello said it. It's true.
And Shakespeare wrote it. He who steals my purse steals trash. But he that finches my good name makes me poor indeed. Somebody's good name is an important part, and we can actually steal that from them. That is wrong, and that is breaking the eighth commandment.
And, of course, this is what we do towards God. We steal his honor, his glory. We did not give him the worship that he is due. We steal what is rightly his. We believe that our goods and our wealth and our honor and our jobs and our children are all ours.
Our time Lord is ours.
We work hard for it.
Not just the kind providence of God that you have it. And somebody else doesn't that all good gifts come from our Heavenly Father above. They're all His. He bestows them on who he will. We steal from him when we do not acknowledge him as the giver of all good things.
So it's true, like I said last week, that so often what the Commandments are doing is they're giving you the most bold kind of part of the command. But there are so many things that follow from it. Murder is not just manslaughter, but it's not preserving the life of the other. Right? Adultery is not just that, but it's also so many other things, and we know it is.
Of course, the same is true for stealing. That's what we could say. What it is so many ways that we can apply it. But why does this matter? Okay, so just a few things.
Why does it matter? One, and this might seem like a strange thing to start with, is that you're made for work. You're made to work. And a lot of times what stealing is doing is it's saying, you know what, there's an easy way. If I can just take.
If I can just take it. If I can kind of, you know, work the system so that I can get the upper leg instead of actually acting justly in the world, and maybe I can get ahead and not have to work so hard. But God actually made you for work. He works six days, and he rests on the seventh day. And he said, go and do likewise.
In fact, one of the things he first. First thing he tells is to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over it, over it. Work, cultivate a life in this world that reflects me. And I like to work and create, and you are made to do so as well. We replace in the garden to tend to it.
And often stealing is a form of laziness.
Stealing can take the honor or the reputation of another away because we want to get ahead of them, right? We want to look better in our own eyes from who they are. Taking that which is not ours is simply saying, I deserve it without the hard work. Lifting ourselves up is often putting others down. And so actually, you know, you can think of what Melias read for us in Ephesians, chapter 4, where Paul is instructing him, how do we live this Christian life?
And there's all kinds of things like be angry. You know, don't let this thing go down in your anger and stuff like that. But one of the things that said is, let the thief no longer steal. He's like, that is part of your old self that has been put to death, just put on the new self, put on this new life in Christ. And part of that new life is, do not steal any longer.
Let the thief no longer steal instead. There it says, but rather, let him work.
Why does it matter? Because we're made for work. And then Paul actually goes on to say, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone who's in need.
Part of your work is so that you can give to others.
We were made to work. And we were made to work in such a way that we are not taking, but it's not properly ours, but we have something to offer the life of the world. And that in some ways, actually brings me to the second reason why I think it matters. And that one of the second reason is that so we were made for work, but we were also made for trust. We were made for faith.
We were made for dependence, right? So our first parents again were placed in the garden with God under His delight, his goodness, right? He says, this is very good, but also under his shelter, his protection. And we're to live with him in a relationship of trust, to believe that his words to us are good and right. And actually the boundaries in which he puts us in are good and right.
And so, you know, there's this command, don't take of this tree. And of course, understandably, you're like, well, why would God do that? And there's all kinds of thoughts about that. But at the very least, one of the things is that from the very beginning, they were to trust that God's provision for them is enough and that his words for them are good and right, and they might not even know why that is. And yet his words for them are good.
And of course, that's why, among other things, why the first sin is not just the sin of lying, which it is, but it's also stealing that it wasn't theirs. God had not given it to them. Instead, they were to live this life of trust and dependence that what God has given them is enough, that he will provide for them in their need. And so when we steal, it matters because it actually goes against what we're made for, this life of work, but also this life of trust and dependence on God and His love and care for us. And so this brings me to the third thing of why I think it matters, and this is kind of simple too, is that it matters because our stuff is from God.
This matters because our stuff is from God. Interestingly, in Malachi Malachi, Chapter 3. God talks about how we rob from God when we don't tithe. But what's the point of that? The point of the tithe is actually saying, all that I have is yours, right as we sing.
And when we actually take that which is not ours, we're actually fighting against this idea that God is the giver of gifts. Let me read a little bit of that for you. Malachi, three, six. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed from the days of your fathers.
You've turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I'll return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will man rob God yet you are robbing me. You say, how have we robbed you?
And your tithes and contributions. You're cursed with a curse for your robbing me, the whole nation of you. He's going to keep going in that. But there's this way in which we actually rob God, we can actually take from Him. Of course, it's kind of wild to me that Abraham gives the tithe in Genesis 14, and it predates this Old Testament tithing kind of idea.
But why is this going on? Why does the Old Testament talk about this? And why is this a good Christian practice to give one reason that, okay, we can say this. It's not like God needs it, right? Does God need our stuff, our money, our tithe?
Psalm 50 says, kind of famously that he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, right? He's not like he's in need. He speaks and things just come into being. But why this matters is because we have to remind ourselves again and again that all that we have and all that we are is ultimately God's. He doesn't need it, but he commands us to give, even the tithe and these kinds of things because he wants to reinforce us again and again that all everything belongs to him.
And again, let me get back to this, okay? We think that our property, the property, the stuff that we own, can be disposed of as we will, right?
Meaning we can use our time, we can use our resources, and we can use our minds and everything that we have, as we will. They are ours.
But actually at the heart of this command is that they're not ours, is that they are. God's stealing is not just an affront to your neighbor, it is also an affront to God. What the Bible says is that everything that we have is not our own. In fact, it tells us that we Ourselves were bought with a price, says that our bodies are not our own. You don't just get to do whatever you want.
It says they are to be offered up to the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him. Everything that we have, all of it, belongs to God. He gives them to us. You simply hold them as a trustee tending to them. But also as the parable of talent says, you will have to give an account to the Lord for how you used all of what you have.
Okay, so anyway, what is stealing? Quite simply, in the shortest way, it's taking what is not yours to take. But it encompasses so much. Why does it matter? Because it robs us of actually what we are made for.
We're made to work. We're made to trust. We're made to have faith. But it also robs God of what is rightly his because he's the one that gives gifts, gives talents. And he also says you're going to have to give an account for how you dealt with them.
So stealing is not just stealing from the other, but in a way, it's also stealing from yourself and it's stealing from God.
Which is to say that when we sit with all of this, we can't write it off as a command for the guy that's walking down the street, checking the handles of the door, like the car doors. We can't write it off as like, oh, man, Bernie Madoff, Bonnie and Clyde, the cute lady with the flowery hat, the butcher. This is a command for you and for your pastor and for your children and for your friends and for your roommate, for your spouse. Okay? So I'm gonna leave you with an assignment Today.
I'm gonna give you an assignment. You do not have to bring this back to me. But actually, I'd be really interested if you did.
Here's what it is. It's kind of simple. I would like you maybe as an individual, but more. It would actually be better if you did this with somebody else again. A roommate or your friend or your children or whatever, or your spouse.
I want you to take a pen and a paper, and I want to. I want you to actually write down together and think together. How do I steal? I've given you so many categories.
Like, I mean, if you need help, get out the larger catechism. Question 141 and 142. Get out the Heidelberg catechism. Get out Luther's Catechism. It's got lots.
It's great, too.
And just ask, like, how. How do I break this right and then I also want you to ask, how am I tempted to steal? Because what the Lord invites us to do is see that these are not just commands for our external appearances, but commands for our hearts. And after you do that, okay? After you do that, I want you listen to me, okay?
None of you are writing this down, so listen attentively, class. After you do that, I want you to get out a Bible and I want you to turn to the Gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It's the fourth book in the New Testament. I want you to get it out and I want you to read what were our words of forgiveness and peace this morning, which is chapter John, chapter 10, verse 10. And it says this.
The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they would have life and have it abundantly. And as you write down those stealing acts, as you write down those stealing temptations, I want you to give it to Lord and receive his new life, we pray. Lord, again, these commands just seem so utterly applicable to us. I pray that we would not stop our ears and harden our hearts that today we would hear your voice and we would run to you and we would love you and we would live for you.
In Jesus name, amen.

Previous Page