Exodus 20:15 - Eight Commandment
Thomas S. Myers
The Eighth Commandment
Exodus 20:15
"You shall not steal." (NIV)
Looking through a daily paper I discovered the most recent thefts. There was the Islamic militant kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Another was "Dangerous Thief Gets 6-years Term," while another was "Audit Says Treasurer Stole $563,000. Those are the headlines but the headlines should read, Stealing Becomes Accepted Lifestyle.
There was a man with a problem that he couldn't keep to himself anymore. So he went to his pastor to confess that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked. His pastor asked him to explain the kinds of things he had taken. He laid it all out, "Enough to build my own house and enough for my son's house. And houses for our two daughters. And our cottage at the lake." The pastor frowned and thought about this, finally commented, "This is very serious, I shall have to think of a far-reaching consequence. Have you ever done a retreat?" The man quickly replied, "No, pastor, I haven't, but if you can get the plans, I can get the lumber."
That is how some view stealing. As long as they can get someone's approval or they don't get caught, they do not view themselves as a thief. But I want us to look at stealing from God's perspective. First, I want us to
think about stealing from others. Second, I want us to look at stealing from God. Third, I want us to think about stealing from ourselves.
FIRST -- STEALING FROM OTHERS.
A. ROBBING OTHERS IS STEALING. This is where someone thinks it is O.K. to steal so long as
1no one is looking. The test of a man's character is what he will do when on one is looking. Several years ago when New York city lost its electricity and the lights went out, 3,500 were arrested for looting. But the Bible says,
Psalm 139:12
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (NIV)
Today people will use any excuse for stealing. A young man was arrested for stealing a car. He had the year's most novel excuse. He said he found the automobile in front of a cemetery. He explained, "I thought the owner was dead."
Is does not make any difference if anyone sees you or not, because God sees what you are doing. I heard of a bank robber who went into a bank, took a note and passed it to the teller. The note said, "Give me all of your money. This is a stick up." The teller wrote a note back to the thief and the note said, "Straighten up your tie stupid, their taking your picture." God's camera is always running. Whether it is night or day, God says, "You shall not steal."
B. DECEPTION IS STEALING -- Many consider fraud as not stealing. People who fraud others never think of themselves as thieves. For example, the person who refuses to do an honest days work never thinks that they are stealing. But the Bible clearly says
Colossians 3:22
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. (NIV)
There is another side of this. There is the employer who cheats his employees by not paying proper wages.
James 5:4
4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. (NIV)
If you as an employer are not paying a decent wage, you will have to answer to almighty God about it. If as an employer, you are taking advantage of someone who has to work you also will have to answer to God. You may be thinking, "I'm a shroud business man." But God calls you a thief. And you will face God at the judgment. We are to give an honest days work for a day's pay. And we are to give an honest days pay for a days work. Otherwise the Bible says we are stealing.
Some men are very proud of their business mind. They know a good deal when they see it. But for some men, the business deal is really just shrewdness. Look at
Mark 12:40
40 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely." (NIV)
What does it mean by "They devour widows' houses?" There are men who see a widow who does not understand business principles or finances. These men steal away the widow's finances. They say that business is business. God says, "Such men will be punished most severely." God is saying that at the judgment, the lake of fire will be very not no matter how religious you are.
C. GAMBLING IS STEALING.
Someone says, "What's wrong with gambling?" Gambling is stealing because no one can win without another person losing. You see, when you're gambling, it is profit and pleasure at the expense of someone's pain and lost. It violates the concern and love of others. You see, it is trying to get into your pocket what belongs to someone else without working for it. We are not to take by chance that which belongs to someone else. That's greed! Some people try to justify gambling by saying that the stock market is gambling. The stock market is not gambling, it is taking a risk.
One man may meet another man in the dark and with the point of a gun takes away another man's cash. Two men meet each other around a table, each seeking to get what belongs to the other and we call that gambling. The only difference is in the first case there was one man with a gun, and the in the second case there are 2 men with the spirit of thievery. Someone has said, "When a man gambles and wins, he's a thief. And when he gambles and loses he's a fool." You can not win at gambling without someone else losing.
Jeremiah 22:13
13 "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. (NIV)
What is wrong with gambling? It is trying to get into my possession what belongs to you.
D. UNPAID DEBTS IS STEALING.
When you refuse to pay your bills, you transgress the 8th commandment. Folks, when the payment is due, then you owe it. It costs you to be honest.
You also steal when you fail to return things that you have borrowed. Think how many church library books that have not been returned? Think of the hymnals that were taken and never returned.?
E. SLANDER IS STEALING.
There are more things you can steal than money or property. You can steal someone's reputation. Have you been guilty of gossip or slander? God hates it. Absalom, the son of King David, the Bible stays he stole the hearts of the people away from his father the king (2 Samuel 15:6).
In Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (pg.17). He gives the story how in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of logging. If a tree is too large to be felled with an ax the natives cut it down by yelling at it. Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. They continue this for thirty days. The tree dies and falls over. The theory is that the hollering kills the spirit of the tree. We do that with gossip. We will kill the reputation of others. We will slice up an individual until there is no character left.
F. CHEATING IS STEALING.
You may say, "Everybody is doing it." Well, than everybody is wrong in doing it.
Exodus 20:15
15 "You shall not steal. (NIV)
I heard of a big football player, while attending college sat next to a Phi Beta Kappa. He cheated by always copying the answers off the Phi Beta Kappa tests. The professor suspected that this football player was cheating, but he could never prove it. Then one day, the Phi Beta Kappa came to a very hard question. He wrote down on his test, "I don't know the answer to this question." The football player wrote on his test, "Neither do I."
G. STEALING SOMEONE'S FAITH.
Matthew 18:6
6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (NIV)
This is God's warning against false prophets, liberals, modernists, who don't believe in the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God.
When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, she was a very religious person. Her faith stood firmly in God. But Mark Twain had no faith. He scoffed at her beliefs and made light of her devotions. Soon Olivia's faith began to diminish. There was a noticeable decline in her prayer life. What had been a fervent faith, cooled. She did not seem to care any more. Eventually, she forsook God all together. A deep sorrow came over Olivia's life. Mark Twain loved her, and never meant to hurt her -- but he discovered he had broken her spirit. He said, "Livy, if it comforts you to lean on your faith, do so." She replied sadly, "How can I, when I don't have any faith left?"
SECOND -- STEALING FROM GOD.
How do you steal from God?
A. By with holding yourself from God. 1 Corinthians 6:19
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; (NIV)
Notice that the Bible says, "You are not your own." You don't even own yourself. You belong to God. Now suppose I take something that belongs to you and I abuse it to the point that I ruin it. Then I give it back to you broken. I become a thief. When you take your life, that belongs to God, and abuse it and misuse it, you have robbed God.
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (NIV)
B. BY WITH HOLDING YOUR TITHES.
There is another way to steal from God. It is by withholding your stewardship. Tithing is giving 10 percent of your income to God. When the Bible talks about tithing there are always those who protest. They say, "Tithing was taught in the Old Testament but not in the New Testament." Well, someone has said, "Abraham commenced tithing, Jacob continued tithing, Moses commanded tithing, and Jesus commended tithing. Who am I to cancel tithing?
Malachi 3:8-10
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, `How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse -- the whole nation of you -- because you are robbing me. (NIV)
God's tithe is not God's way to raise money. He already owns our money! God's tithe is His way to bless you and to teach you to trust Him.
Malachi 3:10
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. (NIV)
Tithing is the one area where God allows you to test Him and to stop stealing from Him. I heard of a man who professed to be a Christian. A pastor spoke to him and said, "Have you been baptized?" "Oh no," he said, "I haven't been baptized." "Why will not," asked the pastor? The man said, "The dying thief on the cross wasn't baptized, so neither will I." The pastor then asked, "Do you give your money to support the gospel?" "Oh no," said the man. "The dying thief on the cross didn't give his money. All he did was believe." The pastor looked at the man and said, "There is one difference between you and that thief." The man said, "What's that?" The pastor said, "He was a dying thief, and you're a living thief." I want to tell you, that any man who is not rendering unto God that which is God's is stealing from God. The Bible says:
Leviticus 27:30
30 "`A tithe it is holy to the LORD. (NIV)
THIRD -- TO SWINDLE YOURSELF.
When you steal or when you're refuse to surrender unto God you never gain, you always lose. Jesus said,
Matthew 16:25
25 For whoever wants to save his life (that is to steal from God) will lose it, but whoever loses his life (that is to give it to God) for me will find it. (NIV)
When you refuse to obey God's commandments, you're the one who's cheated, swindled, and loses.
Jeremiah 5:25
25 Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good. (NIV)
King Frederick II, an eighteenth-century king of Prussia, was visiting a prison in Berlin, the inmates tried to prove to him how they had been unjustly imprisoned. All except one. That one sat quietly in a corner, while all the rest protested their innocence. Seeing him sitting there oblivious to the commotion, the king asked him what he was there for. "Armed robbery, Your Honor." The king asked, "Were you guilty?" "Yes, Sir," he answered. "I entirely deserve my punishment." The king then gave an order to the guard: "Release this guilty man. I don't want him corrupting all these innocent people."
I heard of someone who Recently laid a small circle of poison around a hill of stinging ants. Thinking the tiny granules of poison were food, the ants began to pick them up and carry them throughout the colony. He returned later to see how well the poison was working. Hundreds of the stinging ants were carrying the poison down into their hill. Then he noticed a hole in the circle of the poison. Some of the poison was moving the opposite way - away from the hill. Some smaller, non-stinging ants had found this "food." and were stealing it from
their ant neighbors. Thinking they were getting the other ants' treasure, they unwittingly poisoned themselves.
As Copernicus, the great astronomer, was dyeing, a copy of his great book, The Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies, was placed in his hands. But it was not his brilliant work that was on his mind. Instead he directed that the following epitaph be placed on his grave at Frauenburg: "O Lord, the faith thou didst give to St. Paul, I cannot ask; the mercy thou didst show to St. Peter, I dare not ask; but Lord, the grace thou didst show unto the dying robber, that, Lord, show to me." There is no one who cannot come to God under those terms.