Christian Basics P2 Series

Christian Basics

Christian Basics Part 2

Basic Law is love (v.8)

Love forbids stealing (v.9).

Love forbids a false witness (v.9).

An Indian Christian, Sandhu Singh, made a perceptive statement when he said, "One day I was sitting on the banks of a river. I took from the water a round stone and I broke it. Inside it was perfectly dry. That stone had been lying in the water for a long time but the water had not penetrated it. Then I thought that the same thing happened to men in Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity but Christianity has not penetrated, does not live within them.“ Contributed by Owen Bourgaize

Are you ready to get back to work on your Christian basics? Let’s see what additional things God wants to work throughout us…

Love forbids stealing (v.9).

For this…Thou shalt not steal… Romans 13:9

“Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15; Deut. 5:19).

Stealing means to cheat or take wrongfully from another person, either legally or illegally.

The laws of men are not the laws of God...

Something often misunderstood about stealing:

Men sometimes use the law to steal.

Men can take from others without ever breaking a law.

Men can secure too much, well beyond what they need—something that rightfully belongs to others.

The Bible teaches that taking something which is actually possessed or personally owned by another is stealing.

If they own it, you take it, your guilty of stealing.

“Not purloining [stealing], but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (Titus 2:10).

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief” (1 Peter 4:15).

“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1).

“It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth” (Proverbs 20:14).

A person steals by hoarding and banking more than needed. What are they truly trusting in?

…Keeping back is stealing...

·keeping what is not needed for one’s own needs.

·keeping back what is desperately needed by others.

·taking away what nature and the earth provide to meet the needs of the all.

·hoarding knowledge, gifts and blessings God gave to be used for the welfare of a desperate world filled with so many less privileged and gifted.

You call it what you like, God calls it stealing.

God commands:

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

God says: love each other and share the blessings of the earth.

When we use our God-given ability to make money and produce goods, and then begin to keep back and hoard, we are stealing; by keeping for ourselves what rightfully belongs to others.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

What is the answer? Love—loving people enough to stop stealing from them, remember that words alone are not enough.

Scripture says:

“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity” (Eccles. 5:10).

Love forbids a false witness (v.9).

For this…Thou shalt not bear false witness… Romans 13:9

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:16; Deut. 5:20).

Most people think this means in a courtroom and lying against someone in court.

But not bearing false witness means far more than not lying against someone in court. Bearing false witness means any kind of lying.

Rumor, gossip or tale-bearing:

“And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not” (1 Tim. 5:13).

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Peter 4:15).

“Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people” (Leviticus 19:16).

“A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter” (Proverbs 11:13).

“A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends” (Proverbs 16:28).

“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth” (Proverbs 26:20).