Today, we are going to discuss a topic that is straight-forward. We are going to discuss a topic that all of us can understand. We are going to look at a sin that has been around since the Garden of Eden, that being stealing.
Stealing is simply taking anything that does not belong to us. It is taking something that we have no permission to have. It does not matter what the item is or how valuable, to take anything that does not belong to us is stealing and stealing, according to God, is wrong!
Every day, almost 22 thousand theft crimes are reported. That translates to slightly more than 7 million theft cases reported each year. The total value of property taken amounts to about 5 billion dollars. Cases where force is used in the act of stealing - which is called robbery - amount to a half million a year and involve property value taken in the area of 500 million dollars. When it comes to breaking into a house or business to steal - which is called burglary - there are 2 million reported cases each year and the value of property taken is estimated at 3.5 million dollars.
To combine all those statistics together, we are talking about ten million reported cases a year of people stealing property from somebody else at a cost of about ten billion dollars.
Even though those figures are high, the reality is that the vast majority of cases where someone steals some-thing that belongs to another goes unreported.
There are two primary reasons why most cases of stealing go unreported to the police.
1. There are numerous cases where a member of one’s family will steal from another member of the family. Or, a so-called friend will steal something from a friend. Because the victims do not want to get the person - who they care about - in trouble with the law, they don’t report the theft.
Maybe you know of an instance where a family member has stolen something that belongs to another family member. Maybe some money, a credit card, some clothing, a book, CD or a video. Maybe you know of a friend who has stolen from a friend. Maybe you have been guilty or have been the victim.
What needs to be realized is that stealing is an act of hate. Paul explains this in Romans 13:9-10, “For this, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.”
Paul says that if you truly love someone, you would never steal from them because true love does no harm to that person. When you love someone, you will treat them the same way that you would have them treat you.
I doubt that anyone of us desires to have our money or possessions stolen from us. To take money or anything else that belongs to another is an act of hate rather than love. If we love our family and our friends, we will never steal anything from them. (As Christians, we are to love everyone; therefore, to steal from anyone is sin.)
2. The second reason why most cases of stealing go unreported to the police is that the victim is unaware of their being stolen from or the victim doesn’t go to the hassle of reporting the incident.
What the thief often forgets is that while they may not get caught stealing by the victim they are stealing from or by the police, God knows their every action. Another person may not catch us stealing, but God already has.
Isaiah 29:15, “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, "Who sees us?" or "Who knows us?"
Psalm 33:13-14, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Ecclesiastes 12:14, “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”
You might be able to hide your stealing from other people but you cannot hide it from God. Toward the end of our lesson, we will discuss God’s punishment for stealing.
For the remainder of my lesson, I want to talk about some common ways that people are guilty of stealing in this 21st Century.
IDENTITY THEFT
The fastest growing crime in the United States is Identity Theft. Identity theft can range from fraudulent charges on an existing credit card account to the use of a person’s identity to open a new account, take out a loan, rent an apartment or commit a crime.
Five years ago, it was estimated that 700,000 to 1.1 million people became victims of this crime annually. The cases represented a loss of 12 billion dollars. That figure has now risen by ten times. Identity theft statistics now show that one in four U.S. households has been a victim of identity theft in the past five years.
Beyond the money that is stolen and the credit record that is damaged through identity theft, on average, victims spend 175+ hours and $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses to clear their names.
EMPLOYEE THEFT
Even though it is nothing new, employee theft continues to be a major crime in the United States. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that 75% of all employees steal at least once, and that half of these steal again and again. 95% of all companies are victims of theft, and yet only 10% ever discover it. No wonder that 30% of all business failures are caused by employee theft. Businesses lose 20% of every dollar to employee theft. Workplace theft costs the employer an average of $18,500 annually (about $1,500 per month), and it can reach nearly three times higher if mid-level to senior managers are committing the fraud, according to a study conducted by Ipsos-Reid Corp. for Ernst & Young. Workplace theft tops out at more than $120 billion annually.
Types of Workplace Fraud include -
37% - Theft of office supplies (taking home pens & pencils, paper clips, paper, folders, envelopes, stamps, staplers, etc.)
18% - Claiming extra hours worked
13% - Stealing product/money
12% - Pocketing money from cash sales
8% - Inflating expense accounts
6% - Kickbacks
2% - Cooking books
2% - Improper use of company vehicle
1% - Creating phony invoices
Paul taught against employee theft or pilfering in Titus 2:9-10, “Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.”
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT
Like identity theft, this is another form of stealing that is relatively new because it involves modern technology. The two biggest ways this crime is committed is -
1. Making copies of copyrighted material and distributing copies. It is so easy today to make copies of cassette tapes, CDs, videos and DVDs.
Why pay money for a cassette, CD, video or DVD when you can have a friend or family member make a copy of theirs for you?
Yet, we know that to make such copies and distribute them is a felony. It is stealing. We are stealing entertainment or other material from artists, producers and distributors without paying for the product.
Simply put, it is a sin to copy material and give it to others and it is a sin for us to accept copied material.
2. The other major way that Intellectual Property is stolen, today, is through file-sharing on the internet. To download music, videos, movies and such things without consent and without paying for the material is stealing.
No one knows for sure how much media is stolen by downloading from file-sharing sites, but the major sites get upwards of 50 million hits per day.
As Christians, we must take the high moral ground and not participate in Intellectual Property Theft.
SHOP-LIFTING
Another form of stealing that continues at epidemic proportions is shoplifting - taking things from stores without paying for them. Shoplifters steal from all types of stores including department stores, specialty shops, supermarkets, drug stores, discounters, music stores, convenience stores and thrift shops. More than $10 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year by shop lifters. That’s more than $25 million per day.
There are approximately 23 million shoplifters (or 1 in 11 people) in our nation today.
86 % of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. 66 percent say they hang out with those kids.
Interestingly, approximately 25% of shoplifters are kids, 75% are adults. What is disturbing is that 55% of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens.
57% of adults and 33% of juveniles say it is hard for them to stop shoplifting even after getting caught. The excitement generated from "getting away with it" produces a chemical reaction resulting in what shoplifters describe as an incredible "rush" or "high" feeling. Many shoplifters will tell you that this high is their "true reward," rather than the merchandise itself. What’s really tragic is that only 10% of all shoplifters come from low incomes. 70% are middle class and 20% are classified as wealthy. In other words, most shoplifters could afford to purchase the items that they steal.
Stealing is a sin. It doesn’t matter what we steal nor how we steal it. Stealing is wrong. There is no such thing as ‘petty theft’ in God’s sight - the character of those who steal a little is the same as those who steal much: "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. " (Luke 16:10)
Stealing comes from an evil heart and defiles us spiritually - Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man.”
Those who steal - thieves - will not enter Heaven - 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
