Thou shalt not steal Exodus 20:1-15
Tom invited his mom over for dinner. She was from out of town and she really wrestled with the fact that he was living with a girl but as he said, Julie was just a roommate, who had been a friend of a friend and it was cheaper than living alone. During the meal she noticed how beautiful Julie was and over the course of the evening as she watched them interact she wondered if there was more to this relationship than met the eye. Reading his mother’s thoughts Tom said, “I know what you are thinking mom; but I assure you, Julie and I are just roommates and that’s it.”
About a week after she left Julie came to Tom and said, “I hate to bring this up but ever since your mom was here for dinner; I can’t seem to find our silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose your mom took it do you?” Well, Tom said, “I doubt it, because I don’t think she’s a thief but just to keep you happy, I’ll write a letter and ask.” So, he wrote and said, “Dear mom I’m not saying you took the gravy ladle and I’m not saying you didn’t, but the fact is; it’s been missing ever since you were here for dinner.” A few days later, Tom received a letter from his mother that said, “Dear Tom, I’m not saying you’re sleeping with Julie and I’m not saying you’re not; but the fact remains that if Julie was sleeping in her own bed she would have found the gravy ladle by now.” Love mom.
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.”
I was in to see my doctor for my annual check-up a few weeks ago and he said I have the body of a 35 year old. As a matter of fact, he even told me where the guy was buried. And then he gave me three bottles of pills and he said, "Take the green pill with a big glass of water when you get up. Take the blue pill with a big glass of water after lunch. Then just before you go to bed, take the red pill with another big glass of water." I was rather concerned about taking another bunch of pills so I said, “What exactly is my problem?" And he said, "You’re not drinking enough water."
Well, we’ve been looking at the Ten Commandments, and we’ve seen that each of these commandments reveal; not only who God is but also how He wants us to relate, not only to Him but to one another as well. For instance, He told us to honor our mothers and fathers and the idea behind this was to show respect for their authority. You see, part of the purpose of parents is to teach us how to function in the world. And as I said before, God knows exactly who you and I are; He knows about all of our strengths and weaknesses and He also knows the direction we need in our lives to be the people He created us to be. So, He gives us parents to rub off the rough edges and if that doesn’t work He brings out the big guns and gives us kids as well.
Now, what this teaches; is that God not only ordains the authority structure of the home but He also uses our family relationships to teach us how we’re to function in society. And if we’re living in a state of rebellion either at home or in the world, we’re actually living in rebellion to God’s standards and not mans. So, He tells us we are to respect authority because respect brings order and God is the author of order and not confusion.
I remember in the late sixties there was an attempt to set up what they called ‘a school without rules’ and this was called, “The Summerhill Experiment.” In this school, the idea was, the children would be free to learn, play, compete or create. And they were not only given everything they needed but they also had all kinds of resource people to help them do whatever they wanted to do. And yet, in spite of all the freedom and everything they had; the result was a complete disaster.
These children were not only destructive but they were also self-destructive; and in the end of this two year experiment it was said that nothing productive was accomplished and the children involved had long-lasting psychological and discipline problems. Listen, a well balanced life is a life of discipline and order.
I remember reading one of Robert Fulgrum’s books where he described one of his neighbors ‘as a raker and disturber of nature.’ He said, “He’s the kind of guy who can’t seem to leave his yard alone.” And so, in response to all of his neighbor’s busyness; Fulgrum decided to set his back yard free. So, he stood on his deck and yelled, “You’re free now, do whatever you want.” And now he says he’s content with the natural look of his yard; but everyone who lives around him just think he’s lazy.
You see; Fulgrum is like the people who started the Summerhill School who got where they were by discipline and then they said; discipline was the cause of everybody’s problems.
The second law of thermo-dynamics says, “Left to itself things go from order to disorder.” And listen, that’s not just a scientific law, that’s life. We need order in our personal lives and order in our spiritual lives to be all we were created to be. So, believe it or not, your parents and you who are parents are part of the plan of God.
Then we looked at “Thou shalt not kill” and we saw how we are to be in control our tempers rather than letting our tempers get control of us. Jesus told us how to respond to the difficult people in life in Matthew 5:44-45, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
So, Jesus told us to react to the difficult people the same way He did and that means we are to love our enemies and especially those who say their not but act as if they were. If, someone hates you because they’re envious or jealous there’s nothing that you can do to change how they feel. The better you do in life then the more they’ll hate you and if anything bad happens, they’ll just say, see, I was right all along, they deserve everything they get. And as difficult as it is to accept there are people who will be your enemies. Listen, Jesus was perfect and He had more than His share.
And then we have, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and this commandment teaches us that since God is faithful and He’s always the One who never leaves us nor forsakes us then we who are indwelt by His Spirit are to demonstrate this same kind of love toward one another.
In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul uses the analogy of marriage to describe the relationship between Christ and His church. Listen to what it says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
And what Paul was saying is; the marriage relationship between two believers ought to be as indivisible as the relationship that exists between Jesus and His church. So, this tells us; there’s no room whatsoever for adultery in the Christian life.
And now, we come to the eighth commandment which says; “Thou shalt not steal.” Does God steal? No, He doesn’t take anything unless it’s freely given to Him. God is love and love is unselfish but stealing is just the opposite. It’s taking something that belongs to someone else.
I First, I want you to understand that there’s a certain assumption that accompanies this commandment and this is that God has given us not only given us the right to own things but He’s also given us a sense of responsibility for everything we have.
There have been movements throughout history such as communism and socialism and they’ve taught that it’s wrong to own anything and that owning things is the source of all the problems we have in this world. And the solution they said was, instead of anybody owning anything the state would own everything. Their thinking was; that rather than everybody trying to get ahead of everyone else; everyone will work for the common good.
And yet, the economic collapse of the Soviet Union has shown us that this philosophy was an abysmal failure. I mean, during the reign of communism farmers were given a hundred acres to produce food for the common good and at the same time they were given a hundred square feet to produce whatever they wanted for themselves and they always managed to produce more on that little plot of land than they could on the hundred acres.
Besides the Soviets failing in the area of production it wasn’t surprising to find the elite of Soviet society were living the lives of the rich and famous while everybody else was barely getting by.
So, I know there’s nothing wrong with owning things but today people have so much that they don’t know what to do with half of what they have and can’t use. And it wasn’t always this way because there was a time when houses didn’t even have closets but everything you wore would fit into a chest of drawers. And when you look back at old pictures you’ll be surprised at how empty the houses look.
There are also plenty of second hand stores like the Salvation Army, Value Village and lots of independent stores.
But, today people have a love affair with stuff. I’m always amazed at storage centers that are popping up everywhere and many of them have waiting lists. Have you ever wondered what’s in these places? One man who owns one said, "We have people who pay thousands of dollars in storage fees for stuff you couldn’t get a hundred dollars for in a garage sale, but it’s their stuff and it has special meaning to them." And then there was an American group called the Self Storage Association and they said people store furniture, house wares, pictures, paintings and old clothes. I guess it’s like the old saying, “We spend money we don’t have, to buy stuff we don’t need, to impress people we don’t even like.” And then when we don’t know what to do with it, we put it in storage.
On the other hand, I don’t want to give you the impression that it’s wrong to be well to do because throughout the scriptures we see people of faith who were rich and it seems as though their wealth was the evidence of God’s blessing. For instance, Job was considered to be very wealthy and so was Abraham. Joseph held a top position in the Egyptian government as did Daniel with the Babylonians and Mordecai with the Persians. All these men were considered godly and yet, none of them would ever want for anything.
I think I might have mentioned a few weeks ago that David was so wealthy that before he died he gave 117 tons of gold for the construction of the temple; which was worth over four billion dollars and then when he died, it was said of his son Solomon that he was richer than his father.
In the New Testament there’s mention of Dorcas in the book of Acts and she was said to be a seller of purple which was an extremely wealthy trade and then Philemon who had received a book from Paul was said to have had such a large house that they held church services there and keep in mind this was in a city. So, it had to be big. So, the issue wasn’t what they owned but how they saw the things they owned.
You see; whatever any of us have; is part of our stewardship from God and all of us will give account for everything He’s entrusted to our care. I’m afraid that those who die with so much stuff they had to rent storage space are going to look like the guy in the New Testament who said, “He didn’t want to lose anything so, he took it all out and buried it.”
So, we all have to be careful because as someone once said, “What we own, soon owns us.” And we need to be constantly reminded that we are more than the sum total of our possessions; and the ability to earn or save more than anyone else doesn’t make us better or worse than somebody else.
The world we live in is corrupt and corrupting and as believers we need to be careful of this get-ahead philosophy for the sake of getting ahead. Paul never condemns the rich for being rich but he does lay down some advice for them in I Timothy 6:17-19 where he said, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” In other words, he tells us we need to be humble as well as grateful for everything we have; recognize that everything comes from the hand of God and we’re to enjoy these things while at the same time being generous to those who have needs around us.
The problem is; when you have private ownership and some have more than others; human nature being what it is; there’s always going to be theft. So, what the Bible says to one, it says to all, “Thou shalt not steal.”
II There are different kinds of stealing.
In John 10:8 Jesus said, “All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers.” Notice the two words here, thieves and robbers. It sounds like some kind of poetic repetition but they’re actually two different terms.
Thieves are easy to get along with because they have no desire to scare anybody; they just want your stuff. I’ve had someone break in my car in an underground parking lot when we lived in Toronto and they took a tape recorder and then another time they took my wheel discs and cleaned out my glove box. I’ve had money taken from my pockets at sports clubs and even a notebook stolen from my carry-on bag at the airport in Bolivia. That’s just the world we live in. Most retail stores add 10% to the price of everything we buy, to makeup for the amount that people steal. The term they use is inventory shrinkage but they say most of it is actually stolen by the staff.
The fact is; we expect a certain amount of stuff to be stolen. I heard about a Christian cowboy who lost his favorite Bible while he was mending fences out on the range and he assumed someone stole it. And then three weeks later a cow walked up carrying the Bible in its mouth. Well, the cowboy couldn’t believe his eyes. He took the Bible out of the cow’s mouth, raised his eyes heavenward, and said, "It’s a miracle!" "Not really," said the cow. "Your name is written inside the cover."
Robbers are the morally depraved people who have no respect for themselves and no respect for the rights and property of others. These are the kind of people who will break into your house, car or office and they’ll not only steal what they can but they’ll also destroy everything in sight and they do this to express their anger because they resent anybody who has more than they do. So, they’re motivated by anger as well as greed. And stealing is their way of getting even with the world for the supposed injustices that were inflicted on them.
Did you know that the thieves on the cross were called ‘robbers.’ And the reason they were crucified was because they were considered to be career criminals who showed no hope of ever changing.
I remember the first and only time I was ever robbed in the sense that somebody actually threatened me and then stole my stuff. I was walking down Yonge Street in downtown Toronto and I was wearing a brand new leather vest and a couple of bikers walked one beside me and the other one behind me and they kind moved me to the side and I found myself standing in an open doorway with two flights of stairs behind me and one of them pressed a knife against my stomach and said, “Sell me your vest for a dime or I’ll stab you and throw your body down the stairs.” It was all over in a couple of seconds but I remember afterwards feeling like there was no where safe anymore. I mean, this happened on Yonge Street with a couple of hundred people walking by.
Well, people are often guilty of theft but they’d be offended if you ever referred to them as thieves but listen, stealing doesn’t refer to the amount someone takes but to the act of taking something that doesn’t belong to you.
For instance, some people steal time. They get paid to work for eight hours and they barely put in six. I remember when I worked for the railroad where we were being paid to repair railway cars but men were working on their cars, fixing their kids bicycles and doing personal work for the various foremen. It seems like everybody was doing something other than working on the railroad. I remember one man who worked out on the hook; which was the rail car they sent out for emergency service and he spent all his time making homemade liquor for the foremen. He made about ten to twenty bottles a day. I think that was probably the most profitable operation CN had going.
Now, that’s a wild illustration of how people misuse company time and yet, some of us have been guilty of the same kind of thing although probably not to that degree.
I heard a story about a man who was out fishing and his boat capsized in a storm. He started swimming to shore and they said he would have made it but he heard the five o’clock whistle and he stopped swimming and drowned.
Then there are those who steal from the government. And we can do all the mental black flips we want in order to justify ourselves but the scripture teaches that we all have to pay our taxes. We see the example of Jesus who paid the temple tax and listen; this tax was part of the money the priests used to bribe Judas. So, if anyone could justify not paying taxes surely Jesus could, after all, He knew where the money was going.
And then Paul when wrote in Romans 13:7 and he said, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” Now listen to this, Paul was telling the believers of Rome to pay their taxes even though these taxes were being used to pay for their persecution. I mean, don’t forget these taxes were going to Nero and Nero was not only trying to wipe out Christianity but he was also the very person Paul was going to appear before. So, regardless of what you or I think about the quality of our government, we’re told to pay our taxes.
Then there’s the temptation to save a few dollars when we’re registering a used car; all we have to do is tell them that we paid a lot less and we can save money on the taxes. After all, we say, why should we have to pay taxes a second time since it was taxed when it was bought new? Why should the government get a piece of it every time it changes hands? Well, guess what? God doesn’t give us any exceptions, He just told us to pay what’s demanded.
And then there’s the customs office at the border. I’ve heard people making up their own rules; like, you don’t have to pay any taxes if you’ve already worn it but what this really means is; you don’t have to pay what the customs office doesn’t see. But, God sees everything.
We all need to pay our share because it’s the right thing to do, for the sake of testimony and most of all, because God says so.
And then there are some who steal from large companies because, they say, it isn’t personal. I remember when we lived in Oshawa, there was one man who worked at General Motors and he got caught stealing car parts and this wasn’t just a few nuts and bolts but he literally furnished the entire inside of his cottage with car parts. He even used those flat back windows to make coffee tables.
I remember one year Sally and I were in Glace Bay for a wedding and my aunt said, “Why don’t we order a couple of pizzas.” Well, there was a good crowd there, so she ordered three or four of the large ones. After we all had enough, one of the kids said, “There’s still a large pizza here that no one’s touched.” And she said, “Look around the house and find a dead fly. We’ll take the pizza back and get our money” and she wasn’t kidding. Now, if you called her a thief, she would really be offended.
I remember back when you had to pay five dollars a week to have your garbage picked up; there were two brothers on the same street and the Christian one always took his garbage to his brother’s house the night before and that way he said he didn’t have to pay for garbage pick-up. After all, he said, “Why should we both have to pay for the one stop?” So, was he being a good steward or was he stealing from the garbage collector?
And then there’s the insurance company and while they’re paying to fix someone’s car; they can ask the repair guy to fix something extra and let the insurance company pay for the whole thing. Listen, you can probably think of a thousand different ways that people cut corners at someone else’s expense but no matter what they call it, God calls it stealing and even if no one else knows about it, He does.
I believe the act of stealing really grows out of unbelief because either the person doesn’t believe God sees or they think He doesn’t care; but if He didn’t care then He why would He have given us the eighth commandment.
It’s easy for us to think of thieves; like that stock trader in New York who ran a Ponzi scheme and stole over 50 billion dollars. Or the former chief financial officer of Tommy Hilfiger Handbags who plead guilty a couple of weeks ago to stealing more than $19 million from the company and he used this money to finance his home and two apartments, interior-decorating services, luxury cars and whopping credit-card debt. And then there’s Conrad Black who stole a piddly six million dollars. But listen, when God says, “Thou shalt not steal” He talking about taking anything that doesn’t belong to us, no matter how big or how small.
And whether they’re high-powered executives or penny-ante con artists or someone in between, the commandment doesn’t change. I heard a story about a man on crutches who hobbled over to a woman and asked for money. She handed him a five dollar bill and said, “Cheer up. You’d be worse off if you were blind.” And he said, “I know, I was blind last week but I kept getting phony money!”
Listen to what Paul said about the slaves of the first century in Titus 2:9-10, “Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” These slaves weren’t paid employees but people owned them. They would work all day and receive room and board; but in spite of their situation and what little they got Paul said they were to be obedient, respectful, honest and dependable. In other words, they were to demonstrate their faith by their attitude toward their work. And that meant not helping themselves to anything that belonged to the boss.
I guess what Paul was telling us here is, we have to decide what our testimony is worth. If we take anything that doesn’t belong to us; whether it’s worth a thousand dollars or a dime we’re telling the non-Christians around us that this is worth more than our testimony.
Do you know that the amazing thing I’ve recognized in my own life; I’m never tempted by the big stuff. I mean; I could walk away from $10,000 and never bat an eye but it’s the little things that catch my attention. And isn’t that where we’re all tested? But listen, if God can’t trust us with the little things; then how can He can trust us with anything.
So, we’ve seen that we have a responsibility for the things we own and that none of us are to be thieves or robbers and now I want to show you how our trustworthiness is the basis of our testimony.
III Our trustworthiness is the basis of our testimony.
In I Samuel 12:3-5 we see Samuel giving his testimony and receiving a response from the people around him. “Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.”
The credibility of Samuel’s ministry rested on his honesty. He said; if you have any evidence that I’ve cheated or taken advantage of anyone in any way then you have every reason in the world to ignore my message.
And we see the same thing in II Corinthians 12:17-18 where Paul said to the believers, “Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?” Paul said, look at our personal examples and then judge our message. And our testimony, like that of Paul and Samuel rests on our honesty. Someone said, “The temptation of our age is to look good without worrying about being good.”
I remember when I was a salesman in Toronto and one Friday afternoon I was talking to a customer in his late fifties or early sixties and as we finished with business he said, “So, what are you doing for the week-end.” And I told him I was playing in Detroit. And he said, “Do you play in a band?” And I said, “No, it’s not a band just two other friends and I were singing at a rescue mission.” And then I shared how I had been involved in the drug business and how I had become a Christian and what God had done in my life. And he listened very carefully and when I finished he said, “Get out that door and don’t ever come back.” And he was absolutely serious, so, I got up and left.
About a month later, I thought I should go see him again but I really had a sense of fear and trepidation. And when I stepped into his office he looked at me and said, “I thought I told you not to come back.” And I said, I was wondering if you would tell me what you have against Christians. And then he told me how he and several other kids had sought refuge in a monastery during the war and the Catholic brothers who ran this monastery were all homosexuals and they took every chance they could to abuse these kids who had come looking for a place of safety and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. And as far as he was concerned these men were Christians.
And as we talked; there was a two way mirror where people would go through the line and buy their food and he said, “Do you see that man?” And there was a man in his late fifties who didn’t buy anything but he took a cup for hot water and then he took a tea bag out of his pocket and put it in the cup. And when he got to the cash he told the girl he didn’t buy anything and then he took cream and sugar from the counter and went to the table and ate a bag lunch.
And then this man told me, “If I don’t watch this guy, every time he goes through the line he’ll steal a muffin or something and put it in his pocket and several times when I’ve confronted him, he’ll laugh and pay for it. But, when he finishes his lunch he goes from table to table and hands out tracts and tells people how they need to be saved.” And then he asked me, “Is that the kind of Christian you are?”
And that’s a good question isn’t it? And as we look back over the previous commandments we have to ask ourselves, what kind of Christian am I? According to the first four we’re told to love God with of our hearts. Have you always loved God with all your heart? And then we’re told we’re to obey our parents, so, what was your relationship like to yours? Were you always obedient or are you a parent that’s worth obeying? And when we come to the commandment about murder, I told you how Jesus took it all a step farther and looked at the attitude behind the action and told us how our anger can be as bad as murder because it’s the same attitude even though the actions are different. So, how’s your temper? And then in the commandment about adultery, we have to ask ourselves; have I ever committed adultery in my heart? And today as we we’ve looked at the issue of stealing; have you ever taken anything that didn’t belong to you?
Well, most of us are guilty of a few and some of us are guilty of all but the good news is; God is willing to forgive us for whatever we’ve done. So, if someone holds a weaker believer as a bad example of what a believer ought to be, you can just say, someday all of us will stand before God and give account of the things we’ve done and then ask them how are they’re going to do.
I once heard someone say, “A resume is what people believe you are; based on what you say about yourself. A reputation is what everyone else thinks you are. But your character is what you are when no one is looking. And another way of saying this is; you are what you are when only God is watching.
