Put Away Stealing
STEALING
Zig Ziglar tells of a thief, a man named Emmanuel Nenger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can’t be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger’s home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It’s true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself. Signs of the Times, Oct. 1988, p. 22-3.
Don’t steal God’s riches blessings from yourself and those around you…
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Ephes. 4:28
We Christians are to take off the filthy garment of stealing.
“Steal” klepto, klep’-to; a primary verb; to filch :- steal; means to cheat, to take wrongfully from another person, either legally or illegally.
We must remember that the laws of man are not the determining rule governing whether a person is stealing or not. This is what is so often misunderstood about stealing.
Þ Men can sometimes use the law to steal.
Þ Men can take from others without ever breaking a law.
Þ Men can secure too much of something, well beyond what they need; and when they hoard, they are taking something that by nature belongs to others.
The Bible teaches us that stealing is the taking of anything that rightfully or by nature belongs to others.
There are at least three forms of stealing.
A person steals by taking something which is actually possessed or personally owned by another person.
If a person owns it and we take it, then we are guilty of stealing.
It may be something as simple as a pencil at the office or an answer to a test from a fellow student, or it may be something as complex as embezzlement of funds through bookkeeping procedures.
If we take it, we break God’s commandment and stand guilty as thieves.
“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).
“The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death” (Proverbs 21:6).
“He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress” (Hosea 12:7).
A person steals by hoarding and banking more than he needs.
Keeping back is stealing. It is...
·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 for the needs of the others.
·hoarding the knowledge, gifts and blessings God gives us to use for the welfare of a desperate world filled with so many less privileged and gifted.
You can call it by whatever name you wish, but to God it is stealing.
God places within the earth enough resources to meet the needs of HIS people, and HE has given men both the ability and command to subdue and have dominion over the earth. Look closely at His command:
“And God blessed them [man and woman], 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).
We are to subdue and have dominion over the earth, by God’s command.
God is not saying some are to have the benefits and blessings of the earth.
God’s intention is that we love one another and share the blessings of the earth together.
When we use our God-given ability to make money and produce goods, and then begin to keep back and hoard, we are stealing; we are keeping for ourselves what rightfully belongs to others.
If this is our passion then we will surely suffer catastrophic loss in eternity.
Two examples are:
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? Luke 12:20
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; [23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Luke 16:22-23
Why? Because we did not love enough to do what God has placed use and our particular talents on earth to do: provide for those who are less gifted and less fortunate.
“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).
“And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you” (Luke 3:13).
“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephes. 4:28).
“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Tim. 6:9).
“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” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
“Thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 22:12).
A person steals by living extravagantly, beyond what we need.
There are some who give to meet some need of the crying world, yet they do not live sacrificially. They keep plenty for themselves, indulging their flesh...
·in clothing ·in food ·in jewelry ·in possessions ·in housing ·in transportation ·in recreation ·in property
Many in industrialized nations such as ours are guilty of selfishness despite a tenderness and concern for the needy in the world. Concern and some giving are not enough to fulfill the demand of God that we share and meet the needs of HIS people throughout the world.
Each day that we awaken and arise out of bed, the world is reeling under the weight of masses...
·who are hungry and starving to death.
·who are without drinking water.
·who are without adequate clothing.
·who are diseased and without medicine.
·who have no roof over their heads.
·who have no one to teach them.
The means to meet the needs of our world exists today.
The lack is not manpower and resources; the lack is sacrificial commitment to give the resources and to go and become personally involved.
This is indeed a tragic scene, for God put the gifted upon earth to sacrificially meet the needs of the less gifted. But instead of meeting needs, many of the gifted are living in excessive comfort and pleasure, indulging the whims of their flesh.
“Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess” (Matthew 23:25).
“And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (Luke 12:33).
“Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them” (Amos 5:11).
What is the answer?
Striking a balance in what God will have us to do so that we may put away stealing and become more effective in our ability to “Go ye therefore…”
What can be said of your willingness to help others?
Or you suffering from self centeredness, while enjoying the gifts that God has given you for the benefit of others around you?
This is the will of God: working in order to have enough to provide for you and your family then giving to those in need around you.
Work is to be honest and meet the necessities of our family; however, working just for self is selfish. And selfishness corrupts and leaves a person’s heart and work empty and aimless. Yet, working in order to help others in the name of Christ—this is the will of God.
This is the only way the needs of the world will ever be met.
Our work is to be for the Lord’s purpose and cause—the cause that provides the means to reach and to help people.
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1 John 3:17
So let’s put aside stealing in our lives and go…
