You shall not steal
I remember when I was a teenager that some of my family lived on Dorothy Street in the Houston Heights. They took a little trip and when they returned home, the house was empty of all furnishings. Someone had backed a truck up to the house and loaded up everything in the house. It was completely empty!
A dear elderly lady in Rockport returned home one evening to find her television set and other things had been stolen. She said, “I feel violated.”
Later on I felt as she did when someone went into my garage and helped themselves to an electric drill that I had purchased after waiting for years to have enough money to buy it ($25.00). I had barely used it. It was gone. And what I thought of at the time was the work that had earned the money and the sacrifice that had made saving for it possible.
The Eighth Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” can be broken by stealing things that belong to someone else, or it may be broken in other ways, like taking advantage of the ignorant in a bargain, or taking advantage of those in need, or refusing to pay living wages. Stealing may take the form of misrepresenting the value of something you are selling, or misrepresenting the value of something you are buying. And on and on we could go, showing many ways of stealing from others.
Stealing is a violation of the law of love that Jesus gave us. Breaking the law about stealing is like trying to break the law of gravity–you suffer for it. If you have robbed others, people hearing about it live in fear. That’s breaking the law of love.
The Fourth Commandment requires Sabbath observance. It also encourages work. Thievery replaces work. Receiving credit where credit is not due is theft.
We have only scratched the surface of ways to steal. So-called honest people have lied about insurance claims and taxes. The excuse, “everyone does it,” does not hold water with God. You are either a thief or you are not. Are you?
The Eighth Commandment says, “You shall not steal.”
Here’s what Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Theft is all about what I want–not what the Lord wants. Jesus calls us to become more like Him, to exhibit less of self and more of the Lord in our lives.
NONE OF SELF AND ALL OF THEE
Words: Theodore Monod
Music: James McGranahan
1875
1 O the bitter shame and sorrow
That a time could ever be
When I let the Savior’s pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered:
All of self and none of thee!
2 Yet he found me; I beheld him
Bleeding on the cursed tree,
Heard him pray: Forgive them, Father!
And my wistful heart said faintly:
Some of self and some of thee!
3 Day by day his tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong and, ah! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered:
Less of self and more of thee!
4 Higher than the highest Heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, thy love at last has conquered;
Grant me now my spirit’s longing:
None of self and all of thee!
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.