Commandment #8: “Do not steal.” (Exodus 20:15) I have an unusual habit. Unlike most men I carry my wallet in my front pants pocket. This started over 40 years ago when I was walking on a crowded sidewalk, and I felt a man reach into my back pocket. The pickpocket wanted to take my wallet but, fortunately for me, he went for the wrong back pocket and instead of my wallet he almost stole my comb. After that incident I began carrying my wallet in my front pocket.
That was not the only time someone tried to rob me. A few years ago, someone accessed my name and credit card number and used them to subscribe to an online streaming service. I only learned about this when the charge appeared on my monthly credit card statement. I immediately cancelled that credit card. We never found out who the crook was, but at least we stopped his stealing.
What is stealing? The two examples above depict stealing in its old-fashioned sense: the (attempted) taking of someone’s property; and in its more contemporary sense: ID theft, the fastest growing kind of theft in America. Stealing has always involved some form of dipping one’s hand into someone else’s cookie jar, whether the victim is another person, a business, or the community at-large. Stealing can involve taking possessions, money, ideas, opportunities, identity, exploitation of the poor, or kidnapping—the stealing of an actual person. The Bible lists several varieties of stealing: robbing, cheating, false advertising, dishonest measurements, or failure to pay a debt as forms of stealing. All of those methods of theft still happen today. Over the course of 3000 years since the Eighth Commandment was first given, human nature hasn’t improved at all. Stealing starts when a toddler wanting something and says “mine,” and it continues when an adult wants something and says “mine.”
In modern societies theft is defined in law books, often in minute detail to cover all types of theft with loopholes lawyers can take advantage of. But according to the Bible stealing is always wrong. It is not wrong because it is breaking man’s law, it is wrong because it is breaking God’s law! We may sympathize when a man steals food because he is hungry, but he still has to repay (Proverbs 6:30-31).
The biblical understanding of stealing is different than our modern definition in one significant way: according to the biblical worldview, God, who made the world and who made all people, is the Lord and “landlord” of us and our possessions. He not only determines who owns what, but he has issued rules on the acceptable ways of using our possessions. Though we typically view ourselves as the rightful owners of “our” land or “our” possessions, our ownership is always subject to God’s rule and his judgment.
Just as Jesus warned his followers that the sins of murder and adultery begin in the heart, so it is with stealing: the desire for always acquiring more begins in the heart. Jesus told us not to collect “treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). The only secure place to store our treasure is in heaven, and we can tell where our treasure is located by checking the desires of our heart.
Remember Zaccheus, the tax collector who was watching Jesus from up in a sycamore tree, and Jesus invited himself over to Zaccheus’ house? He told Jesus: “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anybody out of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). Jesus took his attitude as evidence of salvation. Zaccheus heart was changed! If the sin of stealing begins in the heart, then that is where the solution must be found. The biblical solution for the problem of stealing is easy and obvious: As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28). In this verse Paul gave a twofold alternative to stealing: to work and to share: to work in order to provide for yourself and your family; and to share generously with others who may be unable to provide for themselves and their family.
If we were to re-state the Eighth Commandment in a positive form, perhaps we would say “Thou shalt respect the property rights of others.” Or simply, “Be honest in everything.” Or, even better, “Be content with what you have.”
Years ago, a friend left the grocery store and discovered that the clerk had given him 40 cents too much in change. He turned around and went back to the store and returned the 40 cents. Someone who heard this story responded, “Why did you bother? It was only 40 cents.” My friend replied, “My clear conscience is worth more to me than 40 cents.” A clear conscience is the reward for not stealing!
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell.