“Stealing Is An Inside Job”
“You shall not steal.” Exodus 20:15
Much like some of the
other commandments, our temptation is to simply check this one off the list and
consider that to be someone else’s problem.
However, just like we discover with murder, adultery and some of the
others, there is more to it than we often think. Stealing is used in so many parts of our
culture. We talk about “Identity Theft.”
We say we have a “License to Steal.” We
refer to “Five Finger Discounts.” Video
games are entitled “Grand Theft Auto” Baseball even talks about “Stealing
Bases” Blue collar crimes and white
collar crimes are common vernacular. These phrases and many more are part of
our everyday vocabulary. It doesn’t
take long to see that God is serious about this area.
Venture forward to
the New Testament and you will see this in Jesus. His greatest point of
anger in the NT came when he turned over the tables of the money changers who
were stealing from the people. He never
unleashed over adultery or coveting or any other violation like he did stealing. God hates stealing because it has a damaging
effect. Paul reiterated it in 1 Corinthians 6:10,
which says, “Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom
of God” God can puts them all together.
Most of us have heard
stories about the World Dumbest Criminals.
Most of those pertain to thieves who have been caught stealing. A guy walked into a little corner store with
a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier
put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind
the counter on the shelf. He told the
cashier to put it in the bag as well…but the cashier refused and said,
"Because I don’t believe you are over 21." The robber said he was,
but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he didn’t believe him. At
this point, the robber took his driver’s license out of his wallet and gave it
to the clerk. The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over
21 and he put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with
his loot and the cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and
address of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the robber two
hours later. Stealing is dumb and so are
we if we do it.
We live in a world
where people often separate stealing into different categories. We do this
as well. Stealing that is harmful and
stealing that is harmless. Stealing that
is big and stealing that is little. Stealing
that God frowns
upon and stealing that God winks at. But in Exodus
20:15, God doesn’t sort through minutia
or levels of stealing as some being OK and some not being OK, he simply
disapproves of anything that takes what is not yours. It says, “ “You shall not steal.” Early on, God wanted Israel
to realize that you will have property of your own and you need to respect the
property of others as well. To ignore it
is to not only break down a culture but our own character. Bottom line, we don’t like it done to us and
God doesn’t want us doing it to others.
God told the
Israelites, just like he shares with us, “Stealing is out of bounds.” In fact, it will hurt our
lives, hurt others, and hurt God when we violate the law. We violate our loyalty. We violate our love for the Lord. He promises to meet our needs as we trust Him
in all areas. Two types of stealing that we have.
1. Overt Stealing (like
the World’s Dumbest and Smartest Criminals)
This is when you intentionally steal. The word “thief" comes from the old
English “to crouch, one who takes illegally, by secret, or stealthily. This is a sneak thief, or burglar. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the
thieves took what was not their’s. “A certain man went down from Jerusalem
to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him . . . leaving him half dead.”
(Luke 10:30).
2. Covert Stealing (where we all can easily drift)
“The Lord hates dishonest scales and dishonest weights.”
says Proverbs 20:23. Sales
people adding to expenses, false advertising, false claims, exaggerations,
selling a person something he/she does not need, or should not have, promises
you cannot keep and yes, mechanics or salespeople charging for work not done. The idea is it to withhold something
rightfully due. If you don’t pay a debt on time, you defraud and not allow them
the use of their money.
When it comes down to
it, God changes us into people of purity and honesty because He is a God of
purity and honesty. Just as
importantly, always remember how you feel when someone steals something from
you. It’s the “do unto others, as you
would have them do unto you” message.
When we do, we become more like God and grow more in His image.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Have you ever stolen
anything overtly or covertly?
2) Why does it put a blight on
our integrity?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
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