Commandment #8 - Stealing

The IRS actually received the following letter:

Dear Sirs,

Here is a check for $150. I cheated on my income taxes last year, and I haven’t been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest.

Today: Commandment #8 - You shall not steal.

We’ve been looking at the Ten Commandments and asking the question: how do they apply to our lives, not just on the outward level, but on the inward level as well?

God expects our righteousness to be more than skin deep. Jesus tells us that in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s possible for you to be keeping the Ten Commandments on the outward level, but be breaking them in your heart - in secret, hidden ways.

And God wants to deal with that. He wants to get down into the dark, secret places of our lives and deal with sin there. “God desires truth in the inward parts.” We’ll never be pleasing to him, and we’ll never know his blessing on our lives, if we try to cover up sin in our hearts.

What does this commandment mean? It means that, in God’s eyes, you don’t have the right to take something that rightfully belongs to somebody else. If you do, God calls it stealing. Doesn’t matter what the world calls it; God calls it stealing. There are a lot of legal ways to steal in our society, and you’ll never get caught. But there’s a big difference between what is righteous in God’s eyes and what is legal in the eyes of the world.

We have learned that the Ten Commandments tell us what God is like. Each one of them communicates something special about God’s character:

Commandment #8 teaches us that God is our provider. It tells us that, if we walk in the pathway of God’s righteousness, God will provide for all of our needs.

Psalm 37:25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

But we all have a tendency to doubt that. We all have a tendency to say: “God, I’m not sure that I can depend on you to give me what I need. So I’m going to have to go out there and get it for myself. I’m going to have to look out for #1.

And if I have an opportunity to provide for myself by cutting some ethical corners here and there, by stepping on someone else’s toes, by taking what isn’t rightfully mine, well that’s too bad. I’m only trying to get what I need.”

When we steal, we’re simply saying that we don’t believe that God is capable of providing for us. We have become so focused on getting what we want, that we’re willing to sacrifice our integrity and our commitment to God in the process.

Now it’s pretty easy to see how the Eighth Commandment applies in the life of an armed bank robber, or an embezzler, or a shoplifter. But how does it apply to us?

There once was a frontier town in the Pacific Northwest where the people were in the lumber business. They wanted a church, so they built one and called a pastor. The pastor was well received. Everyone loved his preaching.

One day, he happened to be out walking in the woods by the river. He happened to notice that some of his parishioners were dragging logs out of the river. Those logs were floating downstream to a sawmill from another logging town further up the river. Each one of those logs was stamped with the mark of the owner on one end.

As the pastor watched, his church members pulled in those logs, sawed off the end where the stamp was, and put their own stamp in its place.

Well, the pastor was deeply concerned. So he went back to his study and that Sunday he preached a powerful sermon on the Eighth Commandment: Thou shalt not steal. At the close of the service, the people lined up and congratulated him warmly. “Wonderful message, Pastor, the best you’ve ever preached.”

But the next week, he went down to the river again, and lo and behold, his church members were still pulling their neighbors’ logs out of the river and sawing the ends off. So the preacher decided that he had to get a little more specific. He went home and started working on a new sermon.

That Sunday, his sermon was entitled “Thou shalt not saw the ends off thy neighbors’ logs.” When he got done preaching, the people ran him out of town!

Now I want to get specific today, and when I get done, you might want to run me out of town! That’s the way sin is. It never likes to be uncovered. Everybody loves to hear the pastor preach against sin, but when the Holy Spirit starts zeroing in on your sin, that’s a different story! You squirm. You don’t like it!

But listen, when God points out some sin in your life, God isn’t mad at you. He’s not upset. He doesn’t hate you. He loves you. And he knows that by letting that sin exist in your life, you’re missing out on the fullness of his blessing and his love and his power. So God just wants to help you root it out.

So let’s talk about some of the civilized, respectable, socially-acceptable ways by which we often break the Eighth Commandment.

1. By taking advantage of people who are at our mercy.

This happens in business all the time. A woman goes to an auto mechanic. She doesn’t know the difference between and alternator and a carburetor - all she knows is that her car is making a funny noise. So he looks under the hood, and instead of tightening her loose fanbelt for $20, he puts in a new electrical system for $400. She was at his mercy, and he took advantage of her. That’s stealing.

If you are a businessman, or a professional, or even someone with a certain amount of expertise in some area, you may find yourself in a situation where you’ll have people at your mercy. You’ll be tempted to steal from them.

In Genesis 25, we read the story about how Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. Esau had been out in the fields. He came home tired and hungry. Jacob just happened to be sitting there stirring a pot of stew. Esau looked at the stew. His mouth was watering. The aroma was doing a number on his olfactory nerves.

And that’s when Jacob said “Let’s make a deal.” You get the stew. I get the birthright. Esau agreed. They had a deal. It was legal, it was fair, Esau signed on the dotted line. If there were lawyers in those days, they all would have passed it. Except that God said that Jacob stole it. And Jacob knew that he stole it. He had a guilty conscience for years.

Taking advantage of people for your own profit is stealing. It may be legal, but it isn’t right.

2. Stealing from big, impersonal institutions like the government.

The IRS estimates that over 50% of all Americans cheat on their income taxes. The only reason that they get away with it is that the IRS simply doesn’t have enough agents to catch them all. When you fail to disclose income on your 1040, you are cheating. And if you’re cheating on your taxes, you’re stealing from the government.

There are other ways of stealing from the state.

A few years ago, I sold a station wagon to a fellow who paid me three thousand dollars for it. He was a carpet salesman. He came to my house and gave me a certified check for $3,000. But when I went to write out a receipt for the money, he said “Wait a minute. Make out the receipt for 1,500. That way, when I go to register the vehicle, I’ll only have to pay sales tax on $1,500.”

I said, “Hey, that isn’t right. I don’t feel good about doing that.” He said “Look, it has to be this way, or the deal’s off. Anyway, my lawyer said it’s ok.”

You know what I did? I wish that I had let that guy walk out. But noooo. There he was with the money I wanted for my car. So in my desire to get what I wanted, I figured out a way around the issue. It’s amazing how ingenious you can be when you want to cut corners.

I wrote him out two receipts for 1,500. And I put on each of them “in payment for”, not “paid in full”. In other words, I made it look like he had given me two payments.

I’m sure that he went to the NY State DMV and submitted one receipt as the bill of sale and threw the other one in the garbage. What I did was wrong. It may have been legal, and I may have covered my tail, but it wasn’t right. I helped that guy to steal from the government. I let his ethics compromise mine. I am not proud of what I did.

When we cut corners like that, when we fail to report honestly and fully, when we make exaggerated claims for compensation from insurance companies, when we fail to declare things to a customs inspector, when we keep the money the store cashier gives us by mistake, we are stealing.

Just because we’re stealing from a big, impersonal institution like the government or an insurance company, doesn’t make it any less wrong.

3. Borrowing without returning.

Christians are notorious for this. When we were up at Schroon Lake, the official hostess at the Word of Life Inn had a great line. She said “Welcome to the Word of Life Inn, where the towels are so fluffy, you can hardly close your suitcase.”

I guess they’ve had some experience with Christian thieves!

Do you have any stuff at home that isn’t yours? Stuff you borrowed - 20 years ago? Hotel towels? Library books? CD’s or tapes or record albums? Garden tools? That kind of long-term borrowing is really stealing. Taking what you need at the expense of someone else.

Proverbs 3:28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—when you now have it with you.

4. Stealing on the job.

When you use company property for your own benefit, you’re taking something that isn’t yours. When you take home pens and envelopes and paper clips and staples and tools, you’re stealing. This kind of theft costs American businesses millions of dollars a year. I heard of an employee in a auto factory who actually dismantled a fork-lift truck and smuggled the pieces out the front gate over a period of months.

Now you may say, “Hey, I’ve never stolen a fork-lift.” I’ve just brought home pens and little stuff like that. But its the little stuff that can pull you down spiritually. The little foxes spoil the vine. It’s not worth damaging your fellowship with God over a lousy 19¢ ballpoint pen. Why trade in a clear conscience just so you can have that fancy electric stapler that somehow found its way into your briefcase?

Personal long distance phone calls on the company phone. The Federal government did a study in 1987 of this and found that anywhere from 29-50% of the long distance calls of Federal Agencies were personal calls made by federal employees. The Dept. of Housing and Urban Dev’p. estimated their cost to be $72,000 per year just for that agency alone.

Now you may be sitting here saying “Come on. Is God really concerned about a 19¢ pen? Does God care about a $2 phone call?” As a matter of fact, he does, It’s not the pen or the phone call; it’s the attitude behind it. The attitude that says “I can help myself to this stuff because I need it. It doesn’t matter that God says ‘No.’”

We can steal on the job in other ways as well. We can steal time.

This is a true story, but it didn’t happen at this church, or my former church. One day, I phoned a Christian man at the office. They told me “Oh, he’s on sick leave today.” So I called him at home. You know what his wife told me? “Oh I’m sorry, he’s not here. He’s out playing golf.” Maybe he was on golf leave!

When you call in sick so that you can do your own thing, you’re stealing from your employer.

Have you ever noticed how most workers have two speeds at work? One speed while the boss is around, and another speed the rest of the time. But they don’t realize that the real boss - God - is there all the time! If you spend the better part of your day wasting time, and slacking off, you’re stealing from your employer.

Work an honest day. Don’t steal from your employer. This is especially important if you are a Christian. Your fellow workers know what kind of a testimony you have, because they know what kind of a worker you are.

Colossians 3:22-24 Slaves (employees), obey your earthly masters (bosses) in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

5. Last thing I want to talk to you about is stealing from God.

Uh Oh! Now he’s really gonna start meddlin’!

Suppose that the Pennsylvania State Police came to my door one day, and said “Rev. McKnight, we just caught one of your parishioners trying to rob the Meridian Bank over in Bethlehem.” Do you think I would be concerned? You bet I would!

But how much more serious is it when we rob God? Let’s turn to Malachi 3.

Malachi 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

One of the major ways that Christians break C8 is by robbing God. We tend to think that giving to God is like pin-striping on a new car - it’s a nice option if you can afford it. But giving to God and to the Lord’s work is not an option for a Christian. If you fail to give to God, you are living in disobedience, and you can never know the blessing of God on your life if you’re living in disobedience.

Now you may be saying “But listen pastor, you just don’t know my situation. I can just barely make ends meet as it is. I’m way behind financially. I can’t give because I don’t have anything to give.”

You know why you don’t have anything to give? Because you’re not giving. Like the people in Malachi, you’re under a curse because you are robbing God.

God says “Test me in this. See if it isn’t true. Start giving, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing on you.”

Now the question always arises… how much am I supposed to give? In the NT, we’re commanded to give according to our income. In the OT, the people of Israel were expected to give 1/10 of their income. That seems to me to be a pretty good place to start.

You say, “Oh I can’t possibly give 10%. I can’t afford to.” Listen, according to the Word of God, and from my own personal experience, you can’t afford not to. If you steal from God by keeping what you should be giving to him, do you think he’s going to bless your life? Do you think he’s going to honor your finances?

But if you make up your mind to honor God in your giving, don’t you think that he’s going to bless you? Don’t you think that God is going to honor you? Why don’t you try him and see? Make up your mind to give what you should be giving to God for the next three months and see how it goes. See if you’re better or worse off. Test God in this.

Well, we’ve talked about:

1. Stealing from people by taking advantage of them

2. Stealing from institutions like the government

3. Stealing by borrowing things and not returning them

4. Stealing from our employer

5. Stealing from God.

You may be sitting here in a state of shock saying “What do I do now? I guess I’ve broken C8.” Let me give you five specific biblical steps to take:

1. Repent. Doesn’t mean get all emotional, and cry, and wear sackcloth.

- means turn around and stop doing what you’re doing.

- Eph 4:28 - Let him who steals steal no longer.

2. Ask God to renew your mind: Ask him to sensitize your conscience.

- when you’re in a situation where you could steal and not get caught, ask God to help you not to.

- ask him to point out ways you are stealing that you might not be aware of.

3. Make restitution if you have stolen something.

- this is Zacchaeus therapy - he gave back four times as much to the people he had stolen from. That would tend to make you think twice before stealing next time! Restitution is biblical.

- illustr. - man who stole $600 from his employer when he was a teenager.

- it had been on his conscience ever since.

- he finally determined to make things right - went and paid back the $600.

- it took him several weeks of payments to pay it back.

- but the very week that he made the final payment, he got a job offer out of the blue

- new job paid him $6,000 more per year, and he got a bonus for signing

- bonus was for $600.

- God is our Provider and He will honor us if we make things right.

4. Practice generosity

- generosity helps you to break that habit of selfishness that’s at the root of stealing.

- OT Law about harvesting - leave some grain for the gleaners.

- our society - leave a nice tip for that tired waitress, or that taxi driver

- I have a friend who, when he was in a restaurant, would look around and see if there was an elderly person who was eating alone. And he would inform the waitress that he would be picking up the check for that person.

- be generous with your money - it helps to loosen your grasp on it.

5. Determine in your heart that God and God alone is your Provider

- Anything that you could get for yourself by going outside of his will for you isn’t worth having.

- make up your mind that it is worth more to be right with God than it is to have whatever contraband you might get by breaking Commandment #8.