12 Stop, Thief!
Stop, Thief !
Next to your own persons and your wife, your worldly goods stand closest to you, and God means them to be secured to you, and therefore commands that no one shall take away or lessen any part of his neighbor’s possessions . . . Now this is a very common vice . . . For . . . stealing signifies not only emptying chests and pockets, but also taking advantage of others at market, warehouses, wine and beer shops, workshops, in short, wherever men transact business and give money for goods and labor.”
So Luther starts expounding the eighth commandment, focusing on the principle of equity involved. Love to our neighbor requires us to hold sacred not only his person (sixth commandment) and his marriage (seventh commandment), but also his property and his due.
Property
Behind the commandment lies the Bible view of property; namely, that ownership is stewardship. By human law, my property is that which I own and may dispose of as I wish, as distinct from that which I am merely allowed to use as borrower or trustee, under conditions which the owner imposes. Bible-believers, however, know that what human law says I own—my money, goods, legal rights, and titles—I actually hold as God’s trustee. In the terms of Jesus’ parable, these things are talents, lent me by my Lord on a temporary basis to use for him. One day I shall be asked to give account of how I managed those of his resources of which I was given control.
Temptations to steal property—that is, to deprive another person of what he or she has a right to—arise because fallen man always, instinctively, wants more than he has at present, and more than others have. Blind competitiveness, expressing an equally blind jealousy, was the essence of the devil’s pride when he rebelled against God, and of Cain’s pride when he killed Abel (Genesis 4:4-8), and of Rebekah’s and Jacob’s pride when they stole Esau’s birthright (Genesis 27); and it is the essence of the discontented greed condemned in the tenth commandment, which is itself the cause of the dishonest grabbing forbidden in the eighth. But it is not God’s will for us to have anything that we cannot obtain by honorable means, and the only right attitude to others’ property is scrupulous concern that ownership be fully respected.
Ways of Thieving
No doubt this principle is both clear and commonplace. After all, every law-code everywhere has always protected property, condemned stealing, and required damages—restitution—in the way that Scripture does (cf. Numbers 5:7; Proverbs 6:30ff.). How else could there ever be ordered community life? It might seem that nothing here needs a second thought.
But wait. How does the principle apply? It reaches further than perhaps we realize.
There is, for instance, theft of time, perhaps the commonest form of theft today. Employees contract to do so many hours’ work for so much pay, and fail to do it. We start late, finish early, stretch coffee, lunch, and tea breaks, and waste time in between. This is theft.
It is theft too when a tradesman fails to give value for money. The Old Testament damns false weights and measures (Deuteronomy 25:13-15; Amos 8:5); the modern equivalent is overpricing goods and services, cashing in on another’s need. Profiteering and all forms of overcharging are theft.
Again, it is theft when debts are left unpaid, thus robbing the person owed of the use of money to which he is morally entitled. Letting debts hang on is a way of life for some, but Scripture condemns it. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another,” says Paul (Romans 13:8). If we really love our neighbor, we shall not try to postpone paying him.
Finally, it is theft to steal a reputation, destroying someone’s credit by malicious gossip behind his back. “Who steals my purse, steals trash,” wrote Shakespeare, “but he that filches from me my good name . . . makes me poor indeed.” Thus, gossip is a breach of the ninth commandment; its effect will be a breach of the eighth.
Perhaps we thought that the words “thou shalt not steal” had no relevance for us in our respectability. Perhaps we need to think again. “Let the thief no longer steal,” wrote Paul (Ephesians 4:28). Could “Stop, thief!” be a word that God is speaking to you and me?
Restitution
Now be honest. We have been stirring up thoughts about ways of stealing. Has it struck you that you yourself have been stealing in some of these ways? If so, God calls you now to repent (which means, change) and make restitution to those you have defrauded. Zacchaeus, the artist in extortion, expressed his repentance by promising to restore fourfold all the money he had taken unjustly (Luke 19:8; Zacchaeus was applying the four-sheep- for-one rule of Exodus 22:1). In the Belfast revival of 1922-23, converted shipyard workers brought back tools and equipment which they had “knocked off ” in such quantities that in one place an additional store shed had to be provided to hold them. That showed spiritual reality. How much reality of this kind is there about us?
Further Bible Study
Thieving and cheating in the family:
Genesis 27; 29:15-30; 30:25-31:42
Questions for Thought and Discussion
Why do you think Luther saw taking advantage of others as a form of theft?
How is stealing related to the exhortation, “owe no man anything”?
Do you agree that a man’s reputation is more important than his wallet? Why or why not?