What they say has been added to the Eighth Commandment.
What they say has been added to the Eighth Commandment.
§ 79. To the Eighth Commandment, regarding not stealing [Exod. 20:15], they say that what has been added is “the commandment to beware of greed” (p. 203).
We respond. The interpretation of this commandment is taught in the Decalogue itself: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house” [Exod. 20:17]. From this it is clearly seen that the commandment not only forbids actual theft but also accuses the very root of wickedness: the greed which clings to the heart. Thus the Lawgiver has used the sort of language that signifies secret plotting which avoids and flees the knowledge of someone else, so that we understand that even inner commandments are included, which very thing the prophets’ interpretation clearly shows. “If riches increase, set not your heart on them” (Ps. 62:10). Men to be elected as magistrates are those “who hate greed” (Exod. 18:21) “Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to greed” (Ps. 119:36). “The paths of those who pant for riches” are compared “to one who plots for blood” (Prov. 1:[18–]19). “He who pursues greed disturbs his home” (Prov. 15:27). “He who hates greed will prolong his days” (Prov. 28:16). “They have all turned to their own way, each to his own greed” (Isa. 56:11). “Because of the iniquity of his greed I was angry, and I smote him” (Isa. 57:17). “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone pursues greed” (Jer. 6:13; 8:10). “But you have eyes and heart only for your greed” (Jer. 22:17). “I have struck My hand on account of your greed” (Ezek. 22:13). “Their heart follows after their greed” (Ezek. 33:31). “Woe to those who plot evil in their beds that they may perform it in the morning. They covet fields and take them violently” (Mic. 2:1–2).
Thus it is certain that greed is prohibited by synecdoche under the name of theft in this commandment. Therefore, as we pointed out in their own place [On the Law of God (Commonplace XV), §§ 53, 166–68], interior things are forbidden under the name of a more gross, exterior sin, so that from it one may understand in what passage they are being censured in the judgment of God.
** Neither are these virtues contrary but rather diverse: zeal for hard work, zeal for self-sufficiency, zeal for generosity. The Photinians have discussed the second and third but are certainly silent about the first. It is false that a sort of luxury was conceded to the ancients because of the ample corporeal promises [in the Old Testament], provided they did not forget the Lord’s work (Deut. 21:20; Isa. 5:22). **