“IT’S A STEAL, BUT NOT A BARGAIN! “
(Exodus 20:15)
We visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Philadelphia and nostalgia gripped us as we remembered those great covers on The Saturday Evening Post. One of my favorites pictured an encounter in a butcher shop. A woman shopper and a butcher faced each other with a turkey on the scales between them. Each had the pleased smile of someone who is in on a private joke. A careful look shows the butcher’s heavy thumb on the scales, while the customer pushes up on them with a dainty forefinger.
Were they thieves? Neither would rob a bank or steal a car. Each would be indignant if accused of stealing, but neither saw anything wrong with a deception worth only a few cents for either of them. James Bere of Berg-Warner said to Time magazine: “There’s a definite problem. Many of the young people who come in to work for us don’t know right from wrong.” [Time, August 15, 1988].
In the United States department store pilferage exceeds $4 billion a year. One estimate says that of every fifty-two customers a day one carries away at least one unpaid-for item, and the number is rising. Then there are the tax cheats, the double-dippers on welfare, the millions stolen through telephone and computer misuse, and those who steal with impunity from their employers.
Schemes, scams and swindles are a way of life today. Sophisticated deal makers like like several recent high-powered executives, and penny-ante con artists invade every community. A man on crutches hobbled over to a passerby and asked for money. The charitable pedestrian handed him a dollar bill with the remark, “Cheer up. It would be much worse if you were blind.” “I know,” he responded. “I was blind last week and kept getting phony money!”
Every rip-off costs you and me. Honest consumers pay the price for this dishonesty and cheating, and covering the cost is no bargain!
I. ATTITUDES TOWARD POSSESSIONS
The eighth commandment, “You shall not steal,” infers God’s approval of private property ownership. You cannot steal property from a person if he doesn’t own it. Seventeen of Jesus’ thirty-six parables in the New Testament speak of property and ownership.
The parable of the Good Samaritan can be outlined by the attitudes it demonstrates toward property and riches. The story begins in Luke 10:30: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. The robbers’ attitude was, “What’s yours is mine: I’ll take it.”
That’s the attitude of the businessperson who pads an expense account. Those who cheat on their income tax, or purchase goods on credit with no possibility or intention of paying for them are also guilty. Cheating on a test robs other students as well as yourself. “You’ve worked hard for your score, but what’s yours is mine, and I will take the grade I don’t deserve.”
It’s a pervasive attitude. A wife complained to her husband one evening, “The housekeeper has stolen two of our brand new towels.” He replied, “Well, some people are just like that. Which ones did she take?” The wife said, “The ones we took from the hotel last week.”
Look at a second attitude from the parable of the Good Samaritan: “A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side” (Luke 10:31-32). These men illustrate the attitude, “What’s mine is mine, and I’ll keep it.” You can steal by doing nothing. The person who can work, but chooses to live off the government is a thief. The person who witnesses on the job and fails to give a day’s work for a day’s pay steals. It is robbery to deprive another person of opportunity. Isaiah pronounced woe on those who stole the dignity of others: Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless (Isaiah 10:1-2).
When we allow inequity and injustice, we rob the poor. Unfair laws and favoritism are a form of stealing with the attitude, “I’ve got mine, and you can go hang.”
A third attitude is portrayed in Jesus’ parable. The Good Samaritan exemplified the attitude Jesus approves:
A Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’ (Luke 10:33-35).
“What’s mine is yours; let’s share it.” This is the proper attitude toward money and possessions. Someone said, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever is in second place.” Another said, “Money won’t buy happiness, but it will sure keep you in touch with your kids.”
We need to remember that our use of wealth and possessions today will have consequences tomorrow. A great industrialist was very generous with his church. He lost his business and all his wealth in the depression, and became a custodian in the very church where he had once given large amounts of money. It was all he had left. He expressed the ideal of Christian stewardship when he said with pride, “What I spent I had; what I saved I lost; what I gave I have.”
The proper attitude is really, “What I have is God’s, let’s share it.” God gives us money and ability to use for His glory and to extend His Kingdom. To do less is robbery.
The eighth commandment is succinct and straightforward: You shall not steal. The stealing begins in our attitude. It is then expressed toward our fellow human beings, and even toward God. We should live close to God so that we can remain honest when we are tempted to be dishonest. A little boy stood for a long time by an apple barrel in a country store one day. The grocer finally said, “Son, are you trying to steal an apple?” The boy replied, “No sir, I’m trying to keep from it.” Avoid the temptation to steal!
II. ACCOUNTABILITY TOWARD GOD
The Bible allows for the ownership of private property, but it recognizes that whatever we possess we hold in trust for God. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” All you own is from God. Everything you are and have is His. He has given you a management responsibility. You are a steward, or a caretaker of God’s gifts.
Several years ago my wife and I attended the Urbana Missions Conference at the University of Illinois. Every three years thousands of young people come together to be challenged by the Great Commission. That year 15,000 came forward to dedicate themselves to missionary service. Tony Campolo turned to Billy Graham that night and said, “Isn’t this great?” Billy said, “It certainly is. Maybe 2,000 of them will actually become missionaries.” Campolo said, “Two thousand? 15,000 have come forward.” Then Billy Graham said, “Most of them won’t go. They will go back to school and get further in debt. Then many will marry, start their homes and go further into debt. They will finally decide it is impossible to go. Others, still determined to go, will face such opposition from their parents that they also will stay home.”
We steal from God when we shackle ourselves through debt and greedy consumerism. We must learn to say no to things and yes to God. Parents rob God when they withhold their children from His service.
God is concerned with our use of the goods and property we are given. We must not steal another’s property, but we are also responsible for what is our own. Jesus said, You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both. (Matthew 6:24—The Message). Either we control our possessions or they control us. The Bible advises:
Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19—The Message).
The good life, “life that is truly life,” is discovered in God. One of the most important choices we can make is the decision to be generous and compassionate with our financial means.
God doesn’t need our money, but we rob Him when we fail to respond to the needs of others and we are unfaithful to Him when we lavish our wealth on ourselves. Thievery is a serious charge. It is especially serious when the victim is God. Yet, that is the charge He levels against those who fail to put Him first in their finances.
“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. (Malachi 3:8-9).
Failure to bring your tithes and offering to the Lord is robbery. The authority for that statement is God Himself.
What is the tithe? Deuteronomy 14:22 defined it for an agrarian society: Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. The product of your labor, whether from farm, factory, or field, belongs to God. The Israelites, who received these words, were also responsible for a variety of offerings and sacrifices.
We often associate tithing with church budgets today. Don’t tithe just to meet the church budget. That should be a consequence of your tithe, but the deeper significance is in giving to God. Don’t rob Him! Honor Him by saying, “Father, all I have is in trust from You, and I gratefully give a portion back to You with a glad heart in recognition of Your ownership.”
If God’s people really took tithing seriously and brought offerings out of glad hearts, we would never worry about budgets again. We would need a Minister of Disbursements just to channel the finances into all the worthwhile projects.
God stakes His prestige and honor on those who tithe:
“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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty (Malachi 3:10-12).
Few topics generate such intense feelings as the subject of money. I don’t speak about it often, but I always raise some hackles when I do. Those most offended are invariably those shirking their own responsibility before God. Money is a personal subject. Our use of money reflects who we really are as persons.
A. W. Tozer said, “Money often comes between men and God. Someone has said that you can take two ten-cent pieces, just two dimes, and shut out the view of a panoramic landscape. Go to the mountain and hold just two coins closely in front of your eyes—the mountains are still there, but you cannot see them at all because there is a dime shutting off the vision in each eye.” Such a small amount of money can come between ourselves and the Lord. The commitment is far more important than the amount.
God has trusted every congregation with enough financial resources to do those things He wants to accomplish in that congregation’s life. There is no question that we can achieve His purpose through our budget. The only question is whether we will be faithful stewards of what He has shared. Our least obligation is the tithe—ten percent before taxes to the work of Jesus Christ. Some can and should do more. As we are obedient to God’s Word we will fulfill God’s plan for our church in any economic climate.
You may not be able to make large contributions to the church. There is no need to feel uncomfortable if you cannot. I urge you just to tithe. The principle of tithing covers the unemployed person, the boy with a paper route, or the girl working in a frozen yogurt shop. You are important to God whether you have much or little.
If you are on your way to faith, you should feel free to let the offering plate pass. It is for those who are a part of God’s family. If you are not in His family, God has a very special gift for you: eternal life. He does not solicit funds from you but offers His transforming gift.
Our family attended the theatrical production of Victor Hugo’s classic, Les Miserables. Jean Valjean, the hero of the story, is released from prison after nineteen years of cruel confinement for a petty theft. Bitter and consumed by anger, he finds it impossible to make a fresh start. He is treated kindly by one man, a bishop, whom Jean Valjean repays by stealing some silverware from him. He is caught with the loot and returned to face his victim. Facing life-long confinement, the desperate thief is astonished when the bishop tells the arresting officers that the silver in Jean Valjean’s possession is a gift. He offers the startled thief two silver candlesticks implying that he had forgotten to take them the first time. It is a magnificent moment. It happens in the first act, but you immediately sense that it is a new beginning for Jean Valjean.
It is like a parable of the grace of giving, and the new life offered by Jesus Christ. His grace makes it possible for those who have stolen to steal no more.
The eighth commandment is a statute of liberty. As we serve others instead of stealing from them, we are released from greed and selfishness. God did not establish the tithe just to raise money for the temple or the church. Its purpose was to teach dependence upon God, and to share with others what God abundantly gives. Giving is a means of grace, and we all need the liberating experience of giving.
The philosophy of the world is “Get all you can, can all you get, and then sit on the can!” John Wesley put a Christian twist on that philosophy and it set him free. He taught, “Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” That is the Christian’s faith.
Ninth Sermon in a Series on the Ten Commandments
