 Thou shall not steal Eighth Commandment addresses preachers, too By Jon F. Jones Volume 35, Number 5 Posted October, 2002
I grew up in a small town in Kansas in the '40s and '50s. The store we shopped at was one of those then prevalent “Mom & Pop” stores. Since we lived only a couple of blocks from the grocery, one of my chores became taking the list my mother would prepare to get it filled by the store’s owner.
I was scared to death that I would be caught, but nothing was said when I took the sack and headed home. On the way, I made sure to eat every last scrap of that chocolate bar so as to leave no evidence of what I had done. Snatching and gloating At the ripe old age of five, I didn’t waste a lot of time looking into the future or the consideration of possible consequences. Every trip to the grocery, for weeks, I would wait until no one was watching, snatch a candy bar and gloat all the way home. This lasted until the end of the month – when the month’s grocery bill came in the mail. Much to my surprise, “Pop” hadn’t missed a single stolen candy bar. Every one of them had been added to the bill. That day ended my career as a thief. “Thou shall not steal.” There is nothing ambiguous about the Eighth Commandment. It’s not in the least confusing. If it’s not yours, don’t take it. Don’t borrow it without permission. If you find it, return it. If a sneaky little guy pops out of an alley and offers it to you for a ridiculous price, don’t buy it. “It,” of course, is the property of another, and that’s where the problem comes in. It’s what constitutes property that confuses us. Did God mean real property – real estate and land – or did he mean any tangible property? Does property have to have some measurable monetary value to be counted as property or will sentimental value be enough? Can property be something that can’t even be seen, like a good reputation, or does property have to be more than a concept? Does it make any difference who is doing the stealing? Is a poor man who steals in order to feed himself guaranteed a cell in the local jail even as the influential business leader who steals millions is given a slap on the wrist, or even looked up to by the rest of society? Why did God have to make it all so confusing? God didn’t make it confusing Of course, God didn’t make it confusing. We get confused because we refuse to accept the magnitude of the Eighth Commandment. The commandment does not say, “Thou shall not steal property.” Nor does it say, “Thou shall not steal money, or food, or clothing, or a car, or anything specific.” The simple and straightforward meaning of the commandment is, “Thou shall not steal ANYTHING!” In fact, the Eighth Commandment encompasses all the other commandments and could stand alone as our only commandment, if we could live up to it. What is revering another god if not theft of worship from the one true God? What is the worship of idols if not theft of the love owed to God? What is the vain use of God’s name if not the theft of His power? Failure to keep the Sabbath holy is theft from ourselves, for “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” Refusing to honor your parents is taking from them what God commands they are due. Murder is the theft of another’s life. Adultery is the theft of another’s promise and affection. Bearing false witness against another is the theft of his good name, and the act of coveting another’s property is the beginning of a plan to steal from your neighbor. “Thou shall not steal.” Worst kind of theft Jesus revealed to us the worst kind of theft. On His last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus went into the Temple and drove out the money-changers. He said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you are making it a den of thieves.” Was Jesus against good business practice? Certainly not; in some of his parables, He lauded good businessmen. As always, it was the motivation rather than the action itself with which Jesus found the greatest fault. It wasn’t just that these merchants were overcharging for the sparrows and lambs that were to be used for sacrifices, but they were taking money in the name of God for ungodly purposes. Instead of serving themselves by serving God, they were taking care of themselves first. Not much has changed in the Temple in 2,000 years. There are still thieves in the Temple. Every minister and elder who receives money from the church, whether in salary or in “expenses,” while teaching doctrine contrary to God’s Word, is taking money under false pretenses. In other words, any such minister or elder is a thief. Theft in the pulpit In our own Presbyterian Church (USA), we have ordained ministers who preach that homosexual acts are not sinful, a doctrine that is not supported anywhere in the Bible. We have ministers and elders who preach that abortion is nothing more than a woman’s “choice,” and that taking the life of a child in the womb is not murder. We have ministers who celebrate worship services in Presbyterian churches who call on the names of Gaia, of Sophia, of Allah and others, and thereby introduce false teaching into the body of Christ. They all take money under false pretenses, claiming that they are teaching truth when many of them cannot even say three simple words – “Jesus is Lord.” They call such actions “answering their conscience,” but what they’re really doing is stealing God’s Word and perverting it to their own earthly ends. A thief is a thief is a thief even if he’s ordained. Jesus will drive away thieves Perhaps a not-so-funny joke I heard once best describes what we’ve come to today. It seems this businessman was explaining business ethics to his son. “Suppose,” he said, “that a customer buys something in a hurry. I give him change for $10 but, after he leaves, I discover that he gave me a $100 bill. The ethical problem is this: Should I tell my partner?” Too many of our seminaries no longer teach God’s Word, but concentrate on the latest theologies with a liberal smattering of sociology and psychology. When Jesus Christ comes again to drive the thieves from the Temple, it will be far too late to say, “I didn’t understand.” Are we members of the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth? Are we members of God’s Temple? Or are we a den of thieves? God knows. This commentary was excerpted from a sermon by Jon F. Jones, the pastor of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Salvisa, Ky., a Confessing Church. |
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