Commandment #8: Thou Shalt Not Steal (Exodus 20:15)
2023-04-07
Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
Private property and ownership in a reality, and God protects this principle in His Decalogue. Of the coming kingdom, He says, “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it” (Micah 4:4). Ultimately, everything is His, as He had said, “for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5). Our property is therefore really a stewardship from God.
Unlike many of the other commandments, the punishment for stealing was restitution with interest. “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 22:1).
The Lord’s desire is not just to not steal. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28). God wants His people to not hold tightly onto possessions but rather use them as tools for the kingdom and to give generously to others. Imagine this church, when we read this: “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need” (Acts 2:44-45).