The Eighth Commandment

Marc Minter

The Ten Commandments • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Instead of living as self-focused consumers, taking whatever we can get, God calls us to live as hard-working, grateful, and generous stewards of whatever He wisely provides.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

We’re continuing our series through the 10 Commandments today.

Last week we covered the 7th commandment, and some of you are probably glad that we’re moving on… I suspect that most of us are probably even feeling pretty good about the 8th commandment… I mean, I know you all are sinners, but I don’t think any of you robbed a bank or stole a car last week.

As a matter of fact, one study several years ago found that “nearly 90 percent of evangelical Christians claim that they never break the eighth commandment.”

One pastor said, “[This statistic] shows that Christians have forgotten what stealing really means.” And then he said, “The truth is that theft is pervasive at every level of American society, and like everyone else, we are in on the take.”[1]

It’s my mission today (1) to show you just how pervasive stealing is in our society and possibly even in our lives, (2) to show you the beauty and wonder of God’s generosity toward sinners like us, and (3) to urge you toward grateful stewardship of all that God gives you in this world.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s get straight into it.

Scripture reading

Exodus 20:1–17 (ESV)

1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Main point

Instead of living as self-focused consumers, taking whatever we can get, God calls us to live as hard-working, grateful, and generous stewards of whatever He wisely provides.

Message outline

What is the 8th commandment?

What does the 8th commandment forbid?

Hope for selfish thieves like us

Living as good stewards in the world

Message

1. What is the 8th commandment?

The 6th, 7th, and 8th commandments are all brief and direct… The eighth says, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

But, as we’ve seen with the 6th and 7th commandments already, these short and simple commands are based on profound Biblical principles, and they also have far-reaching implications… if we’ll take the time to think them through.

We’ve also learned… during our time studying the 10 Commandments… that the New Testament affirms and even reasserts most all of these commands… That’s certainly true for the eighth commandment.

In 1 Corinthians 6, the Bible condemns both “thieves” and the “greedy” as “unrighteous” ones… who will not “inherit the kingdom of God” (v9–11).

In 1 Peter 4, the Bible commands all Christians to live so as to avoid even the possibility of being accused as a “thief” (v15).

And, in a passage we will consider more later, Ephesians 4, the Bible commands all thieves to “no longer steal” (v28).

But why is stealing wrong? What biblical principles are underneath this command?

Let me begin to unpack the eighth commandment by exploring two of its underlying presuppositions or assumptions… (1) private property is good, and (2) God owns everything and He distributes it all as He pleases.

First, private property is good… Kevin DeYoung said, “The eighth commandment assumes the right to and goodness of private property.”[2]

Now, why would he say that?

Well, because the law against stealing assumes that your stuff is yours and my stuff is mine… and it also implies that God means it to be this way.

I’m not yet talking about how much stuff we should have… At the moment, I am simply-but-boldly emphasizing the Bible’s affirmation that personal property… as a concept and in reality… is right and good.

The Bible does not advocate – either in the Old Testament or in the New – for any kind of communal or societal ownership of all property… Rather, the Bible commands and teaches us to care well for the property we have and to work hard to gain and to develop more.

I’ll dive a little further into this later, but I think it’s important for us to highlight the goodness of hard work and resources… So often, we might be tempted to think that two extremes are the only two options: Either we can be poor and virtuous Christians… or we can be greedy and wealthy sinners.

A popular Southern Baptist pastor wrote a book about 10 years ago, called Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.[3]

There is much good in the book… and I think the author does a good job of exposing the sinful and selfish pursuit of bigger houses, nicer cars, and more luxurious living.

The American Dream of bigger, nicer, and better stuff for ourselves… is indeed antithetical to the gospel and the opposite of Christian living.

But the book almost makes it sound like the only other option is to sell everything you own and to give all your money away to gospel ministry and to people in need.

Now again, I think most of us could probably benefit from a good dose of Bible truth to help us recalibrate our financial priorities… but it’s not likely that selling your home or emptying your bank account is going to make you a better Christian tomorrow.

In fact, there is probably much good to be done with the resources you have… and I want to urge you to think of ways you can manage your property and your finances well… to the glory of God.

How can you manage and use your personal property in distinctly Christian ways to benefit your family, your church, your community, and beyond?

Brothers and sisters, private property is good… and God intends us to steward our property (our resources of all kinds) as good gifts from Him.

And, that’s the second underlying presupposition I see in the eighth commandment: God owns everything, and He distributes it all as He pleases.

Why does God command us not to steal? …Because He is the ultimate owner of your stuff and my stuff… And God has providentially given each of us what He intends us to have at this moment.

When we take things that don’t belong to us… when we steal time or money or resources from someone else… we show that we don’t really trust God’s provision for us… We don’t really believe that God owns it all… and we don’t really believe that His allocation of our resources is what it ought to be.

Friends, the eighth commandment is a law against stealing, but the eighth commandment sits on top of the biblically-principled foundation that personal property is good and that God owns everything, dispersing it all as He pleases.

May God help us to understand and to live by these principles.

2. What does the 8th commandment forbid?

The fact is, friends, we know exactly what the 8th commandment forbids… so, on the one hand, it was a little difficult for me to prepare much to say on this point… But, on the other hand, we may not so easily see how far-reaching this command is… and there is quite a bit of pastoral work to be done here.

The question we’re asking now is: What is the full sense of this commandment? …What all is God forbidding here?

The Heidelberg Catechism answers the question well by saying, “God forbids not only (1) outright theft and robbery but also such wicked schemes and devices as (2) false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and (3) usury; we must not (2) defraud our neighbor in any way, whether by force or by show of right. In addition God forbids all (4) greed and all (5) abuse or squandering of His gifts.”[4]

By my count, the Catechism lists at least 5 distinct types of stealing which are all forbidden by the 8th commandment… Let’s go through them in turn.

First, in the 8th commandment, God forbids outright theft and robbery.

This is the most obvious prohibition… Simply put, we are not to take things that do not belong to us… either by secret deception or by brute force.

This is true for toddlers at the playground and it’s true for adults in the home, in the workplace, and in general society.

No matter how big or small, we are to respect the property of others.

Second, God forbids false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and defrauding our neighbor.

All of these seem to be quite similar… and pervasive in American culture.

We probably don’t think of it as stealing, but every American buyer is out to get a lower price… and every American seller is out to get a higher one.

Marketers try to manipulate customers… and customers simply want as much as they can get for as little as possible.

It’s common in American culture for salesman to lie about their products… for builders to cut corners to lower their costs… for buyers to low-ball the seller… and for customers to use checks/credit that they never plan to pay.

All of these are just some of the many violations of the 8th commandment which almost seem to be a normal part of everyday life in America.

Third, God forbids usury… Usury is an old word, and it’s an ancient concept… but it’s still very common in our day… Usury is the practice of lending money or resources to those in need and then charging them more than they can afford to pay it back.

When I was a kid, I remember my mom regularly going to places that offered “pay-day” loans… She would borrow money to pay bills, and the lender would charge her 15% or 20% interest on a paycheck she hadn’t even earned yet.

Friends, this is stealing… It’s stealing from those who are most vulnerable.

If you’re a member of FBC Diana, don’t borrow money you need to pay bills… And don’t ever go looking for a pay-day loan… All of this will cost you far more in the long run… and your bills will only grow larger.

If you’re in a financial bind, then tell one of our elders… or tell another member of your church family… Don’t be too proud to admit that you need help, and don’t dig your hole any deeper than it already is.

And if you want to help someone with a personal loan (to help them pay off some high-interest debt, to help them put money down on a house, or to help them cover some unexpected costs), then don’t charge them anything for it.

It’s fine for a business to loan money in order to make money, but Christians should offer help to one another out of love and generosity.

Fourth, God forbids greed… Greed is the heart behind stealing… It’s the self-indulgent desire to have more than you already do… even if that means someone else will have less.

Proverbs 28:25 says, “A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the LORD will be enriched.” …Indeed, greed is the opposite of trust in God’s provision… It’s a discontent with what God has given you and an eagerness to get more… usually an eagerness to get more for less or for nothing at all.

But greed never pays off… Proverbs 1:19 says, “Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” …Many a greedy gambler has walked away with far less than what he or she had when they went in… And even those who do win it big in the moment often lose far bigger overall.

Fifth, the Heidelberg Catechism says last that God forbids all abuse or squandering of His gifts… In other words, the 8th commandment is not only a prohibition against stealing… it’s also a command to live as good and faithful stewards of all that God has given us.

No doubt, we all have failed to live like this… If we’re honest, we are far more likely to think of our stuff as OURS and not God’s.

Some of us may indeed think PART of our resources belong to God… Some of us even give a percentage of our income to the Lord through the church offering as a sign that we believe THIS amount of our stuff belongs to God.

But I wonder how many of us consistently live as though 100% of our income, 100% of our resources, and 100% of even our opportunities to earn and make money belong to the Lord.

I want to spend a bit more time on the idea of living as God’s stewards in point 4 of my sermon today… so let’s hold that thought for now… and let’s recap what we’ve just considered.

God forbids the taking of anything that doesn’t belong to you… whether by force, by deception, or by manipulation… because God owns everything, and He has allotted to each one of us the resources He intends for us to have… And God also forbids stealing of all kinds, because He intends for us to manage our resources faithfully in service to Him.

May God forgive us for violating the 8th commandment… and may He forgive us for ever thinking and acting as though theft and greed were insignificant.

3. Hope for selfish thieves like us

As we saw last week, each of the commandments not only tell us what is right… they also reveal something of God’s own character and nature.

These are not arbitrary laws or rules… God didn’t just decide one Tuesday afternoon that some stuff is good and other stuff is bad.

No, these laws are based on God’s own character… So, here again, we want to ask, “What does the 8th commandment teach us about God?”

I’m going to argue that the 8th commandment at least teaches us that God is the responsible owner of all things as well as the selfless giver of all good gifts… He never steals anything but instead gives good gifts generously.

This is especially true in the gospel… and it’s also the basis for Christian living… Right now, I want to focus on the gospel… and in just a moment (in point 4), I’ll shift to Christian living.

Friends, there is hope for thieves like us, because God is no thief… He is the epitome of kindness and generosity.

We have sinned by stealing… by taking what is not our own… by deceiving others to get more than our due… by cutting corners… by taking advantage of an opportunity to gain at someone else’s loss… and in many other ways.

We have sinned by living as though our stuff is OURS… We have cared more for our own luxuries than we’ve thought about anyone else… And we’ve spent years of our lives thinking very little about what God would have us do with our time, our treasure, and our talent.

For our sin, we deserve God’s judgment… We are condemned and guilty… and there is no reason that God should give us any mercy at all.

But God has revealed His lavish generosity in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Philippians 2, the Bible instructs Christians to live generous lives, not only looking to their own interests but also to the interests of others…

And the best example of kind generosity is what God did in Jesus.

Philippians 2:5 says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped [or retained by force]” (v5-6).

The idea presented here is that God the Son did not think only of Himself… He was and is God, but He did not count His equality with the Father a thing to be “grasped” Instead, He showed unthinkable humility and kindness.

Verse 7 says, “[He] emptied himself [In some mysterious way, God the Son laid aside the full weight of His divine glory], by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men [God the Son became a man in the person of Jesus Christ]. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v7-8).

Friends, this passage taps into the eternal plan of God… His plan of redemption… His plan to save sinners like us through the work of His Son.

God the Son was obedient to the will of the Father… God the Son willingly took on human form in order to carry out the work necessary to justify and redeem thieving sinners… at great cost to Himself.

It was at the cross that God the Son – Jesus Christ – suffered the full weight of God’s judgment and wrath against sinners… paying the impossible debt of our moral failure… And Jesus earned the right to generously offer forgiveness and mercy to those who would turn from their sin and trust in Him.

Friends, God has never stolen anything from us… Instead, He has generously given His own Son… His own righteousness… His own inheritance of glory!

In His immeasurable kindness, God has seen our utter deficit of goodness… and He has graciously credited to us that which we could never earn!

Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling, Naked [we] come to Him for dress, Helpless [we] look to Him for grace… Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let [us] hide [ourselves] in Thee.

4. Living as good stewards in the world

I said earlier that the 8th command is implicitly a command to live as good and faithful stewards of all that God has given us… We are not only to avoid stealing – in all of the various manifestations of such a sin, including the sins of greed and discontent which seem to stir up the desire to take what doesn’t belong to us – but we are also to understand that God is the ultimate owner and distributer of all our worldly resources.

And, brothers and sisters, those of us who are Christians must especially know and trust that God wisely and graciously gives us all that we have for the purpose of growing and shaping Christ’s people for spiritual maturity.

Many of us are familiar with the great promise of Romans 8:28, which tells us that God works all things “for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” …But we may not be so familiar with Romans 8:29, which defines God’s purpose or goal in arranging all the details of our lives.

Romans 8:29 says that God’s purpose in and for the life of every Christian is to “conform” us “to the image of His Son [Jesus Christ].” …This means that God measures out the circumstances and the resources of every Christian’s life by giving him or her exactly what is needed to bring about increasing holiness and godliness… to make the believer think and act more like Jesus.

Rather than always praying for more money, better opportunities, and greater resources… We should regularly be praying the prayer of wisdom… from Proverbs 30: “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (v8-9).

The greater concern for us should be that we have a right posture towards God… We should only want as much time and treasure and talent as will stir up our gratitude for God and keep us aware of our dependence upon Him.

Friends, it seems to me that the heart of the 8th commandment is the concept of stewardship… All the resources of the world belong to God, and He has and will continue to wisely distribute resources as He sees fit.

So, how should the Christian live in light of this truth?

Well, the Christian should live as a good and faithful steward of God’s stuff.

I’d like to focus the last several minutes of our time this morning on a single verse from Ephesians 4… verse 28.

Barry has been preaching through the book of Ephesians since the beginning of last year… so many of us have probably got a decent handle on the layout of this letter from Paul to the Ephesian Christians.

The first 3 chapters are doctrinally rich (some of the richest chapter of the whole Bible)… and the last 3 chapters are loaded with practical application of good biblical doctrine… Orthodoxy (sound doctrine) always leads to Orthopraxy (right or good conduct).

Ephesians 4:28, then, is part of the practical application section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians… And that one verse provides much for us to ponder on the matters of stealing and Christian stewardship.

Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”

I’d like to use the logic and instruction of this verse to list 5 practical applications for us today… 5 ways we should live and act as good stewards of God’s provision in our lives.

(1) We should stop stealing.

Ephesians 4:28 couldn’t be clearer on this point… It says, “Let the thief no longer steal.”

Friends, if you see shady personal or commercial transactions in your life, then you should make solid efforts to expose stealing as sin and repent.

Turn away from sinful practices… and invite the help of mature Christian brothers and sisters to walk alongside you through what will inevitably be some hard changes.

If you’re sinning… then don’t settle for a life dominated by sin… Romans 6:12–13 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life…”

(2) We should care well for what we’ve been given.

This application point is implicit rather than explicit in Ephesians 4:28… but I think the logic is sound… If we are not to steal from others, but rather work hard to gain what we need… then it follows that we ought to take good care of the time, treasure, and talent we already have.

Brothers and sisters, don’t spend so much time thinking about all of your limitations (what you can’t afford or what you don’t have)… Instead, take a look around at what do have.

What has God given you to steward? How might you use your time, your possessions, your money, or your skills in fruitful and God-honoring ways?

(3) We should work hard to earn a fair wage.

Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands…”

The idea is that we should not have sticky hands, but productive ones.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible could not be clearer about the goodness of work and our responsibility to be diligent and productive.

Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

Proverbs 6:6–11 says, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”

Friends, if your financial and material needs aren’t being covered each month, then it is entirely possible that you are not working hard to cover them… Poverty sometimes comes upon us by way of someone else’s sin or by way of some catastrophe… but sometimes poverty is the result of our own laziness.

Brothers and sisters, Christians should especially have a reputation for diligence and hard work… because we know we are working for the glory of Christ… and not just for the boss or for the paycheck.

(4) We should reflect God’s own generosity by living generously ourselves.

Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”

The end goal of our hard work and diligence is NOT so that we may keep on building our own assets… or (as Dr. Suess might say) biggering and biggering.

The New Testament emphatically teaches us about the way Christians should view everything they have… every personality strength, every social advantage, every vocational opportunity, and every material resource.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…”

Brothers and sisters, your resources are a gift of God… and you are not supposed to focus the use of your resources on yourself!

As I said earlier, if you are a church member in financial need, then reach out and tell someone about it… But it is far more likely that most of us in here have more than enough resources to cover our basic needs… So, we should look for ways and pray for occasions to use our resources for the glory of God.

Many of you know that I have not done a great job of talking to the members of this church about financial giving… One reason I’m reluctant to talk about money and giving is because I believe there’s a lot of freedom in this area.

The New Testament just doesn’t tell us how much of our family budgets should go to our local church or to charities or to others in need.

Several passages refer to financial giving, and Acts 2 tells us that the first church members in Jerusalem even sold many of their personal possessions in order to meet the needs of their church and its members (v42-47)… But there is no clear mandate to give a certain percentage or a particular amount.

However, the New Testament does teach us that Christians ought to be the most generous people in the world when it comes to financial giving… One, because we know better than anyone that it all belongs to God… And, two, because we know what it feels like to be beneficiaries of God’s lavish generosity toward us.

Brothers and sisters, we should aim to steward our resources with crazy generosity… The world should think we are crazy to spend and use our money the way we do… because the stuff we value isn’t the same as the world.

Instead of living as self-focused consumers, taking whatever we can get, God calls us to live as hard-working, grateful, and generous stewards of whatever He wisely provides.

May God help us care well for that which He’s given us… may He help us work hard to be good contributors… and may He help us to live generous lives, remembering and reflecting God’s own generosity towards us.

Bibliography

Alexander, T. Desmond. Exodus. Baker Books, 2016.

Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. W.W. Norton, 2004.

Blackburn, W. Ross. The God Who Makes Himself Known: The Missionary Heart of the Book of Exodus. IVP Academic, 2012.

Dever, Mark. The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made. Crossway, 2006.

DeYoung, Kevin. The 10 Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them. Crossway, 2018.

Duncan, Ligon. Does God Care How We Worship?. P&R Publishing, 2020.

Hamilton, James M. God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. Crossway, 2010.

Henry, Matthew. Commentary: Volume 1: Genesis to Deuteronomy. Hendrickson Publishers, 2006.

Luther, Martin. The Large Catechism. Translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dan. Published in: Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.

http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-boc.html

Ryken, Philip. Exodus: Saved for God's Glory. Crossway Books, 2015.

Sailhamer, John. The Pentateuch As Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Zondervan Publishing House, 1992.

Sproul, R. C. Truths We Confess: A Layman’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Volume 2. P & R Publishing, 2007.

Endnotes

[1] Ryken, 604.

[2] DeYoung, 135.

[3] See it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Taking-Faith-American-Dream/dp/1601422210

[4] https://students.wts.edu/resources/creeds/heidelberg.html

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