You shall not steal

The sermon was on the 8th commandment “You shall not steal”. There are many ways we can steal. We can steal people’s time by wasting it. We can steal from our employers by slaking off; we can steal from our employees by underpaying them. We can steal from our clients by false advertising; we can steal from merchants by driving down the price too much. We can steal from landlords when we abuse their rental property; we can steal from our tenants when we overcharge and are slow to fix things as needed. We can steal from our parents when we make messes and don’t clean them up or when we wait to be asked five times to do our chores. Worst of all we can steal from God when we fail to give Him all the praise, gifts, and obedience He calls for.
But there is another way to steal, and that is by failing to be generous with our money. Surely implied in the negative command “Do not steal” is the positive command to use our money and other resources to help those in need. In Eph 4:28, Paul gives practical instructions for how to obey three of the ten commandments, to not lie, to not murder, and to not steal. He writes: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 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.”
Paul’s application of “Do not steal” is not simply to respect other people’s stuff, but to work and to contribute. Let’s use what God has given to us for the purposes for which it was given, to give and give generously.
How do we do this? We do this by remembering the One who died on a cross between two thieves. Who died in the place of thieves. Who “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9)
May the grace of Christ move you to live simply and give generously of what God has given you.