Hola Amigos y Amigas,

Well, first off I want to apologize for my tardiness on this week’s discussion on the 10 Commandments. As I am certainly blessed with time at work to write, I chose to put together some stuff on last week’s 7th commandment discussion, which pushed this week’s discussion to today. Anyhow…

We’ve been looking at the 10 Commandments to see how they might teach us about God’s moral truths and how they speak to our own condition. I’ve also tried to put them in terms of love, for the commandments really are profound, more than just a “thou shall not”.

And so now let’s look at and consider the 8th commandment:

Exodus 20:15
You shall not steal.

Now stealing is acquiring someone else’s stuff dishonestly. You all know about stealing. I would guess most (if not all) of us have experienced firsthand both sides of stealing; Someone stealing something from us and Us stealing something from someone.

I’ll say it first- I have had many things stolen from me AND admittedly, I have stolen many things from others. And I know I’m not alone in this. So then, going with the assumption we all know about stealing, let’s think about it a little deeper.

I think there are various forms of stealing and I think there are various ways of stealing. There’s direct stealing and indirect stealing. There’s blatantly open stealing and subtle secret stealing. There’s informed stealing and ignorant stealing. I mean, just think about what you may learn from the news around you… A bank was robbed, a car was jacked, an adult was mugged, a child was kidnapped, a fund was embezzled, a price was fixed, a report was plagiarized, a resume was padded, a name was slandered and on and on and on. Wow!

And I think how we regard stealing initially comes from how we were raised by our parents, then how we were influenced by our peers and ultimately how our conscience comes to regard it.

Okay so, in just thinking about it…the command is so simple to understand. Don’t steal. I mean it just flat-out says it. Don’t steal. The real question is what constitutes stealing? Ohhh… ha ha. We know what stealing is, but then we ask: Are they really stealing or am I really stealing? See? There’s that apparent loophole, there’s that technicality.

Why is this? Why do we ask “Is that really stealing?”?

Watch this: If you are loving toward your fellow man, you wouldn’t steal from him/ her would you? Why not? Because you are seeking their best, not your best. You want them to have what they have and do not seek to take it. Why would no thought of stealing come to mind? Because you are contented with what you already have.

A fleshly example: This is kinda funny. My own kids are more willing to share when they have had enough. This is kind of a low-level way to look at this, but if my son has had all the cookies he could possibly eat and his belly is full of cookies, I can assure you he would have no desire to steal a single cookie off his sister’s plate. He is not greedy at that point, ha ha. He is content.

Here’s an amazing reality: In the love and assurance that comes from God, a believer can be contented while having nothing. This spiritual contentment washes away that inner thief. The apostle Paul comes to mind…

Philippians 4:11b-13
…I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

(I can’t help myself…) And what may possibly be Paul’s secret?

Acts 9:1-2
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he (Saul) found any belonging to The Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Then…

Acts 9:19b-20
…Now for several days he (Saul) was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

Woah! Paul was this Saul. His conversion completely changed him from the inside out! If you read acts, you’ll see God taking care of him without fail. Jesus Christ was his reason for contentment. And to complete the thought…  I would suggest well-contented folk do not go
around stealing other people’s stuff.

At this point, I wish to bring up something current to our day and age. Several years ago, I became more and more convicted in my mind that I was stealing. Yep! How? With my access to computer-related stuff, I was able to get copies of the then-latest and greatest versions of software. I got games, Windows, Office, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, you name it! I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to pay $800 for Photoshop. I thought who’s going to care if I install it on my home PC. No one’s going to miss it. I wasn’t making copies to sell like those pirates, just using it for myself. And I was a Napster fiend! Great googlie-mooglie. But you know… I got all that for free. I didn’t pay for it, but someone did.

In our digital age, getting stuff like that online and for free is so easy; we can pay no thought (or dollars) to it. Back then I thought like the herd mentality.. my little hard drive is amongst millions and millions. What I have is really insignificant. This past viewpoint of mine was a 3rd person perspective. I had to come to a 1st person perspective… I have thousands of dollars worth of stuff here, my bank account would be smaller had I paid for it out of my pocket. I wasn’t content to save my money and buy it.. I had to have right then!

Does anyone else have a story like this to share? Have you been shown something you used to do was really stealing? Please share if you are willing. Let us be content and not knowingly transgress the 8^th commandment.

Peace,
Jim