Trusting the Ten #8: Hands Off!

“You shall not steal.”—Exodus 20:15

Stealing. It’s one of the most insidious of all the sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments. It seeks something that it does not have, vainly believing that to acquire it illegitimately will enable the person who steals to become happier, more secure, or more esteemed, either in their own mind or in someone else’s. But to believe that demonstrates a lack of understanding that one’s security and significance are through Christ and Him alone. It is also a direct affront to the creation pattern and the model that God set forth for Adam and Eve in the Garden.

After man’s creation and before the Fall, the Scripture says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it”-Genesis 2:15. Work is not a result of the Fall, but was actually created before it. It was the Fall that made work difficult. After the Fall, the Lord said,

“…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return”—Genesis 3:17b-19.

Work became extremely difficult after the Fall, but it was still necessary. Man was to work, to labor, and receive the wages for it. Stealing is, then, a revolt against the work that God ordained, in that it attempts to take what is not ours, by circumventing the process of labor that God has established. God’s desire is that we work, but for a purpose—so that we might share what we have earned with others. As Paul said,  

“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”—Ephesians 4:28.

We show by our possessions that God is our ultimate treasure, and to give what we have to others reveals that we love God. We love God by loving others; or as Paul has said,

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”—Romans 13:8-10.

We are content with what we have because we know that even what we do have is because of the ability God has given us to have wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18). We keep our hands to ourselves because He stretched out His own hands upon the tree, giving us the power to resist and overcome the sinful desires that gnaw at us. We don’t steal because we want to work and earn our own wages in order to show that God is our all-surpassing treasure and that we love Him by loving His people. May we give to others because He already gave to us, and may our gifts enable those to whom we give to come to know the One who gave first. Amen.