Law Homily (8th Commandment)

Now today, as we come before the law of God this week, we come to the eighth commandment, which we read in Exodus chapter 20 at verse 15.

Thou shalt not steal. Now the command here, as with the others, has a very plain prohibition, but it's also packed full of deeper exhortation and warning.

The command is simple, thou shalt not steal. What does that mean? Right, more importantly, what does it mean to not steal?

So what does it mean to steal? What does it mean to not steal? In the reformed tradition, we've always understood the commandments to include not only a prohibition, but also a positive duty.

And so when God says, do not steal, he's also saying, do respect and protect the property of others.

When he says, do not take, he's also saying, do give. And this gets right to the heart of the matter.

Theft isn't just about the act of taking, it's about the heart that wants what isn't yours.

It's about discontent. It's about refusing to trust God's provision. It's about looking at what your neighbor has and thinking,

I deserve that more than he does. We think about the various ways that we steal, right?

We steal when we take what isn't ours, obviously. We steal when we don't give an honest day's work or an honest day's pay.

We steal when we manipulate contracts or take advantage of someone's ignorance. We steal when we don't pay our debts or when we delay payment unreasonably.

We steal when we damage someone's property through carelessness and we don't make it right. We steal when we're given too much change, right?

At the store or whatever it may be, and we keep it. But here's what strikes me about this commandment, right?

It assumes private property. This is an important doctrine, if you will, right?

That we, the scriptures and God and giving of the law particularly, he assumes that there is such a thing as private property, that you own things.

God wouldn't command us not to steal if everything belonged to everyone, right? The eighth commandment is

God's endorsement of private ownership. What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, and we're to respect that boundary.

And this means something profound, I think, that God hasn't, or that God has distributed his gifts differently among his people.

Some have more and some have less. Some are born into wealth, others are born into poverty.

Some have the gifts of making money, others don't. And God says to respect those boundaries.

Don't cover what your neighbor has, we'll talk about that in future as well, but we don't cover what your neighbor has to the point of taking.

Don't scheme to get what God has given to someone else. Instead, we're to be faithful with what we've been given.

Right, we work hard, we're content, generous, and if we busy ourselves with these things, we won't be consumed with scheming ways to take from others as if all of life is a zero -sum game, but rather, we'll be consumed with seeing all those around us prosper.

How much better off, right, would we be if that's the case, when it's not just me that's invested in my prosperity, but all those around me who desire my flourishing, right?

We're much better off when we're not the only ones focused on ourselves, but others are focused on us, and this happens only in Christian communities where we are focused on others just as much as we would care for ourselves.

Amen? Amen. All right, well, if you would, and if you're able, please kneel and confess your sins to your

God this day, again, as we do come before him as fallen people. Father, we do thank you this day that as we come before you, we do come before a holy, holy, holy

God, Lord, and despite what that means for us within ourselves, that we are incredibly fallen before you, we have no right to stand here or to be before you here in your presence.

Lord, woe is us when left to ourselves, and yet in your kindness to us,

Lord, you do not leave us in this estate, and yet you've established us upon the rock that is the

Lord Jesus Christ and his forgiveness, where we ask that you would strengthen us in our confession of our shortcoming, because although we've been sanctified in that eternal sense, where we've been washed clean in that sense, we are yours, we are forgiven, where we do still fall short, and we ask you would strengthen us even in our confession of our shortcoming, where to do so in faith and trusting that as we confess our sins to you, you are faithful and just to forgive us, where we also ask that you, as only you are able through your spirit, would be at work within each of us, where to strengthen us in our repentance that we would not be a people who take not only from one another, but from anyone, where that we would be honorable people who take what you have given to us,

Lord, rejoice in those things and work hard in those things, steward them well, and trust you with whatever growth you would grant to us, where that we wouldn't be a spiteful people or a jealous people for the things that others have, but we would rejoice in what our

God has given to us. Help us, Lord, in these things we ask in Jesus' name, and amen. Amen. If you would, please stand with me.

We're all thieves, right? Every single one of us, we've all taken what doesn't belong to us in some respect or another.

We've all withheld what we owe, and we've all been discontent with God's provision. We've all coveted.

But more than that, we've robbed God himself. We've taken the glory that belongs to him alone and claimed it for ourselves.

We've taken the time that he's given us and we've wasted it. We've taken the gifts that he's bestowed and we've used them for our own pleasure rather than his purposes.

And we've stolen his worship and given it to idols. And for this, we deserve judgment.

But Christ, here's the beauty of the gospel, Christ became poor so that we might become rich.

He gave up the riches of heaven to pay a debt that he didn't owe. He didn't take, he gave.

He didn't steal, he was stolen from. They took his clothes, they took his dignity, and they took his life. And in doing so, he purchased for us forgiveness.

He bought us out of our debt. He paid what we could never pay. And so yes, we confess this, that we're thieves in some respect or another.

We've taken what isn't ours. We've withheld what is owed. We've robbed God of his glory. But we also confess this, that Jesus Christ has paid our debt and that in him, we're forgiven.

In him, we're free. In him, we can now live generously, contentedly, faithfully, not because we have to, but because he has given us everything.

And so we hear our part in this day from the word of God in Romans chapter eight, verse one, where he tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.