LAW HOMILY (Robbing Joy)

The Eighth Commandment and the Theft of Joy

Every week we go through the law of God because we want to understand what God has to say to his people. We want to understand what his standards are so that we can obey them. And we don't obey them in order to be accepted by God, but as those who are accepted by God, we seek to learn how to obey.

So today we're gonna be on the eighth commandment, which is you shall not steal. It's just two words in Hebrew. The command is not a shallow rule, just that only includes wallets and ledgers, as if God cared only for those things.

It's not just about property lines, it's about protecting people. Your neighbor's estate, which scripture and our confessional standards say includes not only his money, but also his reputation, his rest, his courage, his joy, his hope, his peace, his very sense of dignity before God and man.

And here's the truth, every time that we, whether intentionally or unintentionally, siphon away those things from our neighbor, whether it be from words or tones or habits or gossip or criticism or icy silences or simply being abrasive and calling it my personality, you are robbing your neighbor.

Stealing Love, Joy, and Peace from Others

You are standing condemned under the eighth commandment. And here's the even sharper point. Whenever you deliberately strip love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control from another human being made in the image of God, especially those who are of the household of faith, whether it's your spouse or whether it's your children or your friends or your fellow church members, you are not imitating Jesus Christ.

You are imitating Satan. You are doing to your brother what the devil longs to do to you. You are tearing down what God has built up. You are discouraging what God promises to sustain. You are dividing what Christ has promised to unite.

You are accusing what the spirit has justified. And if that is your practice, that makes you a co-conspirator with Satan, a right-hand man to the enemy of our souls, a co-belligerent with the great and terrible dragon.

And do you want to be known that way? Do you really want your hellish preferences to reign supreme as your actions align with Beelzebub? Do you want heaven to mark you as one who joined the devil's ranks so that you could get your way?

This is what stealing joy, peace, and love from others is. It's not a quirk. It's not just honesty. It's not just a personality trait. It's a theft. And you'll remember it was the devil himself who was characterized as the one who from the beginning wants to steal, kill.

Discouragement as Theft and the Sin of Spreading Fear

Discouragement is theft, and it's devilish. When you speak as though God cannot be trusted and the future is only bleak, when you roll your eyes, when you sigh, when you mutter sarcasm, or when you scoff at the hopes of your friend or your brother or your wife or your husband, you're not only stealing their courage, you're serving the serpent whose one goal is to sap God's people of their faith.

You remember in the narrative, in the book of Numbers, the 10 spies who spread fear all throughout Israel didn't just make a bad report. They became mouthpieces for the enemy, robbing hundreds of thousands of people of their spine in a single night and condemning a generation to wander and die in the wilderness, Numbers 13 and 14.

Disparagement, Bitterness, and Everyday Acts of Robbery

Disparagement is theft, and when you chip away at someone else's reputation or when you leave them disparaged or discouraged,.

You feel like you've won the battle.

Now they see how serious I am. Look at the dour look on their face. Now they see how much this really means to me. I've won. You've lost the war by winning the battle because you've participated in a kind of robbery that God condemns.

Brothers and sisters, this particular commandment is violated everywhere. This particular commandment is why marriages end up in bitter. This particular commandment is why brothers turn against each other.

This particular commandment is why people carry 20 years of bitterness. Do not participate in the deeds of darkness here. Where you can, add to your brother, add to your sister, add to your wife, add to your husband, add to your children.

Prayer for Conviction, Sensitivity, and Forgiveness

Pray that the Lord would help us in these things because all of us fall short in these things, don't we? Let us pray together. Let us go to the Father together. Let us ask Him to forgive us as individuals, as families, as children, as workers.

Let us lay down our larcenies and let us take up His grace, amen. There is a personal side to every single one of these commandments. It's so easy, Father, for us to look at the command not to steal and to rake the recesses of our brain and say, well, I haven't done that since I was three and I stole that juicy fruit from the grocery store.

And yet, we participate in burglary every day in our relationships, in our careers. Lord, would you show us the depth and the breadth of these commandments? Would you show us how we've participated in these things?

Would you give us a sensitivity of heart so that we would know the ways inside of us that are not pleasing to you? And Lord, where we are dull, would you, by your Spirit, awaken our consciences that may have been seared from years of sinning in a particular area, muting your law and its blade on our hearts?

Lord, would you give us a fresh heart again? Would you make us sensitive to your word again? Would you make us eager to obey your word again? And would you forgive us as we have sinned again? It's in Jesus' name we pray.