Different Life: 7th CommandmentНамуна

Let’s push the margins. Most of us think of stealing as outright theft – breaking into someone’s house, mugging someone, grand theft auto, pickpocketing, or shoplifting from a store. But if the seventh commandment is a header for all kinds of ways people seek to tilt things in their favor deceitfully, what else might be included?

Look at this list from the Westminster Larger Catechism. When it asks what sins are forbidden in this commandment, look at what it includes: receiving anything stolen, fraudulent dealings, false weights and measures, moving land boundaries, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts or in matters of trust, oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, punitive or frivolous lawsuits, unjust enclosures and depopulations, hoarding commodities to enhance the price… (Q. 142). The list could go on.

Nudge a property line to your favor. You’re stealing. Downplay an issue when you sell something. You’re stealing. Charge high interest. You’re stealing. Fail to return something lent to you. You’re stealing. Take it without asking. You’re stealing. Take it because “they have plenty” or “they won’t mind.” You’re stealing. Buy something out from under someone else when they’re down on their luck for a rock-bottom price. You’re stealing. Round to your favor. You’re stealing. Sluff off on the clock, but bill it to your timesheet anyway. You’re stealing. It would seem there are far more thieves in the world than we realize.

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther says stealing includes taking advantage of our neighbor to his loss in any sort of dealing. He goes on to say: “If all who are thieves but do not want to admit it were strung up on the gallows, the world would soon be emptied.”

How will you be different in light of this commandment today? Identify a way or two you’re guilty of stealing. Bring it to God and commit to live the different life.