Commandment No. 8 Do Not Steal

Our study module on Commandment No. 8 tackles management of God’s blessings.

Each of us receives blessings everyday. Waking up is a blessing; it means God is extending our life. King David said, “I wake again, because the Lord sustains me” (Psalm 3:5). Being awakened by a kiss or hug is another blessing; it means we are loved. Waking up to a pleasant weather is still another blessing. Waking up inside a home—protected from predators, the elements and prying eyes—is yet another. It spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y for a splendid, undisturbed quiet time with the Lord.

Collective and personal blessings are received by us throughout the day. Among our collective blessings are the four elements (land, water, air and heat); our human resources (family, friends, relatives, business associates, employees); our food resources (plants and animals); and the angels. Among our personal blessings are intelligence, wit, sense of humor, health, vitality, strength, physical senses, psychic abilities, talents, and material possessions. One particular blessing is how our soul, spirit and body are knitted together into a distinct person that is uniquely beautiful and extraordinary.

God is the source of it all.

¹² Everything comes from God. 1 CORINTHIANS 11

⁹ God… created all things. EPHESIANS 3

³ Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. JOHN 1

²⁵ He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. ²⁸ For in Him we live and move and have our being. ACTS 17

¹⁴ If it were His intention and He withdrew His Spirit and Breath, ¹⁵ all mankind would perish together, and man would return to the dust. JOB 34

Stewardship

God is blessing us, entrusting a certain amount of His resources to each of us, to train and test us in stewardship. At the Judgment our lives on earth shall be evaluated and rewarded in terms of stewardship.

What is stewardship? The modern-day word for it is managership.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. GENESIS 2

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “… Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” GENESIS 1

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? ⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶ You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet. PSALM 8

Do Not Steal from God

The task of the steward is to employ the resources entrusted to him in a manner pleasing to his Master. To do otherwise is to misappropriate his blessings. 

⁹ Honor the Lord with your wealth. PROVERBS 3

He must not claim ownership over anything that belongs to his Master. To do otherwise is misappropriation. Suppose he builds a magnificent edifice, whatever accolade, honor and glory it earns shall belong to his Master. None of it must be misappropriated.   

¹¹ Everything under heaven belongs to Me. JOB 41

¹ The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. PSALM 24

²³ [Your] land must not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine and you are but aliens [pilgrims on earth] and My tenants. LEVITICUS 25

¹⁰ Every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. PSALM 50

⁴ Every living soul belongs to Me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to Me. EZEKIEL 18

⁸ The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty. HAGGAI 2

The worst kind of misappropriation is when the steward employs his blessings to please his Master’s enemy.

Commandment No. 8 (Exodus 20:15, Deuteronomy 5:19) is a prohibition against stealing from God, not merely a prohibition against stealing from our neighbors as popularly believed. Strictly speaking, Do not steal from your neighbor is only a decree of the real commandment, which is Do not steal from God.

Misappropriation and stealing are one and the same. Webster defines steal as:

  a: to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully

  b: to take away by force or unjust means

  c: to take surreptitiously or without permission

  d: to appropriate to oneself or beyond one’s proper share

² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 CORINTHIANS 4

¹¹ Use your wealth as the Most High has commanded; this will do you more good than keeping your money for yourself. SIRACH 29

How to honor God with your blessings? Thank Him for everything entrusted to you. Acknowledge that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17). Employ your blessings in accordance with His instructions.