I’ve Been Robbed! 4
TEXT: Exodus 20:15; Lev. 19:11,13,35-36
TITLE: The 8th Commandment: I’ve Been Robbed! 4
Exposition of Exodus LXXIII
OCCASION: Westminster Presbyterian Church DATE: March 14, AD 2010
PM
Introduction
If you will turn to New Trinity Hymnal p. 875:
Q73, Which is the Eighth Commandment? The Eighth Commandment is, “Thou shalt not steal.”
*****Q74. What is required in the Eighth Commandment? The Eighth Commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
*****Q75. What is forbidden in the Eighth Commandment? The Eighth Commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s, wealth or outward estate.
The word economics comes from the Greek words oikos meaning house and nomos meaning law. It should be clear that economics is not a morally neutral endeavor. Yet there are those who would try to tell us that economics like other sciences is value neutral. Now it is true that when it comes to description of what is out there, whether that be in biology or chemistry or economics, we want an as objective as possible, that is to say an accurate as possible, a description and analysis of the facts. However no human endeavor, no science, is value neutral. Ask the question: Why do science? Knowledge is better than ignorance. Why is that? Knowledge is useful. Knowledge works. Ignorance doesn’t. It works to what goal or purpose? Toward the well-being and good of man. What is the good of man? Why should it be pursued? We could follow a similar line of reasoning when it comes to the value of truth over falsehood. Secular answers come down ultimately to human preference or the will to power! I like it. I want it. And there are those today who are arguing in the name of the equality of all species and the environment that the well-being of man is not the highest good. Or for that matter a Hindu might say, empty your mind of everything and become absorbed into the universal all which makes knowledge and any distinction between a knower and knowledge impossible! BUT there is an answer as to why we must value knowledge over ignorance. Biblical Christianity answers that knowledge is valuable because God the Creator first made us to know Him and knowing His world to rule over it. Col. 2:3, tells us that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Christ has come to reverse the Fall and its effects. Thus Christians are (Co.3:10) to “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created” us. God is a God who does not lie and commands us not to lie (Ti.1:2). Lev. 19:11, “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.” Truth and honesty are working values which God points out are rooted in Himself and the character in which He has redeemed us. He is Wisdom personified who speaks out in the streets in Proverbs.
All this is to say that we must apply God’s Word, reading both the Old Testament and New Testament with great weight and seriousness, to every area of life. That certainly applies to the whole matter of the exchange of goods and labor and money and property. The Eighth Commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s, wealth or outward estate.
I. Taking the private property of our neighbor is forbidden.
Very obviously in its most basic and summary concept: Theft is wrong and forbidden by God’s law: Eph. 4:28, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” Notice how the negative is forbidden: Let him who stole steal no longer. Stealing – taking that which belongs to another against their will and to their hurt is forbidden. Then the positive is enjoined: But rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good. We are required to engage our God-given abilities in honest work in order to provide for ourselves and others. Interestingly you should also note that the Apostle does not endorse as a justification for theft, the need of others. One cannot maintain: I have need of something to give to those in need so I must and may take property which belongs to someone else. Rather this voluntary charity is to come from the property which we have legitimately earned. So Ps. 62:10, “Do not trust in oppression, nor vainly hope in robbery…”
A. How serious is theft?
If you have ever had your house or car or school locker robbed, you know the feeling of being violated. You know the hurt of loosing that which you worked so hard for. You know the stirring up of anger. But particularly stealing is serious because what will happen to those who do not repent of such desires and acts: I Cor. 6:9,10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Those who do not derive their substance through legitimate work or legitimate charity are thieves. The good news is that some of those in the Corinthian church were once such as this, but found pardon through the grace of Jesus Christ and so may sinners today. The bad news is that while our Lord says, “What will it profit if you gain the whole world and loose your soul” yet men by stealing, by being a thief, often loose their souls for far less! Zech. 5:3,4, speaks of God’s curse upon the thief. Similarly the knowing reception of stolen goods is forbidden. Prov. 29:24, “Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.” Ps. 50:18, “When you saw a thief, you consented with him…” If men really took this to heart they would not view stealing as such a small matter. Theft must not be named among Christians.
B. What should the repentant thief do?
We are all familiar with the account of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. You remember that he was a hated chief tax collector, an occupation despised not only for its collusion with the occupying Romans, but for its notorious dishonesty and theft. We all know the good news of how Jesus came to his house and how salvation came with Him. But you should note that there is in Zacchaeus a demonstration of his genuine repentance and in keeping with the penal sanctions of the OT law he repaid to those whom he had robbed. Lev. 6:5 & Nu. 5:7, speak of restitution and an added fifth. Ex. 22:1, “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.” v. 4, If he breaks in to steal and is caught red-handed: “he shall restore double.” So Zacchaeus Lk. 19:8, “…if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” What should the thief do, even in the case that he is powerful, wealthy, and prominent? In humility repent and seek forgiveness in Christ and make restitution. Similarly when we find that which belongs to our neighbor we are to return it to him: Dt. 22:1, “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him.” This text goes on to extend this to whatever you find that is your neighbors and you are not supposed to hide yourself so that he will not inquire of you! Very different from Finder’s keepers; Loser’s weepers!
II. God also brands as theft all wicked tricks and devices whereby we aim to appropriate our neighbor’s goods, whether by force or with show of right…
In case you are wondering where that wording came from? It is from the Heidelberg Catechism #110. We live in a day of a great many wicked tricks and devices by which men aim to take for themselves what is the lawful private property of their neighbor. Sometimes the force is obvious while at other times it comes in the deceptive clothing of the pretense of righteousness or honest dealing. Ultimately for the Christian in the sphere of his own personal dealings with others the law of neighbor love – Mk. 12:31, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – must hold sway. Just as I would not appreciate someone entering my home to take what is mine, so I must not take what belongs to someone else whether that be by stealth, trickery, dishonesty in labor or contract, by law-suite, by slothful work or a bad product, or inducing him to give up his money to a sinful and illegitimate thing–Prostitution or gambling. All such things are sinful. The inventive mind of sinful man has found many ways of breaking this commandment.
A. Theft by false weights and measures
Commonly in Protestant catechisms you will find this kind of language false or unjust weights and measures. Where does this come from? Lev. 19:35,36, “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” What God is dealing with here are fraudulent weights and measures (an ephah and hin are measures of volume) which would be what is necessary to cheat, defraud, steal, from a customer. Prov. 11:1, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the lord, but a just weight is His delight.” Prov. 20:10, “Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.” If the scale at the local supermarket was a little short of a pound; Or the gas pump did not put our quite a gallon. I Thess. 4:6, “That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.” You go into the marketplace to buy some grain or flower and there is the dishonest man. His weight for measuring out the product is a wee bit heavy while his weight for measuring out the payment is a wee bit light! The result of this dishonesty is that you pay more and get less!
The Heidelberg Catechism also mentions fraudulent coins or money. Of course this applies to the counterfeiter; to those who clipped coins; to those who represented a coin as pure precious metal when in reality the inside was a base metal in days gone by. But any number of Christian economists and theologians (Dr. Calvin Beisner) have argued and I would agree, that fiat money – the inflationary increasing of the money supply through paper money which has no inherent value other than the government declares it to be legal tender – is another form of theft. Anyone who doubts the theft and economic impact can simply read the history after WWI when Germany expanded the money supply to pay off war debt which caused average citizens to use wheelbarrows of Marks to buy a loaf of bread.
The same could be said for mixing good products with bad or misrepresenting a product. Truth in advertising and delivery of goods and services is demanded by this commandment.
B. Theft by Non-payment of debt.
It used to be viewed as a shameful thing which was discountenanced by Christian society to not pay debts in much the same way that scandalous behavior inside or outside of marriage was disapproved. It was viewed as a matter of irresponsibility. This commandment forbids such breaches of contract, of trust. Ps. 37:21, “The wicked borrows and does not repay.” Now obviously there are times when a person had full purpose to repay and they have not got themselves in excessive debt, yet in the providence of God he is now unable to pay (Ie. Hurricane destroyed the family business!). But when a person has no business taking out such a huge loan and any small change in their financial situation means they will go into default or if they misrepresent their financial situation -This is theft. Now an individual may forgive another their debt in part or in whole as in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Mt. 18:21f) or the Unjust Steward (Lk. 16:1f) who appears to have removed the interest charge; Yet there is a moral obligation to pay our debts. For anyone to simply dismiss such debt by bankruptcy or government decree (those who held corporate bonds of a large auto manufacturer?!) means the defrauding of others.
C. A failure to do what is positively enjoined by this commandment.
The lack of hard work, the failure to provide for family, the failure to be frugal and careful in provision and use of what we earn and God blesses us with, are all breaches of this commandment. Illust. My Grandpa Frisbie would often talk of people Not knowing the value of a dollar! He was careful to make sure we did! We always took vacation around the July 4th, for the added day and because it was near wheat harvest in Nebraska. My brother and I were put in the back of a grain truck to level loads with a grain scoop which is an oversized shovel. In those days you wore jeans which were too big and so the cuffs were rolled up. However, Grandpa Frisbie would not let you leave the truck until those cuffs were emptied back in the truck. That was money in the bank. I remember him in his retirement years going to Arizona in the winter and being amazed to see young healthy bucks as he called them. They were Indians, lounging around unemployed and doing nothing but drawing a check. I thought of this when I read Thomas Boston expounding on this commandment and remarking: “Sturdy beggars are not to be tolerated; and no person being able to work for their maintenance can with a good conscience make a trade of begging. They that are able to work, but are not willing, out to be compelled to it; and it is the sin and shame of the government that it is not so.” Do you think he would get far with that today? He goes on to speak of how they wrong those who are really poor.
Illust. I remember a guy I went to High School with whom I worked one summer. This company rubber lined pipes and did welding for the phosphate industry in Florida. Now we were not supposed to burn rubber and other things during the day, but this guy would throw stuff out on a hot burn area thus starting a fire right at 5:00 quitting time so that he would have to stand out there with a hose and get some overtime. Ti. 2:9,10, “Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. What happens when either employees or customers do the Five Finger Discount? We pay.
In families when husbands spend and waster their money to the detriment of their families they break this commandment as we have learned from I Tim. 5:8. Likewise when a wife does this – How opposite this is from the wife of Prov. 31, who does him good and not evil. How many disputes have arisen among children against their parents: Prov. 28:24, “Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, “It is no transgression,” the same is companion to a destroyer.” You will remember that our Lord condemned this.
Now I could go on with a long list of other things. The removal of landmarks is forbidden: Dt. 19:14, “You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set….” Prov. 23:10, “Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless; For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.” So also discontent with our station in life and the urging of others toward covetousness of what others have; Inducing envy at the advance in wealth of others beyond us.
III. What about the poor? Does God endorse a kind of Robin Hood Mentality -Policy?
There is no doubt that the Lord calls upon us to have compassion on the poor. We have looked at how there is personal responsibility, family responsibility, then the role of the Church from those who qualify for such assistance -Those who are widows indeed. Then the neighbor love expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. We have also seen that charity is private and voluntary. We have contrasted in the past the responsibility of the Church which is to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments and church discipline, versus the responsibility of private charities and trusts which individual and groups of Christians may set up. “The century-old question—Does any given ‘scheme of help…make demands on men to give themselves to their brethren?’—is still the right one to ask. Each of us needs to ask that question not in the abstract, but personally. We need to ask ourselves: Are we offering not coerced silver, but our lives? If we talk of crisis pregnancies, are we actually willing to provide a home to a pregnant young woman? If we talk of abandoned children, are we actually willing to adopt a child? Most of our twentieth-century schemes, based on having someone else take action, are proven failures. It’s time to learn from the warm hearts and hard heads of earlier times, and to bring that understanding into our own lives.”[Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1992), pp. 232–33.]
But there are other voices about poverty; About those who need to be raised to a higher standard of living. Is the Christian required to endorse a kind of Robin Hood policy (not debating whether the actual Robin Hood was resisting tyranny, etc.) – That is endorse redistribution of wealth as a matter of moral principle.
There are certainly those who believe this. Whether it be those who subscribe to Karl Marx’ theory of value which is that all products are valued in terms of labor and so all the return on that labor should and must go to the workers. This of course completely misses the original capital which it took to start the business, to have tools, and the risk involved and the good which capital formation brings. Others in the name of humanity or Christianity advocate a ‘just society’ in which all are equal in outcomes – except of course those who administer such programs! The idea being that it is unjust for anyone to have much while another has little so then nations must redistribute the wealth. I have even heard of those who in the name of Christianity advocate an international tax applied by the UN in order to more justly redistribute the wealth of the world. There are multitudes of things wrong with this. It breaks the 8th Commandment concerning the sanctity of private property. It promotes tyranny and reduces liberty in the pursuit of equality of outcomes: “[A]ll men have different gifts, talents, interests, and abilities. Left free, they will exercise those in different ways and will produce different fruits. The only way to arrive at equal fruits is to equalize behavior; and that requires robbing men of liberty, making them slaves.” [E. Calvin Beisner, Prosperity and Poverty: The Compassionate use of Resources in a World of Scarcity (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1988), p. 54.] It ignores major problems as to why the poor are poor and suggests that simply money will change things: “If poverty (the lack of money) really were what ails the poor, supplying vast amounts of money surely would alleviate it. But after thirty years of Great Society-style, ‘War on Poverty’ welfare programs—programs that have transferred (in 1990 dollars) more than $3.6 trillion to the poor—poverty is still winning. We ought to think about that for a minute: In the last thirty years, we gave a million dollars to America’s poor nearly four million times over, yet all the while poverty got worse. If the money earmarked for poverty relief in this year’s federal budget alone were given to the poor directly, we would have enough funds to raise every man, woman, and child in America above the poverty line and have a cool $60 billion left over to celebrate our victory.” [Michael Bauman, "The Dangerous Samaritans: How We Unintentionally Injure the Poor," Imprimis 23, no.1 (1994): 3–5.]
Practically speaking numerous studies shown that economic policies, while altruistic in purpose, have actually been set against personal and family responsibility resulting in the virtual collapse of the black family. The problem is not that we have not done enough for the poor, but that we have done so much which is counterproductive. And we should not be surprised. Beisner notes, “Legal and economic policy that shows partiality to the poor over the rich is equally unjust with policy that shows partiality to the rich over the poor.” Ex. 23:3,6, “You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute….You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute.” OT scholar J. Barton Payne writes, “Israel’s judges were warned not to permit economic need to influence their decisions (Lev. 19:15); for in the distribution of property the standard, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ includes stealing, even by society as a whole.” R. C. Sproul has written, “When people use the power of the ballot box to vote for themselves largess or subsidies from the general coffers, it is a sophisticated form of stealing…Christians need to be sensitive about how they use the power of the ballot.” [Sproul, Ethics & the Chrsiztian, 1983 p.63] This is simply what Ps. 94:20, speaks of as “the throne of iniquity which devises evil by law.” Of course the problem is not simply one of transfer payments to the poor but to the rich and bureaucrats.
I encourage you to read Dr. Beisner and Dr. Ronald Nash. As I studied I was amazed to learn that Adam Smith famous for writing The Wealth of Nations was educated for the Presbyterian ministry and that his world view was strongly influenced by Christian thinkers; that he wrote an earlier book The Theory of Moral Sentiments seeking as a professor of moral philosophy to apply that to all of life. He had a keen interest in the poor, the common poor working man and family, and how their purchasing power could be raised! How to raise them to a higher standard of living! Simply more money in circulation did not do it – More dollars chasing the same goods and services just meant the price went up. Likewise merely freezing the cost of bread simply meant a smaller quantity of bread and less to go around (the same principle that works on all fiat wage and price controls). The wealthy substituted other things or had underground bread brought in while the poor just did with less! He found that real prices fell when goods and services grew in the face of demand. To do this he found that labor had to produce more through the division of labor and the application of capital to buy tools. The increase of the productivity of labor brought greater profit and thus those with capital were willing to invest risking more. The laborer profited by greater wages for his higher productivity. Any greedy employer who refused to increase wages would loose his employees to those who wanted to increase production. The increased wages of laborers increased their standard of living.
Beisner notes, “Smith recognized, that capitalists’ quest for profit can be enlisted in the task of boosting the productivity of labor and therefore simultaneously raising wages and lowering prices, thus increasing the purchasing power of labor and raising the living conditions of common laborers.”
Christians are not simply for a free for all economy where Murder Inc. pedals its wares. In the Christian sense, a free market means that the state enforces God’s laws/principles and leaves men free to make choices. The duty of the state is not to save men from the consequences of their own irresponsible decisions, but rather to guard honest and hard working people from criminal activity. The free market is not paradise and the Christian is concerned about a good deal more than price/labor controls in the market. We want a Christian commonwealth in which the choices men make will flow from love to God and neighbor. Such a culture will never be produced by legislation or enforced redistribution of wealth. The state is there according to Paul in Ro. 13, to punish lawbreakers and protect the law-abiding. The culture can only be transformed by the Gospel, by the regenerating and sanctifying power of the grace of God. AMEN.
After thoughts and quotes:
Our Lord spoke to soldiers: Lk. 3:14, “Likewise the soldiers asked Him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So He said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” Isa. 33:1, “Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!”
As Dr. Calvin Beisner writes as he discussed Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: “…wealth is neither natural nor easily created, that its creation requires diligence of mind and body…”
Larger Catechism 141, The duties required in the 8th commandment are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man; rendering to every one his due; restitution of good unlawfuly detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others; moderation of our judgments, wills, and affections concerning worldly goods; a provident care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose of these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature, and suitable to our condition; a lawful calling, and diligence in it; frugality; avoiding unnecessary law-suits, and suretiship, or other like engagements; and an endeavor, by all just and lawful means, to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own.
Larger Catechism 142. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect fo the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing land-marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust inclusures and depopulations; ingrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use nad comfort of that estate which God hath given us.
Benjamin Franklin:
Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides…..
Remember, that money is the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again is seven and threepence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds.(Italics in the original)
Herbert Scholossberg, Idols for Destruction
“Cultures are equal in value only if there is no standard against which to judge them. The culture of the West, infused as it is with Christian values, is superior to any other, and all the valid charges against the West are indications that it has betrayed its own heritage. It is not superior because it is wealthy; it is wealthy because it is superior, because it believes that work is a calling, that matter is important, that reason is a gift of God. This culture, God’s gift, transmits its material blessings along with its interpretation of reality.”
