The Sanctity of Private Property – The Ordinance of Work 2
TEXT: Exodus 20:15; Eph. 4:28; Lev. 19:11,13,35-36
TITLE: The 8th Commandment: God’s Ordinance of Work 2
Exposition of Exodus LXXI
OCCASION: Westminster Presbyterian ChurchDATE: February 21,AD 2009
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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.
Last Lord’s Day evening we found that lying at the foundation of the 8th Commandment is the very important biblical teaching of the Sanctity of Private Property. The whole matter of private property and morality of it is under great attack in our day. Unfortunately it is nothing new. Even though often discounted we looked at the OT, but then focused the majority of our time in the NT and particularly in Acts. Far from either enforced or voluntary communal living, or any prohibition or immorality associated with the owning of property, we found Christians to have property and to be exhorted to the responsible in the use of it. So now having established the sanctity of private property from the Scriptures let us then look into what the Eighth Commandment directs concerning the….
Lawful and right ways of obtaining property.
Since God is the One who grants the right to property, then He is the One who can legislate as to what are the lawful means to obtain and preserve our property.
I. God is the One who blesses with material blessing.
Dt. 8:18, “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…” So the prophet Hosea chides the northern kingdom, 2:8, “For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold–which they prepared for Baal.” It is this perspective that our Lord teaches us when He directs us to pray to Our Father in heaven to give us this day our daily bread. Ja. 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” We are taught not to presume upon our own abilities, training, shrewdness, but to look to God: Ja. 4:13, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that,” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
We are going to look into the God-required lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others. But I point this out because hard work, wise work, thriftiness, saving, the Protestant or Puritan Work Ethic are all wonderfully true and biblically taught practical matters; But without God’s blessing all our efforts will not succeed: Ps. 127, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchmen stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives to His beloved even in their sleep.” Certainly David is not teaching idleness for in Ps. 128:2, “You shall eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you” which is a function of fearing the Lord. The point being that we and all creatures are dependent upon God who (Acts 17:25f) “gives to all life, breath, and all things.” Acts 14:17, “…He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
II. The gaining of wealth by work.
From the very beginning it is God who produces by work. Gen. 2:2, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” This becomes the pattern for man enshrined in God’s law in the 4th Commandment: Ex. 20:8, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do not work….For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day…” The cycle of labor and rest is founded here.
When God first created Adam and Eve in His own image we are informed by Gen. 1:26, that God told them to have dominion over all creation. Adam and Eve exercised dominion over creation through work. Adam was first placed in the Garden to tend and keep it. He exercises dominion over all the creatures as he performs the work of naming them. So we may say that man, made in the image of God, is given this dominion mandate to work that by his labor creation may bring forth to the glory of God and the good of man. With Adam and Eve there is not only a differentiation in gender, but a division of labor. This is the Creation Ordinance of Godly Dominion by Work. Creation brought forth abundantly and man thought God’s thoughts after him in the abundance of Eden.
However with the Fall, human sin, scarcity, and the drudgery or laboriousness of work comes into the world. Instead of exercising dominion by work and by godly obedience, Adam and Eve place themselves in the place of God. That self-idolatry as a path to power is still the pattern of sinful men today. Among other things it was the expression of envy: You shall be as God…. This is of course, simply the path to slavery. God speaks to Adam in Gen. 3:17, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field…” Now, instead of prosperity and abundance, it is rather the case that poverty becomes the natural or should we say un-natural condition of man. Instead of freedom to serve God, man falls into slavery to sin and satan. The hardship associated with work is found in the language of Gen. 5:29, where Noah is named meaning Rest, “And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” Gen. 3:17, “…In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground…” Yet there shall be labor and an appropriate reward, Adam and his sons and daughters will eat though through laborious work. We find the ordinance of work and the notion of a particular calling, that is gifts, skills, an occupation in Gen. 4:2, where Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground. As man develops so does his skill. Noah has the aptitude to build the ark and after the flood (Gen. 9:20) he farms and plants a vineyard.
When we come to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we read of the wealth of Abraham, the work of Jacob despite his sin – yet God blessing it, and the wealth of Esau. The point is obvious, that here is no cloud of dishonor put over the honest reception of the fruit of this work. This is clearly seen in Isaac’s blessing on Jacob: Gen. 27:28, “…may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.” Likewise Esau: 27:39, “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth…” Gaining wealth by work is good and biblical.
III. Work as a calling of God.
As you have seen all through those opening chapters of Genesis then, everyone must have a lawful calling or employment and give themselves diligently to it. Calvin, Institutes 3.10.6. “…the Lord enjoins every one of us, in all the actions of life, to have respect to our own calling. He knows the boiling restlessness of the human mind, the fickleness with which it is borne hither and thither, its eagerness to hold opposites at one time in its grasp, its ambition. Therefore, lest all things should be thrown into confusion by our folly and rashness, He has assigned distinct duties to each in the different modes of life. And that no one may presume to overstep his proper limits, He has distinguished the different modes of life by the name of callings. Every man’s mode of life, therefore, is a kind of station assigned him by the Lord, that he may not be always driven about at random…..It is enough to know that in everything the call of the Lord is the foundation and beginning of right action. He who does not act with reference to it will never, in the discharge of duty, keep the right path. He will sometimes be able, perhaps, to give the semblance of something laudable, but whatever it may be in the sight of man, it will be rejected before the throne of God; and besides, there will be no harmony in the different parts of his life. Hence, he only who directs his life to this end will have it properly framed; because, free from the impulse of rashness, he will not attempt more than his calling justifies, knowing that it is unlawful to overleap the prescribed bounds. He who is obscure will not decline to cultivate a private life, that he may not desert the post at which God has placed him. Again, in all our cares, toils, annoyances, and other burdens, it will be no small alleviation to know that all these are under the superintendence of God. The magistrate will more willingly perform his office, and the father of the family confine himself to his proper sphere. Every one in his particular mode of life will, without repining, suffer its inconveniences, cares, uneasiness, and anxiety, persuaded that God has laid on the burden. This, too, will afford admirable consolation, that in following your proper calling, no work will be so mean and sordid as not to have a slendour and value in the eye of God.”
Illust. I remember a very real and pointed exhortation which Bebo Elkin gave us at the University of Southern Mississippi. He reminded us all that our calling at present was to be a student. We were there to study, to learn and therefore we should give ourselves diligently to that calling. When you are conscious of your work as a calling, as Calvin noted, it makes you have a sense of personal responsibility. It is this sense of calling, this working not under the eye of men, but under the eye of God and for God’s glory that keeps work from simply being a drudgery, from simply being done to get the pay check – which I would suggest is what our culture is awash in. We are to work as to the Lord: Eph. 6:6, “Not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” No doubt there were objectionable things that first century slaves were told to do. So too, we may be doing a job which is unpleasant. We do not think that those over us appreciate what we are doing. We are tempted to individual or organized revolt/revolution! We are tempted to return careless work – sabotage- to that overbearing boss! Col. 3:23, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.”
IV. Work not idleness.
In Lk. 13, our Lord gives the parable of the barren fig tree: “Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?” We are not to be like rats simply living off the labor of others. Prov. 6:6f, “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep–So shall your poverty come on your like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.”
Look at II Thess. 3:6, “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.” The first thing that probably comes to mind is, the Apostle must be referring false doctrine. (Perhaps something like II Jn. 10, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.”) Maybe you thought it was some matter of notorious sin as in Paul: I Cor. 5:11, “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person.” But it certainly jarred me to realize that the Apostle Paul in II Thess. 3, is talking about a particular kind of disorderliness – idleness with its first cousin to being a busybody in other people’s business: v.11, “For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.” Why Paul you are just not being loving enough! You are not being merciful enough! Because what does he say? 10, “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” This sounds rashly medieval to our modern culture: I Tim. 5:8, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.” It is a mark of faith in Jesus Christ, of the new nature worked by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, a sign of the reality of the Spirit’s presence that we earn our own way by work and that we ourselves provide for our own who are related to us in our families and dependent upon us. The ethic of work of the New Testament and taking care of yourself and your family is the command of Jesus Christ: II Thess. 3:12, “Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.”
As I pointed out last Lord’s day, we live in a day when under the guise of religion, even Christianity, what we have studied from God’s Word is set aside. Yet our Lord gave a stinging rebuke to the Pharisees and scribes: Mk. 7:9, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”-’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down…” The way of godliness supported by the Apostle Paul is complete keeping with what Christ taught and the Old Testament: I Tim. 5:4, “But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.”
God’s command to work strikes at idleness, laziness, and the passing of unproductive time which we are all guilty of. Illust. In the Lee County Council of Governments office where I had my first job. We once had to fill out a time sheet which showed what we were doing every 15 minute block of an hour all day! How sadly revealing! What our culture drives at is not the maximum in work and productivity, but the minimum. I remember one of my summer jobs where the other guys said, Slow down! You are making us look bad! How far have we fallen from the Biblical pattern? How little can one get by with and still look busy and keep the job! That is not what Christ enjoins upon us as Christians. [John Murray] “How may we expect the social and economic structure to be permeated with the conception of the obligation, the dignity, and the pleasure of honest and conscientious labor if the church itself shows so little of blood, sweat, and tears in fulfilling its vocation?”
Proverbs is filled with these kinds of exhortations: Prov. 10:2-4, “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked. He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Prov. 12:11,24, “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding….The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor.”
Prov. 13:4,11, “The soul of the lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.”
My friends we live in a culture awash in trying to find some kind of trick to get what someone else has. We are taught that anyone who has something more than us obviously got it in a wrong way and that we simply by existing deserve it! Our sons and daughters are loosing the Protestant/Puritan Work Ethic. They are loosing the idea that the way to, as folks put it “Get Ahead,” is by honest, diligent, labor. I would rather put it that the way to dominion, to power, as we saw in Genesis, to resonsiblility and taking care of our family, is through diligent work. Who will be the greatest among you? He who is the servant of all. Scripture never calls upon us to demand our fair share. It calls upon us to industriously work. It is the industrious meek who will inherit the earth. Many of you are very concerned. Just this last week CNN POLL: “Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.” I would point to all of Ps. 37, but let this sample suffice: v.12ff, “The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have ben their bow…to slay those who are of upright conduct…..their bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.” v.3, “Trust in the Lord, and do good….Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” AMEN.
