“We are not surprised to hear that political freedom in the world has declined for a fifth straight year, especially in the Middle East and in North Africa. But loss of freedom in the West does surprise us. Freedom has shrunk partly because of silencing “hate speech.”

Is the “climate of hate” warming or cooling here at home? The political pundits of the Left predict a violent and fiery future, which fits their present ideological needs. Some even claim that Right Wing violent political speech caused the Tucson massacre. Though recently abandoned by the electorate, the progressive Left still pursues a goal to silence opposing speech and thus to mute the cut and thrust of valid political debate.

Their charges are not idle threats. Politicians call for the application of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” to regulate content on the airwaves, and Jewish Funds for Fairness, heavily financed by the Leftist billionaire George Soros and inspired by the Marxist Saul Alinsky, is seeking to silence Right Wing pundits in order “to transform society…and create a more just world.” The just society will emerge when anti-socialist discourse is eliminated.

In the political debate about man-made global warming, free speech is constantly threatened. Based on the oft-repeated “truth” that “the science is settled,” and that we should proceed post haste to spend $15-20 trillion to implement policies based on such solid scientific “fact,” the leading power-brokers, many of them worshipers of Goddess Nature, regularly deny free speech to those in the opposite camp. The skeptics are trashed as “deniers” (as in “holocaust deniers”), and some have been denied access to the climate conferences in Copenhagen (2009) and Cancun (2010), where the proceedings in the opening ceremony last December were dedicated to the Mayan goddess Ixchel.

Opponents of the reigning climate-change ideology are not a miniscule idiot fringe. In fact, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine collected the signatures of 31,000 scientists opposed to global warming alarmism. However, speech is only free for the Gnostic warmers who know that warming climate change is inevitable and, by this, intend to control the world. Actually, since 1990, $50 billion of government money has been spent on proving man-made global-warming, while only $19 million was granted to opposing research. This is a serious case of muzzling the opposition. According to James Hanson, head of NASA, and close associate of Al Gore, democracy is our problem: “…compared to China, we are ‘the barbarians’ with a ‘democracy’ that now rules the roost, making it impossible to legislate effectively on climate change.”

Is this a trend that should concern us? In a previous Inside/Out I noted the rush to brand Christian organizations as “hate groups,” thus denying them a place at the public table, not because of any serious example of “hatred” but because of “ideology.” Readers will remember that Mark Potok, director of Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, openly recognizes that being labeled as “a ‘hate group’ is ‘all about ideology.’” This is quite an admission. No crime, no violence, just “wrong thinking,” which needs to be silenced.

Speech can be silenced in many ways. On the campus it is silenced by a refusal of public debate. It can also happen pre-emptively by admissions policy. Applicants to Vanderbilt’s Nurse Residency Program in Women’s Health who cannot agree to participate in abortions “will not be considered.” In the UK, speech is being silenced in the area of attitudes toward homosexuality. Christian owners of a B&B were denied the right to refuse rooms to gay couples by a judge who declared: “…it is no longer the case [in once Christian England] that our laws must…automatically reflect the Judaeo-Christian position…[In fact] the moral consensus is now the other way around.” Only certain speech and certain laws are now acceptable.

Genuinely violent speech must be deplored, but the charges brought against Christians are weapons of mass distraction. The white noise created by such groundless accusations muffles the grinding screech of two tectonic plates; a revolutionary conflict of opposing worldviews, of Christian Two-ism and of rising pagan One-ism. The latter now claims, as the English judge explicitly does, the right to control public discourse and silence “unhelpful” disagreement by any means because in One-ism there is no ultimate right or wrong, fair or foul play, only “enlightened” power, which progressively annihilates the right of Two-ist speech.

This is not unlike the time of the apostle Paul, who, locked up for his politically incorrect speech by the pagan Roman Empire, courageously asked his fellow believers: “Pray for me that I may have boldness to speak what I must speak.”

May this prayer and boldness be ours, especially since the ultimate goal of One-ism, in all its forms, is to silence the Gospel. Christian speech is not hate speech, it is love speech. We pronounce the name and the truth of Jesus, who is the Word, full of truth and grace. Our speech is not optional. Remember what Jesus told his disciples:

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)

No matter what the world says and no matter what consequences await us, we must speak the name and truth of Jesus for all to hear.

Peter Jones

Director, truthXchange

Scholar in Residence, Westminster Seminary California

760 480 8474

www.truthxchange.com

He writes: “I’m not sure that there are many in the PCA with this conviction. We are going with the flow, paddling with the current of broad evangelicalism seeking relevance, influence, and recognition. And sadly, to the extent we pursue those things so do we distance ourselves from our heritage, from the piety that flows from our confessions, and our NAPARC brethren. That was made readily apparent to all as the Strategic Plan was drafted, debated, and eventually adopted last summer.” Read more»

Click on the image to get your copy of the book. See more about the book.

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.”

TITLE:  The 8th Commandment:  The Care and Use of Things 3

Exposition of Exodus LXXII

OCCASION: Westminster Presbyterian Church    DATE: March 7, 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.

Thus far we have found that the Scriptures sound a lot like our Grandparents and Great-Grandparents.  Like our forefathers before us they teach as we have found, the Sanctity of Private property so key to human liberty.  They also teach that the Creation Ordinance of Work.  We found that while God is the One from Whom all blessings flow, yet having a legitimate and lawful calling (that is, not Gambling or Bank-Robbery) is necessary for exercising dominion over creation both before and after the Fall.  And with the Fall of mankind into sin comes major changes in the whole matter of scarcity and the nature of work.  Instead of prosperity and abundance, it is rather the case that poverty becomes the default condition of mankind: Job 1:21, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.”  Thus while we are to be anxious for nothing, yet we are to give diligent attention (as opposed to idleness) to getting the things necessary to support ourselves and our families.  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…”  But now that we have done this, then what use are we to make of these things?

I.  The responsible and careful use of what God has blessed us with through honest labor.

A.  An illustration and application

Both of my parents were raised on farms in Nebraska and went through the Dust-Bowl.  The Dust Bowl is not/was not an obscure pre-Orange Bowl college football game for smaller colleges or universities!  It was a drought in which topsoil blew by the winds of the Great Plains made crops fail and blotted out the sun.  One received their Vitamin D, as my Mom told it, by taking disgusting Cod Liver Oil!  My mother’s mother died of a strep infection shortly after giving birth to her brother leaving my Grandfather a widower with two small children in that trying time.  Trying? You will remember that this was the Great Depression.  On my Dad’s side I have described to you before the home place and pictures which today would be viewed as ‘poverty stricken.’  Interestingly they had food, clothing, and shelter, however think about this in light of today’s definitions, as Michael Bauman wrote in 1994, “Nearly 40% of those the US Government defines as ‘poor’ own their own homes–homes that have more living space than that enjoyed by most middle class Europeans.”

The results of this background on the way my parents raised me were profound.  My mother kept the home and my father worked hard to provide for us.  We were taught to clean our plate – food was not wasted; Yes this means eating left-overs.  When you leave a room – turn off the lights.  Think about what you need from the refrigerator first, then open the door and quickly get what you need.  Put the pan on the right size burner on the stove and shut if off when not in use.  Shut the door you don’t live in a barn and we are not air-conditioning (when we finally got one) the whole countryside!  When a toy was broken we did not throw it away and buy another – Dad fixed it.  I remember a plastic gun which either me or my brother had managed to land on and broke in half!  It was fixed with that yellow contact cement and braces – only a little of that yellow marring the appearance.  You played with a great deal of imagination anyway!  Dad brought home shipping crates occasionally from work which I was to pull the nails from and stack the wood for later projects.  And all of this came to a tremendous clash when the kids living next door about whom I certainly broke the 10th Commandment.  We had a few water colors which were carefully and sparingly used while she had acrylic paints which were dumped everywhere without a care.  I confess, I even more severely broke the 10th Commandment when they showed up with a mini-bike: First one with a lawnmower engine, then a more sophisticated one with shocks, then a Honda 70.  I would have given a right arm to have one, but the boy next door would take great delight by going fast and then jumping off and watching it crash into the side of the house!  I remember them bringing it over to our house for Dad to try to straiten the forks on his home-made arbor press.

This is not just a tale of my youth and the idiosyncrasies of the Reiber house.  Neither is this simply the hopelessly outmoded mindset of those who lived through the Great Depression.  Rather this is an application of this 8th Commandment: The responsible and careful use of what God has blessed us with through our honest labor.  This is what LC 141, calls frugality. Frugal is not only a word which has virtually disappeared from our vocabulary, but a concept that has about gone as well.  It speaks of the proper, temperate use of things as opposed to wastefulness and foolish expenditure.  That same LC 141, speaks of a provident care…to keep, use, and dispose these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustentation of our nature and suitable to our condition.

B.  Our Lord’s example and Scripture principle.

1.  Frugality and Prudence  You are familiar with John 6, where our Lord performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand.  After He had given thanks, broke them, and they were distributed by the disciples, what then? Verse 12, “So when they were filled, he said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.”  Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”  Gather up says our Savior: Positively take care of and responsibly use what has been given.  So that nothing is lost says our Lord: Negatively speaking, let nothing be wasted and be unproductively thrown away.  Gratitude and proper stewardship of what we receive from God demands responsible and careful use of what God gives to us.

Waste not, want not! is not simply an old saying, but the Biblical wisdom of God.  Prov. 21:20, “There is desirable treasure, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.”  To place our love in earthly treasure is the way to poverty: Prov. 21:17, “He who loves pleasure will be a poor man.”  Yet we may wisely and thankfully enjoy the wise gathering the fruit of the Lord’s blessing: Prov. 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”  This is not what Christ forbids in Mt. 6:19, “laying up for ourselves treasures on earth” – a hoarding for selfishness and with distrust of God (Lk. 12:16-22).  This treasure is in the dwelling of the wise., those who fear God.  Prudence is not worldliness: 10:5, “He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”  This is illustrated by Joseph in Gen. 41:48, who gathered during the time of plenty in order to prepare for the time of leanness.  Prudence is another one of those words which has almost passed from our vocabulary.  It however is the wise sister of frugality.  Prov. 22:3, “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.”  This is not knowledge of God’s secret will yet future, but it is the wise understanding of future troubles that makes for wise preparation today.  The simple are devoid of all sensible looking to the future and as a result are reckless concerning the future consequences of present action or inaction, and so their foolishness is punished.  In economic terms this principle derives from Prov. 6, where the industrious ant’s gathering prepares him for winter’s leanness.  Years ago parents would read the Aesop’s Fable The Grasshopper and the Ant to their children which provided a moral lesson about hard work and preparation of the ant and the demise of the foolish grasshopper.

2.  Honest careful use: Thrifty – Economical.  In Lk. 15, our Lord told the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  It is obviously much more than a lesson about the right use of the things of this life, however this young man’s audacity to demand his inheritance before his father is dead! his refusal of the godly father’s house; and of course his journey to the far country where “he wasted his possessions with prodigal living” – Certainly give a picture of the very opposite of honest and careful use of the wealth which God gives us by our work or inheritance.  Many of the pop icons are simply pictures of this very thing and adored by millions until they end up penniless and addicted, which certainly speaks of the great dangers of the idol of mammon.

Again:  Prov. 21:17, “He who loves pleasure will be a poor man.”  This is not to say that we are to have no enjoyment, no pleasure in a truck or car or house or lawnmower or a cook-out!  Jeremiah, alluding to the promises of God’s law in Lev. 26 & Dt. 28, says in 31:10-14, “….they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord–wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the heard…I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”  The 4th and 8th chapters of I Ks. where in 8:66, “On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good the Lord has done for His servant David, and for Israel His people.”  So too Ps. 104:15, “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the hearth, and wine that made glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.”  Eccl. 2:24, “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.  This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.”  The Apostle writes I Tim. 4:4, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”  So we receive all things with thankfulness to God and sue them under His eye and according to His Word. I Cor. 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

So therefore we are not to simply waste our time and money to no good purpose, but rather on that which is of solid use. Isa. 55:2, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”  We live in a day of a great deal of wastefulness.  Being lavish in expenditures is often celebrated even when it violates the biblical principle of personal and family responsibility.

3.  Care arising from conscience before God.  We must look to our hearts and our motives concerning these things.  Why must we have this carefulness, this frugal prudence?  Negatively it must not simply be that we are self-centered and stingy!  This must not be founded on our love of this world, but rather be acted out of conscience before God.  Those who our Lord condemned as setting aside the law of God by their traditions those who used the religious dedication of things to God as a covert way of keeping from providing for their own parents.  They were miserly and stingy because they wanted it themselves and thus abused God’s blessings upon them.

Wastefulness is sinful because of just what the Apostle teaches about the relationship between Master and Servant and Servant and Master in his epistles.  This is of great, great importance and applies to a variety of areas which we will see later.  The Apostle speaks of the servant, the laborer working as to the Lord and not to men whether bond or free.  The Apostle tells the master that his treatment and rendering what is due (salary) is that for which he too must answer to God.  This also applies in our reception and use of all things:  We live to God.  This is just to say, that in all our getting and using of the things of this world we are trustees, we have a temporary stewardship from God and to Him we must give an account.  This must be a self-conscious and controlling factor in our use of things.

4.  Thus we are enabled to make godly use of money and look to the poor.  Godly use includes not only our provision for ourselves and our family.  Being frugal, saving, and careful will make us ready to give to God for the support of the proclamation of the Gospel.  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.”  It makes us ready and able to wisely – not impoverish ourselves for that is nowhere required – but to have a care for widows, orphans, and the poor – that is, those lacking, food, clothing, and shelter (I Tim. 5:3ff). Prov. 11:24, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more…”

C.  Carefulness to avoid what may destroy our wealth.

There are at least a million get rich quick schemes.  From the billboards on the way to Vicksburg I understand that you can go down to the river and you will end up on a bed in a luxurious motel room swimming in cash!  Gambling belongs perhaps in the area of sins forbidden by this commandment.  Certainly we are not to jump in to such schemes.  How many have ruined not only themselves, but their families sinning against their family and against God.  If you are a Baseball fan you know of Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson being banned.  We all have read of Bernard Madoff.  Many other tales of family ruin could be found.  As Christians we must avoid these.

We must all be careful not to involve ourselves in unnecessary law-suits: In I Cor. 6:1ff, the Apostle Paul deals with the I will sue at the drop of the hat mentality.  This should not be viewed as a complete prohibition against using the law.  If that were the case then the Christian who is run into at a stop light should simply go pay for the damage themselves.  You will find the Apostle Paul using the lawful rights of his Roman citizenship, appealing to Caesar, and using Roman protection, the legal protection of the state, against a murder plot by the Jews.  But what the Apostle does tell us in I Cor. 6, is that we are not to use the law and courts simply to aggrandize and pad our pockets.  I actually knew of a guy, who while graduating from law school, had never passed the bar.  Nevertheless when he was accidentally bumped from the rear he got one of those neck braces to wear to court! Why?  Not an injured neck, but at the time he told me that it virtually guaranteed him $5,000!  Prov. 11:5, “The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.”  Of this kind of thing is the over reaching into what is beyond all right to properly manage and do.  Of course the huge and unmistakable example which I cannot but think of is, the granting of sub-prime loans which are loans extended to high risk categories dealing with the size of the loan, the structure, the credit rating of the borrower, the ratio of debt to income/assets, ratio of loan to collateral, the lack of supporting documentation.

D.  Moderation

Recognizing our own temptations to cling to the things of this world and to prize God’s gifts too highly for their own sake and virtually idolizing them, we must carefully moderate our heart attachment to them. Phil. 4:5, “Let your gentleness [epieikhß] be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand.”  Mildness, reasonableness or moderation.  Calvin notes, “We may understand him as exhorting them to endure all things with equanimity.  This later meaning I rather prefer; for to epieikeß is a term that is made use of by the Greeks themselves to denote moderation of spirit–when we are not easily moved by injuries, when we are not easily annoyed by adversity, but retain equanimity of temper….Such equanimity–which is the mother of patience–he requires here on the part of the Philippians, and, indeed, such as will manifest itself to all, according as occasion will require, by producing its proper effects.”  We must learn to control ourselves.  So how does this apply?

A moderate valuing of things our desires. I Ti. 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.”  So we do not simply dismiss God’s blessings and not use them, not improve them, not be grateful and thankful for them; We do not become so so-called spiritual that we cease to work for them and use them;  But neither do we idolize them and so loose ourselves in their pursuit that we forget the Giver and forget their proper use.

We must so moderate our wills and exercise discipline over ourselves that we do not fall into: I Ti.6:9, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.”  There is an attraction there which pull men and women over the cliff.

We must moderate our affections and love for things.  I Ti. 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed form the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”   The heart which becomes consumed with the inordinate love of things of this world will know no moderation in the pursuit of them.

We must moderate our care about getting, holding, using them resting in God’s promise to take care of us, depending on His providence to support us – Mt. 6:25, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?”

We must moderate our desires and find contentment in the position into which God has placed us. Heb. 13:5, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

As Christians living in a watching world we very much need to demonstrate these things.  The old lessons of hard work, good work, working to the Lord, of thriftiness, saving, careful prudence, living frugally/economically are the reflections of the Gospel taken to heart and lived.  Let us bring glory to our Lord and Savior. AMEN.

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.

TITLE:  The 8th Commandment:  God’s Ordinance of Work 2

Exposition of Exodus LXXI

OCCASION: Westminster Presbyterian ChurchDATE: February 21,AD 2009

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.

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.

TITLE:  The 8th Commandment:  The Sanctity of Private Property  1

Exposition of Exodus LXX

OCCASION: Westminster Presbyterian ChurchDATE: February 21,AD 2009

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.

In the previous Seventh Commandment the Lord restrains the lust of the flesh and legislates to promote marriage from which human life is propagated.  Here in the Eighth Commandment the Lord regulates men in the getting and use of riches as He restrains the lust of the eye and the covetousness of the heart.  At the same time the Lord provides for the preservation of ourselves and our families for which we must have earthly riches.  So we find that in these Commandments God wisely provides for the preservation of man’s life, the holy keeping of the marriage covenant, and now He provides for the right getting, possessing, using, and bestowing of wealth and worldly things so that we do not get them by theft or evil means, nor possess them unjustly or use them unlawfully.

With this Commandment let us follow the format which we have gathered from Scripture which reminds us that this summary of the Moral Law in the Ten Commandments engages us not only with what is forbidden, but also with what is required of us.  So when our Lord summarized the law with the law of love to God and our neighbor we must see that this Commandment addresses that matter as well. So also we realize that though the words of the Eighth Commandment are few they address and summarize a great deal of Biblical teaching concerning the getting, possessing, using and bestowing of wealth and things of this world concerning how we get them, how we possess them, and spend them lawfully.

I.  Is it right and proper for the Christian to own things?

Now I would suppose that this sounds a little bit obvious as a question.  However, we live in a day in which there is a great deal of confusion about the very matters which this Eighth Commandment addresses in terms of where or not is is ethical for Christians, or anyone for that matter, to own things.  You will hear radical calls for economic justice and the ordinary Christian thinks:  Well, of course I am for justice.  And of course I hate getting swindled. We think of some kind of dishonest situation when we think of injustice:  There was some slight of hand in the selling of that used car and it turned out to be a piece of junk!  There was some fine print in a contract which means the insurance company doesn’t have to pay or my warranty is invalid or something of this nature.  However they are not speaking of these kinds of things, but rather in the name of Christian ethics or a Biblical view of economics we are confronted by progressive evangelicals who call for the redistribution of wealth and the destruction of what they call unjust economic structures where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few-namely the United States or the Christian West or simply in the hands of those who by hard work and the blessings of providence have accumulated some – in order to give it to what are called exploited poor in undeveloped nations or simply your neighbor across town.  The very fact that you have more than someone living elsewhere in the county points to the unjust system which must be dismantled.  We often talk about these kinds of things in terms of a political or social matter, but it is very much a biblical an ethical matter. At the time of the Reformation in the early to mid 1500’s the radical Anabaptists also were for a kind of radical redistribution, a forced Christian socialism, the episode at Muenster was dramatically illustrative.  So what about it? Is it ethical for people to own property, things, money?  You see that really we must answer this question in conjunction with looking into What is required in the 8th Com? …requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.

A.  The Eight Commandment and the sanctity of private property.

The proper owning and possessing of goods in not prohibited by the Eighth Commandment.  Rather we need to see that the Eighth Commandment sets out the unchangeable moral law of God that the proper owning of property is lawfully ordained and firmly established by God as an inalienable right.  The Eighth Commandment establishes the sanctity of property just as the Sixth Commandment codifies the sanctity of human life.  This means that the private ownership of property is not founded on human invention, societal opinions, that is, in this primitive and more pristine culture they have everything in common, but in greedy societies there is private ownership.  No: This is not a matter of custom, social experimentation, political power or even the greed of fallen men.  The sanctity of private ownership of property is established by God Himself in the eternal and ever binding moral law of God.  Because God forbids theft, then positively He ordains the proper owning of material property.  Think about it:  What can you steal if everything is held in common with others?  If you steal it you are only stealing what was yours in the first place??!!  What you took was yours and not another person’s property when you took it from him.  But God forbids theft and so establishes the proper  possession of our own property.

B.  The ratification of private property from the Old Testament.

Here are some examples ratifying the possession of our own private property in the Old Testament: Abraham is called the Father of the faith.  What do we find? In Gen. 24:35, Eliezer, Abraham’s servant says, “I am Abraham’s servant.  The Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.”  Then note the passing of this inheritance by Abraham to whom he will: “And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has.”  So Abraham was wealthy and had a God-given right to all the property and had such a title to it that he could pass it on as an inheritance to Isaac.  Therefore both Isaac and Jacob legitimately and rightly possessed their own private property.

Another example: When Moses brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt and into the land of promise.  How was that land apportioned?  Joshua was appointed to be the next leader as Nu. 27, sets out, and when they came into the land and the land was subdued, Josh. 18, shows that it was apportioned by lot from the Lord to each tribe.  So sacred was this division that Lev. 25, provided that the land could not ultimately be divided away to other people or the land mingled together.

Of course there are many texts in Proverbs about private property as well as in the prophets.  However, I know that there are those folks who will want to say, Well, that is just in the Old Testament.  The abiding principles of the moral law demonstrated in the cases of the OT are certainly of continuing validity and binding.  But let us turn to see….

C.  The ratification of private property from the New Testament.

The Lord Jesus urged His disciples to works of mercy exercised toward one another – Mt. 25:31ff, “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”  Did what for My brethren? Works of mercy, feeding them, giving drink to them when thirsty, clothing those who were without clothing, visiting the sick and prisoners of Christ’s brethren, providing shelter for them.  Christ must therefore grant to His disciples the right of the possession of their own private property by which they could do good to others and help those in need.  If the right of private property is taken away, then with what are they to do these things?  It is impossible.  If everything is to belong to everyone, then you give nothing which is yours, but all you spend is from the common ownership.  But what does the Apostle Paul tell the Corinthians? I Cor. 16:1f, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collection when I come.  And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem.  But if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me.”  Then too look at the manner: II Cor. 8:11-15, “It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.  For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.”  Notice that one gives as he may prosper and according to what one has – What one possesses not according to what he does not have.  At the same time they are not to give to others so that others would have more than enough and those who gave would be put into poverty or lacking necessary things ( II Cor. 8:13f).  There is that element of personal and familial responsiblity.  So II Cor. 9:6,7, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

The Apostle Paul also writes: I Thess. 4:11,12, “That you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.”  The individual and family were to look out and be responsible for themselves which is not some wrong-headed Western individualism.  We could look at a number of other texts which he writes which establish the right of private property, but you see clearly that both Testaments establish personal private property!

D.  What about everything being common in the NT Church?

Luke writes in Acts 4:32, “….neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.”  But note that these early Christians possessed houses, property, and other wealth by the biblical right of property.  Now this text tells us how they viewed them, but they certainly remained their own private property in their possession.  This is confirmed when you read on concerning what happened.  What if a fellow Christian was in great need? “all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet…”  If they sold them those things were their own before!  They were not selling someone else’s property.  This is confirmed in Acts 5:3,4, in the whole Ananias and Sapphira episode: “Annanias, Why has satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it [the land] remained, was it not your own?  And after it was sold, was it not in your own control [the price he received]? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart?  You have not lied to men but to God?”  Annanias could have rightfully sold it or not sold it.  When he sold it he could have kept the money, but having committed to sell for this purpose of relieving fellow Christians he lied, he broke contract as it were with the Spirit of God.  So today people may sell or not sell and bestow the proceeds as they see fit.  So this place does not annul the right to property nor command a kind of communal system.

Further the statement they had all things in common does not require us to understand this as if they all moved into one house.  Actually we learn from context in Acts 2:46, that they “continued daily with one according in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”  If this was the Lord’s Supper and house churches or simply enjoying meals at this and then another Christian’s home, it is all the same — The faithful owned homes.  Their unity was in the teaching of the Apostles and their uniting together in worship at the Temple.

Therefore, the sharing or providing of goods among these early Christians was nothing else than the selling by wealthier members of the Church of their lands or houses so that they would be able to relieve the poor among them.

E.  Other Christians kept their homes and the use of them:

In Acts 9:36, we are told about a disciple named Tabitha “which is translated Dorcas.  This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.”  She made coats and other clothing for widows and the poor – which is how she used her private property.  Acts 12, Peter is miraculously brought out of prison and where does he go? v.12, “So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.” A congregation of disciples was there praying in the private house of Mary.  Peter stays a number of days in the house of Simon the Tanner. Clearly many early Christians owned home and it was not a violation of charity or justice that they did so.

In Acts 11:29, “Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.”  Now what ability could any of them had if they did not own property themselves?  In Acts 16:11f, we learn of woman named Lydia for whom we read, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”  After she and her household were baptized she said this: “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.”  Why did she not upon baptism as a new Christian say, Please sell my house?  She was not required out of obedience to godly principles or as a disciple of Christ to sell her house or give it as a common possession to the Apostles.  In Acts 20, the Apostle addresses the Ephesian Presbytery and he declares in v. 33, “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.”  What does that mean and how can that have any bearing at all unless it is lawful and right for Christians to keep and have possessions which are actually their own property?  Indeed he goes on to say how he got his own property: By working with his own hands.  In Acts 21:8, we learn that Philip the evangelist had a house in Caesarea with four daughters.  He did not sell his house, but provided for his daughters.  Philemon 16-22, (after Titus and before Hebrews!) had a house and a servant too, with a guest room, where the Apostle stayed Philemon being his host.

Now as we looked at the opening of Acts and then these texts we should not succumb to those notions which proclaim, that really, if we were really holy, really godly, really living like NT Christians and really following Christ, we would be for a kind of soft socialism or even for forced redistribution for a more just society–sort of a romantic communal living, as if that were the higher path of walking after Christ as His disciple.  Rather every man should govern his own house and his own family, providing first for his own household, and then relieve the brethren who are suffering because they do not have necessities, according to his ability and as the family budget will allow.  This view, this principle, is what the Apostle writes of in I Tim. 5:3ff, where those who are widows indeed, those who qualify for Church mercy support are identified.  The Apostle says that a man is first to care for his own household, then his extended household, before the Church was called into the mercy equation. The same attention to home is set out in Titus 2, I Thess. 4, & II Thess. 3, where he warns against idleness, but enjoins work.  Actually in all of his Epistles the Apostle points out the duties of masters, servants; parents and children, husband and wife in order to tell them how to keep their homes and families — All of which enforces what we see from this Commandment.

Then you should also note that the Scriptures tell us of any number of wealthy men and women who were genuine worshippers of God.  Joseph of Arimathea (Mt. 27:57) was the wealthy man who provided a tomb for our Lord Jesus.  He was both wealthy and a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Lk. 8:1-3, talks about a number of women who were believers and who were able from their wealth to provide for the Lord and His disciples.  Acts 8:26f, the Ethiopian eunuch who was a wealthy official of the court of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, was baptized a disciple of Christ. So down the line thinking of Tabitha of Joppa whom Peter raised from the dead who used her wealth so freely for the needy; and Lydia the wealthy seller of purple; and others were all godly, faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

What about Mt. 19:21, where our Lord addressed the Rich Young Ruler? “If you want to be perfect, go, sell, what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  This is not some general law which is applied to all men and certainly not something our Lord said in order to correct or set aside the Moral Law.  Rather this Rich Young Ruler, who thought he had kept the law from his youth up and now since he was so good and such a law keeper and so righteous, what more could he possibly need to have eternal life?  The Lord put His finger directly on this man’s golden god, his idol, and showed him that he was not righteous.  The fact that the RYR went away sadly shows that his heart was more attached to his things and status, than to the voice of God. The point being, that our Lord did not prescribe to His disciples that they should simply be beggars.  Indeed Christ’s Apostles did not shy back from addressing the rich and telling them how they should behave themselves as Christians: I Tim. 6:17f, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.  Let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”  This is in keeping with the various admonitions of our Savior: Mt. 6:24, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” 13:22, “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” 19:23,24, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  So those who have a larger portion of this worlds good things, they have some money, some property — These are not to be envied, disdained, or driven to discouragement that it is impossible for them to enter heaven, impossible for them to be saved, simply because they have things!  But rather as Christian men and women they are to be admonished about the particular dangers that go with such wealth so that they do not fall prey to the idea that because they have wealth and are secure they find their security in those things rather than in Christ or that they abuse their wealth, but they should use it as the Apostle admonishes them.

I even found out that the Synod of Gangra which met in the mid 4th century after the Council of Nicea, dealt with a certain group who were basically following a kind of asceticism/communalism, declaring “..the rich also who do not alienate all their wealth, as having nothing to hope from God…”  This kind of asceticism which denied marriage, marriage relations, and private possessions, was denounced by Augustine.  Remember that our Lord’s dealings and the Apostle’s warnings are not that somehow simply things in themselves or the having of property is somehow evil.  Rather they are to be received with thanks as good gifts from God.  It is rather the abuse of these things, the love of money, setting it up in lust and covetousness, which is evil.

II.  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.

Coming to this subject it is good to first take to heart the words of our Lord recorded in Luke 12:15, “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”  That is life is not about simply the accumulation of more and more at the expense of the soul “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided.?’”

Following Christ the Apostle Paul writes, I Ti. 6:6f, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”  AMEN.