How to Be a Human Being - Been Caught Stealing
I've been caught stealing
Once when I was 5
I enjoy stealing
It's just as simple as that
Well, it's just a simple fact
When I want something,
I don't want to pay for it
I walk right through the door
If I get by, it's mine!
Recognize that? It was a big song by Jane’s Addiction in the 90s.
I did steal a toy truck from a neighbor kid when I was four or five. I took it home and my mom asked where I got that fancy new truck. I didn’t want to tell her but I did and she made me take it back. It wasn’t mine.
Which is kinda funny because she used to go out with her best friend and look for what they called “yard specials.” A “yard special” is when a kid left their bike or something in the front yard close enough to the street that they could grab it and throw it in the back of her friend’s car before anyone saw them. I don’t think my mom ever lifted anything for us but I know she thought it was fun to go with her friend.
One of my older brothers got our whole family kicked out of our small town grocery store. When he was in high school, he would wear one of those puffy Back To The Future jackets and hide entire boxes of Twinkies and Ding Dongs, then take them to school and hand them out like a rock-star. I think he made the mistake of giving one to the son of the guy who owned the store. The Hart boys got banned.
I knew a guy who thought it was okay to take things from work as long as they were just going to throw them away anyway. He was fired for loading up his trunk with trash bags and paper towels.
In 1987 I was in a band called Love in Grey. I had graduated from college and was working construction in Springfield, Missouri saving up to buy a really nice bass and bass amp—I traded my guitar, bass and a keyboard, everything I had plus a wad of cash, to get some good gear. We were getting ready to move to Texas and work with a production company—see how far this band would go. Wilde Silas Musicworks had a nice office with rehearsal space and storage, and they agreed to let us keep our band stuff there and use the rehearsal studio. One week after moving all our gear in, they were robbed—leaving me broke and without any musical instruments. Took the tools of my trade.
I borrowed a bass and amp from a friend, and then one night when we were playing at Fitzgerald’s, someone broke into my van and stole my actual toolbox and all my tools. Kim saw them do it and chased the person down the street yelling at them. I’m not sure what she thought she was going to do if she caught them.
Can we all agree that thieves suck? There’s not much worse than that sickening feeling you get when you find out that someone has stolen something from you—especially if they broke into your house or your car to take it. Makes you feel so vulnerable. Violated.
As we continue in our How To Be A Human Being series, today we’re looking at the 7th Commandment. “You Shall Not Steal.”
Luther says that the 7th Commandment means we should fear and love God so much that we don’t take our neighbor’s stuff. We don’t take their money or their things by false dealings, or tricking them or grabbing their stuff when they’re not looking. He says it covers every kind of robbery, theft, usury, and fraud. All those things that come from the envy and covetousness of our hearts. You shall not steal. But Luther also insists that there’s another side to this commandment. It’s not just about not taking things from our neighbor, but it’s also about doing what we can to help them improve and protect their property and business.
But we need to zoom out and look at all the vocations we have in life to see all the different ways we are tempted to steal from each other and steal from God. It’s a bigger problem than it might seem on the surface.
A good friend’s son stole a piece of candy from a small grocery store and when he asked his son where he got it, he didn’t want to admit it but he finally said he took it from the store. This was like a 25 cent piece of candy. They went back to the store and he told his son to apologize to the store owner and pay for the candy. He walked up to the man so slowly, with tears in his eyes—he broke into full on crying before he finished saying he was sorry. The owner thanked him for confessing his crime, winked at the dad and said, “Since you came back to pay for it, I’m not going to call the police this time.”
We have to teach our kids not to steal.
But that’s going to be hard to do in this upside down world that’s gone completely mad.
It’s obvious that we shouldn’t steal toys from the neighbor kids or tools from people who are trying to make a living. But stealing is a much bigger issue than just taking other people’s property. It also includes cheating. Fraud. Scams and schemes. It includes waste. It includes laziness—which is stealing time from our employer and wasting the time that God has given us to do the things He’s told us to be busy doing. Playtime and leisure is fine but what percent of our day is okay to twiddle away on social media, video games, TV, YouTube, Netflix. Those things are time thieves. How many days a week is it acceptable to dedicate to sports or hobbies before it should be considered stealing from our family, or our employer, or our church. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few—they’re too busy with their idol distractions and greedy pursuits. Proverbs calls us sluggards when we’re lazy and steal God’s time and waste our lives. Stealing also includes governments that overtax the people, it includes our politics when we support candidates that promote over-taxation. We seem to have a growing population in this country who want to encourage the government to steal from the people—over-taxation is theft. Stealing also includes charging high interest on loans, and when we sit by and allow criminals to take advantage of desperate people with high interest loans. God has a lot to say about stealing. Which includes robbing Him of the tithes and offerings He commanded us to give to Him.
From cover to cover, the Bible condemns all these things and more as violations of the 7th commandment. Before we teach our kids not to steal, we’re going to have to learn it ourselves.
As always, these things have been written down for us, we just have to take the time to read and listen to what God has said.
God says,
“If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need.” Ephesians 4:28
He says to be honest in your dealings with people:
“Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or volume. Your scales and weights must be accurate. Your containers for measuring dry materials or liquids must be accurate.” Leviticus 19:35–36
It’s always been the rule at our house that when you share something like a piece of cake with someone, one person cuts it but the other chooses which piece is theirs.
We’re supposed to be the kind of people who are generous—we’re supposed to be known for helping people. But we’re not supposed to take advantage of people when they’re down.
Leviticus says,
“Do not charge interest or make a profit at (someone’s) expense. Instead, show your fear of God by letting (them) live with you as your relative. Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend (someone) or make a profit on food you sell (them).” Leviticus 25:36–37.
This is talking about all of us as individuals, it’s not talking about our businesses or banks or restaurants or hotels.
Speaking of businesses—you know how everyone’s always looking for a friend who can get them a good deal on something? The “bro” discount. What if we sometimes paid extra to bless our brothers and sisters in Christ instead of always just looking to take advantage of their kindness? Wouldn’t that be something?
God says,
“You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!” 1 Timothy 5:18
On the other hand,
“Those (who are) unwilling to work will not get to eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10
If you don’t work, you don’t eat. It’s pretty simple. And supporting government policies that reward laziness is just as bad.
If you borrow money, pay it back. But don’t loan someone anything if it will ruin your relationship if they don’t.
The wicked borrow and never repay,
but the godly are generous givers. Psalms 37:21
On the other hand, if someone asks you for something you can afford to give them, Jesus says you should give it to them.
“Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.” Matthew 5:42
God wants us to be generous, which is the opposite of stealing. Stealing is based on greed. He says He’ll always make it worth our while when we’re generous.
“If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD—
and he will repay you!” Proverbs 19:17
It’s supposed to be foundational for followers of Jesus. Helping people should always be in the front of our mind.
“Don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.” Hebrews 13:16
The United States’ first billionaire was John D. Rockefeller. He was once asked if he tithed, he said, “Yes, I tithe, and I would like to tell you how it all came about. I had to begin work as a small boy to help support my mother. My first wages amounted to $1.50 per week. The first week after I went to work, I took the $1.50 home to my mother and she held the money in her lap and explained to me that she would be happy if I would give a tenth of it to the Lord.
I did, and from that week until this day I have tithed every dollar God has entrusted to me. And I want to say, if I had not tithed the first dollar I made I would not have tithed the first million dollars I made. Tell your readers to train the children to tithe, and they will grow up to be faithful stewards of the Lord.” — John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
I’ll bet there hasn’t been a preacher who hasn’t told that story and secretly wished a Rockefeller went to his church.
These days you’ll hear all kinds of things about the tithe. Pastors are afraid to talk about it, afraid to scare people away. Nobody wants to be accused of being in the ministry for money.
But I’m more afraid of not teaching the whole truth from God’s Word, whether you like what it says or not. So this is what God says about tithing:
“Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” Malachi 3:8-10
Usually God says to not put Him to the test, but when it comes to paying our tithe, He’s like, “Go for it.” You want God to open the windows of heaven and pour down a blessing until you have no more need? That sounds like a pretty good deal for 10%. Sounds a lot better than being “cursed with a curse” for robbing Him.
So that’s a little sampling of what the Bible tells us God says about cheating and stealing from each other and from Him. We have all done more than our share of cheating and greedy grabbing and stingy hoarding and lazy time wasting. We’re all guilty. Across the board.
And the world we live in has gone completely bonkers. In 2020 we’ve seen our elected officials steal the livelihood and dreams from our friends and neighbors by shutting down their businesses. Most of us have just passively watched all this insanity—or maybe just complained about it to our friends. We’ve also watched those same elected officials stand by and allow the destruction and looting of people’s businesses, livelihoods, and dreams—excusing the thieves if not encouraging them. This is absurd. It’s fear-mongering and deceit and condoned hatred. It’s all a mockery of God’s justice. It’s a rebellious fist in His face.
What are we supposed to do? Where can we turn? There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief.
And there is.
When Jesus was on trial, Pilate didn’t want to find Him guilty, he didn’t want to deal with it and his wife had a dream that he was innocent—he tried to make it go away. He said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you a choice. I’ll let you choose who goes free today. You can let Jesus, who as far as I can tell hasn’t done anything wrong and only wants to help people, you can let Him go free. Or, you can have this other guy—and he picks one of the worst, most notorious criminals in custody, a guy named Barabbas who it says was a robber, a violent thief.
The crowd chose Barabbas. The crowd always chooses Barabbas.
So Jesus was executed. Crucified between two—thieves. It’s like there’s a pattern here.
The people at the feet of the cross start making fun of Jesus. “If you’re the Son of God, save yourself. Loser.” One of the thieves joined the crowd and started mocking him. Imagine that. dude’s being executed for crimes he’s guilty of, but he takes his last breath to yell insults at the one innocent person in the world.
The other thief tells him to shut up. “Are you out of your mind? What if He really is the Messiah? The Son of God?” Then He asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. Jesus, dying on the cross for the sin of the world, looks at him and says,
“I will remember you. Today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43
It’s a beautiful moment.
Here’s the thing: you and me—we’re Barabbas. We’re the thief who gets to go free because Jesus takes the wrap for us. We’re also the thief on the cross who deserved to be there. But Jesus, totally innocent, willingly suffers and dies so that He can say those beautiful words to you: “I will remember you. You will be with me in paradise.”
You have been caught stealing. Red handed. It’s as simple as that. You’re guilty.
But here’s the good news, Jesus has stepped up and paid your debt. You won’t be charged for your crimes. You’re going to get away with it. You're free to go. You can walk right through the door. How about if you use your freedom for good? To give instead of take. To spend your time wisely. Spend your money wisely.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7 AMEN
PRAYER: Father in heaven, speak to my friends who are reading these words today. Let them know without any doubt that You love them. That you do not hold their crimes against them. That they are completely forgiven because of Jesus. Help them to walk in that freedom and show the same kindness to the people in their lives, the same generosity that they have been given, help them to also give to others. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.