TEN COMMANDMENTS
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 24, 1992
EXODUS 20:1-20
According to the United States Department of Commerce, five million shoplifters are arrested in the United States of America every year. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, for every person arrested for shoplifting, there are 35 incidents of shoplifting that went undetected. In fact, the United States Department of Commerce believes that there are more than 175 million episodes of shoplifting in the United States of America every year. Most of these crimes are not perpetrated by the lower income brackets. Most shoplifting occurs among the middle class and even the upper class.
The problem of shoplifting, however, pales when compared to the problem of internal theft here in America. According to insurance statistics, 30% of the business failures annually in the United States of America are directly related to internal theft. Nine percent of employees of American companies steal regularly from their employers. Seventy-five percent of employees in retail stores in the United States of America steal occasionally from employers. Collectively, with theft occurring both in and outside of American business, $100 billion is drained annually from America’s profits—that’s 17% of the total business income before taxes in the United States of America. There are some people who have suggested that, perhaps, we are becoming a nation of thieves.
The Bible says, “Thou shalt not steal.” As we examine this eighth commandment today, I want us to focus on two issues. The first issue is hypocrisy.
In the Los Angeles riots of recent weeks, there was a great deal of looting in the midst of the chaos. Some of the people who stole said that they did so in protest of the Rodney King verdict. For the most part, this is hypocrisy. Certainly, the inner cities are tragic. We need to have compassion and reach out in love to people in the inner city. Certainly, there are some people in the inner city and some people in Los Angeles who, in the midst of that chaos as grocery stores were no longer open, took food because they had no food in their homes. But there were other people who took food and whatever else they could get their hands on. And they took it not because of inadequacies in the criminal justice system; they took it because they knew that they would never get caught. To say otherwise is hypocrisy.
The Bible tells us that God hates hypocrisy. Certainly, Judas was a hypocrite. Claiming to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow Christ, he ultimately betrayed Christ. Claiming to believe in Christ and to follow Christ, he was all the time (according to John’s Gospel) stealing from the company purse. He was a thief, and he was a hypocrite.
Some of you may have heard of Black Bart. If you have read California history or the history of the Old West, you would know that Black Bart was one of the Old West’s most colorful and infamous stagecoach robbers. From 1877 to 1883, Black Bart robbed 28 Wells Fargo stagecoaches, and he took a great deal of money. When Black Bart made these robberies, he always dressed in a long black linen robe. He would have a flour sack over his head. He was always extremely courteous and very, very polite. He would always say to the stagecoach driver, “Would you please hand down your treasure chest, Sir.” The stagecoach driver always complied because Black Bart had a shotgun aimed at the stagecoach driver’s head.
Well, on one occasion, near Copperopolis in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Black Bart was wounded just slightly. But he was rattled enough that, as he fled, he dropped his handkerchief. The authorities examined that handkerchief, and they noticed it had a laundry mark, “FX07.” They traced it to the city of San Francisco, and the San Francisco police made one of the most amazing arrests in the history of the city.
They found that Black Bart was Charles E. Bolton. He was one of the most respected citizens of the city of San Francisco. He was a school teacher and a very wealthy man who had significant ownership in California gold mines—ownership which, apparently, he had purchased through money that he had stolen from Wells Fargo. He was viewed as a non-smoking, non-drinking, non-swearing, God-fearing, churchgoing Christian; but he was really a hypocrite. He was a thief.
I am sure most of you are thinking, “Well, I’m not a thief, and I’m not a hypocrite.” Generally, when we think of stealing, we think of major embezzlement. We think of stock fraud. We think of breaking and entering. We think of armed robbery. Perhaps in these times, we think of computer theft. There’s many different forms of major crimes in America today and around the world. But most of the time, stealing is far more subtle than that.
Think of the store manager, the store owner who overcharges his or her customers. The salesperson who pads his or her expense account report. The employee who makes personal phone calls at the company’s expense in violation of company policy. The student who copies another student’s homework. The man or woman who does not fully disclose all income to the Internal Revenue Service. A person who cheats in any way on income tax returns. The minister who sort of “borrows” another minister’s sermon. It is all stealing. If you claim to be a Christian . . . or even claim to be honest . . . and you do such things, it is hypocrisy.
Harry Emerson Fosdick was one of the greatest preachers in the Christian world. On one occasion, he was taking a few weeks of vacation with his wife, and they traveled into a little village. It was Sunday morning, and they thought they would visit this little church in town. They went into the church and to Fosdick’s amazement, this young minister there preached word-for-word the same sermon that Fosdick had delivered five years earlier. After the sermon, Harry Emerson Fosdick walked up to the young minister, and he said, “Tell me. How long did it take you to prepare that sermon?” The young man, fresh out of seminary, was very proud. He said, “Well, about three hours.” Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “That’s absolutely amazing because it took me more than 21 hours to prepare that exact same sermon five years ago.” Now, Fosdick did not go on and blatantly accuse him of theft—he had too much compassion for that. But the truth is that young minister stole.
For years, Dean Madison Sarrat was Professor of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University. He taught trigonometry there. Before he would give his final examination, he would always say this to the students: “Today, I’m going to give you two examinations really. One examination is in trigonometry. The other examination is in honesty. I sincerely hope you pass both examinations, but if you must fail one . . . fail trigonometry. There are a lot of good people in this world who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good people in this world who fail the test of honesty.” Those words were well said.
God would have His people to understand that life in this world is a classroom. Life in this world is a school; it’s a series of examinations. For the Christian, death is graduation day. It is the day we leave this school. We leave this classroom. We enter the world to come. We enter the real world. But while we are in this classroom, while we are taking this examination, God wants us to live well with a minimum of hypocrisy. If we take the name of Christ, and we call ourselves Christians . . . if we claim that we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord of Life and Savior from sin . . . then remember what He has said in His Word, “Thou shalt not steal.”
There is a second issue I want to address with respect to this eighth commandment. It is the issue reparation. It is a difficult issue. You see, whenever we have been involved in any way with stealing, God wants us to make reparation.
I recently read the story of a husband and wife that went on vacation to New York City. They were staying in a hotel in New York. It was their first morning there, and they had a good night’s sleep. The husband wanted to go and get breakfast out, but the wife was still kind of tired. She just wanted to read and rest there in the hotel room. So, the husband went out, and he began to take a walk and just look for a little restaurant. The sidewalks were very crowded. It was a very busy New York street.
Suddenly, a man just bumped right into him. He thought it strange, and he thought he felt something. He reached into his pocket and his wallet was gone. He looked back at the man who had bumped him, and the man was running towards the subway. He thought “I’m going to go catch this thief.” You have to understand, this husband was a big man. He was really not afraid. He was also fast, and he ran after the thief. The thief was almost to the subway when this man caught him. He took the thief, and he just rammed him up against the wall. In a moment of rage, he reached into the pocket, retrieved his wallet, and then he had a decision to make.
He did not know what to do with this thief. He could inform the authorities. He could file a complaint. But he was only in New York for a few days on vacation. He wanted to enjoy it. He did not want to take the time, so he just shook the thief against the wall a few times and walked away. As he was heading back to his hotel room, he was so mad he did not want to eat breakfast anymore.
He came up to his hotel room, and he said to his wife, “Well, I haven’t had breakfast, and you’re not going to believe why.” She said, “Well, I already know. You left your wallet here on the table by the bed!” That is when he realized that he had been the thief. That is when he realized he had just taken an innocent man and rammed him against the wall and stolen his wallet. He could not just forget that being an honest man. He could not just say, “Lord, forgive me and let’s forget it.” He had to make reparation. Sometimes, it is hard to make reparation. Can you imagine how hard it would have been to call the victim and to say, “Hey, I know I slammed you against the wall and took your wallet, but here’s why.” It would have been hard.
But the sin of stealing is not like any other sin. I mean, there are other sins for which you could never make reparation, and reparation is not required of you in respect to most sin. You cannot make reparation for murder. You cannot make reparation for adultery. This is true of most sins. But when it comes to stealing, God demands reparation. If you have been involved in stealing, no matter how subtle, God wants you to make reparation.
In the Bible we’re told how, one day, Jesus Christ was walking through Jericho, that oasis city in the midst of a semi-desert. He was walking through the crowded streets there and the people heard that Jesus was coming. They heard that He was this great teacher, and the rumor was flying that perhaps He was the Messiah. The crowds just lined the streets. There was a man named Zacchaeus, and he was the chief tax collector. He was a crook. He had stolen money from people. He was very, very rich. He was also very, very short; and he could not see the Son of God walking the streets of Jericho. He could not see over the crowds, and so he climbed a sycamore tree. There in the sycamore tree, he waited for Jesus to come. He wanted to get a glimpse of this man who might indeed be the Son of God, the Messiah.
One of the most incredible moments in the gospels was when Jesus Christ came to the place where the sycamore tree was. He stopped. He looked up in the tree and, somehow, He called Zacchaeus by name. He said, “Come down.” He said, “I want to come to your house today, fellowship with you today, break bread with you today.” The crowd was stunned. I am sure Zacchaeus was more than a little stunned too, but he gratefully accepted.
Christ came to his house that day. As Zacchaeus conversed with the Son of God, he believed. He believed, and he repented. Having repented, he then said, “Lord, all those that I have stolen from I will repay four times over. If anything is left over after I’ve repaid everybody, I’ll give half of what I have to the poor.” Joy just flooded the face of Christ, and He said, “Truly, I say, salvation has come to this house today”—Reparation.
Before we conclude this message on the eighth commandment today, I would like to mention what is certainly the most serious form of stealing: that is robbing God, stealing from God. If you know your Bible, you know the book of Malachi. You know the third chapter. You know how God spoke through the prophet to the people of Israel. God said, “Will men rob God?” But you say, “How are we robbing you?” “In your tithes and in your offerings, you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you. And you are cursed with a curse.”
Tithing is mentioned in 17 chapters of the Old Testament and three chapters of the New Testament. Certainly, the New Testament affirms the tithe, but not with a self-righteous spirit. It does not affirm the tithe as some kind of perfunctory performance of religious duty or mere ritual; rather, it affirms the tithe as a loving expression of commitment to God and to His kingdom. The tithe was the first tenth, the first fruits. Throughout Israel’s history, they had brought the first tenth of whatever they made. Whether it was money or produce, they brought the first tenth to the temple, to the synagogue. They gave it to the Lord for His work. They also brought their offerings, which were over and above the tithe. The tithe was the bare minimum standard. If you really loved God, you gave more than tithes. You gave offerings.
There were times in Israel’s history when they were not so faithful; but they were particularly faithful to give abundantly and lovingly in times of renewal and revival, such as the time of Hezekiah. I would submit to you today that we desperately need renewal and revival in the United States of America. We need renewal and revival in the church of Jesus Christ. Never have Christians given so little. Statistics show that Christians are giving less and less to the work of Christ. The average Christian now gives less than a tenth of his or her income to the work of Christ. We need to repent. We are robbing God, and we need renewal in our land.
We have failed to disciple a whole generation of believers. Past generations of Christians learned to tithe. They learned to give, and they were taught to give from the time that they were very young. But we have failed to disciple a whole generation of givers. Studies now show that when a person who is over 65 years old leaves a church, it takes 14 people to replace their giving. This is partly because we have a whole generation robbing God.
I learned a long time ago that I have no power to make anyone give. I have no power to make anyone tithe. I need to make sure that I am faithful in giving. I have also learned that I have a duty as a shepherd to sometimes encourage and exhort, sometimes to comfort and sometimes to rebuke. I have a duty as a shepherd in the name of Christ sometimes to warn the people of God. In the name of Christ, I warn you today. Do not rob God.
Forty percent of the members of this church bring nothing into the storehouse, nothing monetarily. Forty percent of the members of this church give no money to the church. That is a blatant violation of the eighth commandment and also the ninth commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not lie or bear false witness”—because every member of this church has stood before this congregation and been asked, “Who is your Lord and Savior?” And they have said, “Jesus Christ.” They have been asked, “Do you promise to support this church with your prayers, with your abilities, and with your financial resources?” And they have said, “Yes.”
I am increasingly convinced as I look at the Bible that genuine Christianity is very rare. I am increasingly convinced that there are not nearly so many people saved in this world as we would hope there might be. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “Broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow the way that leads to salvation and eternal life.” The Bible says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Our Lord Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord and not do what I tell you to do?” He said, “In that day, many will say to Me, ‘Lord, did we not do this in Your name?’ And I will say, ‘Depart from Me. I never knew you.’”
Certainly, God wants us to give because we love Him. Certainly, God wants us to give out of grateful hearts. Certainly, God wants us to give because we are just so amazed at His mercy, so thankful for His grace, so appreciative of His forgiveness and of His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross. We are so grateful for the kingdom, so grateful to be children of God, so grateful to be sons and daughters of God, so thankful for eternal life.
But I tell you: if you cannot give out of love, then at least give out of respect and reverence for God. The Christian community has lost its awe of God, its holy fear. The kingdom of God cannot prosper without the faithfulness of the saints. “Do not steal.” It’s hypocrisy. If you have stolen, in repentance make reparation. And above all else, do not rob God. Let’s close with a word of prayer.