Ex 20:15   You shall not steal

 

  

Some people foolishly say the Ten Commandments are out of date and we don't need to follow them. Really? So when did it become all right to steal? These commandments are God's ‘basic design rules' for living. Take any of them away and you move towards a godless, unstable and unrighteous society that is unravelling.

 

This is simply a rule about ownership of property and respecting others ownership of property. It is really almost so obvious that it shouldn't need commenting upon, but unfortunately we live in a part of history where relativity means an undermining of moral or ethical rules. The first implication, therefore, is that it is possible to own property, i.e. you have the right to do with it what you want. You can use it or dispose of it; it's yours! The other side of that same coin is when it isn't mine! I don't have any rights over that property, whatever it is, if it belongs to you. I may think it unjust or unfair that you have it and I don't, but as long as you came by it legally, it's not mine and I have no rights over it!

 

Thus we come to the crux. If I try to take what is yours, without your agreement, whatever it is, that is stealing, and God says don't do that. It could be things I use at work or which are simply available at work, things you leave outside that are accessible to me, things I lend you which you claim you've lost; the range of ways we can obtain what doesn't belong to us goes on. It is stealing. Don't!