By Jonathan Keller
You shall not steal.
I thought that I had some easy answers with this commandment until I reread the Westminster Larger Catechism’s exposition on the eighth commandment. At its core, this commandment instructs us about ownership of resources and proper relationships between our resources and others’. Reading further into the commandment, however, cut me to the core.
Private Property
“Do not steal” implies a few things about our resources. Stealing’s negative connotation implies that there are correct and incorrect ways to relate to my neighbor’s possessions. It also implies that there are things properly called “my neighbor’s” and those called “mine.” To call mine what is my neighbor’s is the act of stealing.
If we recall the example of the Israelites’ gold, we will see that calling property “mine” isn’t entirely correct. In Exodus 12, Moses records that the people of Israel ask for precious goods from the Egyptians before they leave. Though this is referred to as “plundering” the Egyptians, the Egyptians gave of their goods willfully. When God takes up offerings for the tabernacle later in the book of Exodus, how is it that the Israelites have too much gold? It is because of their abundant bounty from the Egyptians, who had been given into their hands by the Lord. The Lord had redeemed them, created them, and even worked through the secondary means of the Egyptians to enrich them. All that we have, including our very lives, is given to us by the Lord Himself. Our resources are all on loan from Him. This establishes His right to govern our relationship with our own and others’ resources, especially that we should not defraud our neighbors by robbing them.
The Deeper Commandment: According to Your Means
The Westminster Larger Catechism detailed many things that I need to research (including stipulations about lending, interest, and stock portfolios), but what gave me pause was that our generosity ought to be according to our means. Galatians 6:10 says that we ought to “do good to everyone” but qualifies it with “as we have opportunity.” I am used to remembering Jesus’ teaching of the widows’ mite and presuming that I ought to expend myself at each opportunity, often to my detriment. In that passage, though, Jesus did not teach that the widow ought to give all she has at each opportunity. He simply taught that the widow gave a larger proportion than the leaders because she gave all she had, a nod to shift one’s allegiance to the Lord with whole sacrifice rather than partial heart-allegiance. This challenged me to take a proper account of what I have to give others and to say yes only according to my true means rather than to say yes according to the means I wish I had.
It is true that God provides for our needs, but it is not a timeless equation that God will assuredly give back all the money we give out, as if He were a literal investment scheme. He is no multiplication robot; He is our Lord.
How do you account for all that you have? How do you see your resources? Are they yours? Are they on loan to you, given to you by God? Is your generosity cheerful out of your means, rare, or detrimental to your well-being?