Thou shalt not steal.
The commands before this one protect a person. This one protects what a person owns — and it raises two questions: why must God forbid theft at all, and what about the thief who has already stolen?
Its Place Among the Ten
Counting the commands that deal with our neighbour, this one comes fourth. Each names what it protects.
The third approves marriage and makes it holy. The fourth has to do with things, not persons — the goods of others, which it protects from anyone who would rob them.
Why a Prohibition at All
Most of the ten commandments are negative. That form itself says something about the people who received them.
From our Lord Jesus we know the moral summary and essence of the law — love for God, and love for man. But here it was given mostly in a way that exposed the condition of man. It came not as positive commands but as negative ones, a deeply humbling proof of what man was. He loved sin so much that God had to forbid it. In most of the ten commandments, in short, it was not "You shall," but "You shall not." That is, it banned man's will. He was a sinner, and nothing else.
Property Is Real
This command assumes real ownership. It held even when the first Christians shared what they had.
The eighth commandment enforces the rights of personal property. The people of Israel shared life together to some degree. In the New Testament we read of a short period of Christian sharing, when many sold property and the believers in Jerusalem had everything in common. Even then the rights of private property stood. Peter said to Ananias, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?" (Acts 5:4). Yes, it belonged to Ananias, and no one had the right to grab it away from him.
More Than the Letter
This command asks for more than keeping your hands off.
The commandments mean far more than their bare letter. To keep the commandment not to steal, you must not agree to the loss or ruin of anything that belongs to your neighbour. It must be cared for, guarded, and kept for him.
Where It Bites in Daily Life
Theft hides in ordinary trade practice and in small habits at work.
A man who puts cardboard into shoes and sells them as leather is unworthy of the name of Christian. He is not even an honest man. Someone may say, "It is the custom of the trade." How does that change anything for a person who wants to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience? ... The Word of God, not the custom of the trade, must govern a Christian's conscience.
For an employee to take small things from where he works is no less than stealing. Many do this without thinking. A believer must take care never to take anything that does not belong to him.
From Thief to Giver
The gospel does not just repeat the command. It changes the man who broke it.
The law forbids the sin of theft. Now compare that with the appeal of the gospel, which carries the same command: "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need" (Eph. 4:28). Here shines a ray of the light of divine love. Giving has taken the place of stealing. The thief by nature has become generous by grace. The gospel appeal holds far more than the demand not to steal. It expects the person it addresses to be like God — a giver.
The Debt We Could Not Repay
This command condemns robbing a man. It raises a harder question about robbing God.
The question for our souls is this: if robbing a fellow man is condemned in this way, how can the sin of robbing God be met? How can those who are already sinners make restitution to Him? It is impossible... But we read in the Psalms of One who said, "What I did not steal must I now restore?" (Psalm 69:4). He was the trespass offering as well as the sin and burnt offerings. He has therefore made full and adequate restitution — we can say this, if we believe — for all our trespasses. There is not a single wrong that could be charged against us which He, in His wonderful grace and mercy, has not repaired.
(Older translations render Psalm 69:4 as "Then I restored that which I took not away.")
Summary
- Things, not persons. After marriage comes property: this command guards a neighbour's goods from anyone who would rob them.
- A "shall not" exposes us. The negative form is a humbling proof of man's condition: God had to forbid what man loved to do.
- Guarding, not just avoiding. You must care for your neighbour's goods and guard them; you must not even agree to their loss.
- Custom is no cover. Cheating a buyer and pocketing small items at work are both theft; God's Word rules a Christian's conscience, not the custom of the trade.
- Thief becomes giver. Grace does more than repeat the ban: it puts the hand to honest work and to giving — and Christ paid the restitution we owed God, restoring what He never took.