Why is "You shall not steal" in the Ten Commandments?

The seventh commandment safeguards the purity of human life. "Adultery" here has the widest sense, covering what are considered to be lesser forms of this sin between the sexes. The history of peoples shows those who have widely practised this evil have degraded themselves both physically and mentally, and out of it spring a host of other ills.

The eighth commandment enforces the rights of personal property. There was some measure of communal life amongst the children of Israel, and in the New Testament we read of a brief period of Christian communism, when many sold properties, and in Jerusalem they had all things in common. But even then the rights of private property were not set aside, for Peter said to Ananias, "While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?" (Acts 5:4). Yes, it belonged to Ananias, and no one had the right to grab it away from him. The law forbade stealing, and when today anyone is converted the word is, "Let him that stole steal no more" (Eph. 4:28).

The ninth commandment safeguards truth against man's sinful propensity to distort it into positive lying. A man may lie as to almost anything, but what is specially prohibited is his tendency to lie at the expense of his neighbour. The devil, we know, is the father of lies, but since man fell under his influence he has become a very apt pupil in that direction. In this world lies have become one of the most potent forces of evil. We may note that while killing and stealing are two of the commonest and worst forms of violence, adultery and lying are two of the commonest and worst forms of corruption. All four are most destructive of human happiness. When they vanish in the millennial age the world will become a paradise.

In Deuteronomy 5 we come to still closer quarters. "And Moses called all Israel, and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep and do them." Obedience is the claim. "Jehovah our God made a covenant with us at Horeb." We shall find a fresh one made in the land of Moab, but first of all they are reminded of the Sinaitic covenant. "Jehovah made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. Jehovah talked with you face to face in the Mount out of the midst of the fire. (I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to show you the word of Jehovah: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the Mount.)" Then is laid down the memorial that Jehovah, who gave them His law, was the same who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They were a people brought into relationship with God, and the object of His words was to guard them from practical inconsistency with that relationship.

It is remarkable that, even though in this connection Moses gives them what are called the ten commandments, there is nevertheless an express and manifest difference in the form as compared with Exodus; so little is Deuteronomy a mere rehearsal of the earlier books. It is a familiar point to many, but may claim a brief notice here, especially as all do not see its bearing in by no means the least striking of the ten words; I speak of the law of the sabbath. Some wonder why it should be joined with the other commandments; but the sabbath is so much the more important here, because it is not strictly a moral command. This makes the principle at stake to be felt the more. The sabbath law rests entirely on the word of God Himself. It was a question of His authority, not of that which a man might intrinsically discern. What is meant by a moral law is that which one can pronounce on from within even without a prescription from God. For instance, a man knows perfectly well that he has no right to steal. If a person takes what does not belong to him, every man, even a heathen, can judge it. There may be lands where everything morally is at the lowest point, and where therefore a wrong is less severely estimated than elsewhere. But where is the savage even who does not know the wrongness of stealing? For although he may allow himself a dispensation to take from others, let a man steal from him, and it will soon be seen whether he does not condemn the wrong. Plainly then the savage knows quite well that it is unjustifiable to steal. But nobody knows about the sabbath-day unless Jehovah command it. Yet He joins its observance with prohibitions of evil which man could himself judge. It is therefore the strongest assertion of His authority.

(2) We come now to the second part: here of six commandments. The first claims honor for parents, the earth-type and representatives of the Creator-Father. And to this, as the apostle notes, a special "promise of life"— though but the continuance of it — is attached. The second forbids killing — of course, of men: which our Lord interprets as the prohibition even of anger without cause. It is, as one may say, the salvation-ordinance of the life that is. The third sanctions and sanctifies marriage, and how far it extends the Lord again declares. The fourth has to do with things, not persons, — the goods of others, which it protects from the spoiler. The fifth, under the prohibition of false witness, condemns deceit of every kind, the resource of weakness at all times where God is not before the soul. The numerical place here seems to be intended to remind the creature of his need of God, walking with whom the holiness of truth will be maintained. The sixth and last tracks sin to its lair, discovers it in "lust," as the apostle shows (Rom. 7:7), and shows where victory over it must be found: although the secret of the victory it cannot penetrate. The law is but the "strength of sin" (1 Cor. 15:56), and not of holiness.

Then (Exodus 20) are uttered those wonderful ten commandments which are the great centre of divine communications through Moses — the fundamental expression of God's law. On this, being so thoroughly familiar to all, I of course do not enlarge. We know from our Lord Jesus its moral summary and essence — the love of God, and the love of man. But it was presented here for the most part in a way that betrayed the condition of man — not in positive precepts but in negative ones — a most humbling proof of man's estate. He loved sin so well that God had to interdict it. In the greater part of the ten commandments, in short, it was not "Thou shalt," but "Thou shalt not." That is, it was a prohibition of man's will. He was a sinner, and nothing else.

The eighth commandment, "You shall not steal" (v.19) is one that nearly all cultures acknowledge as right, though the law does not keep people from stealing. Again, the New Testament does not use the expression, You shall not steal," but goes even farther with an appeal to every Christian heart, "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need" (Eph.4:28). Thus, the Lord Jesus so changes hearts by new birth that people want to do positive good rather than to only refrain from doing bad.

We now have to consider the six commandments that are concerned with man's duty in regard to his fellows. Sin has not only estranged man from God, so that the rights of the Creator have to be safeguarded, but utterly disorganized society, so that fundamental human rights have to be maintained. Only the first commandment of the six is of a positive nature. The last five are of a negative sort — "Thou shalt not."

But, on the other hand, we learn, from the lines just quoted, what man's judgement is worth, if left to himself. It cannot be trusted, for a moment. Man is capable of "wresting judgement," of "respecting persons," of "taking a gift," of attaching importance to a person because of his position and wealth. That he is capable of all this is evident from the fact of his being told not to do it. We must ever remember this. If God commands man not to steal, it is plain that man has theft in his nature.

The word of God never treats man's mind as being competent to judge it; for it would be the judgment of what is authority itself over the conscience. People have confounded the power of the Word to work in the conscience, with a competency to judge the Word, and it is an awful thing! Man's mind is incapable of judging God's word. If he could, it would not be God's at all; for that would be supposing man's mind equal to God's, and there would be no God. The natural conscience may judge of individual commands; such as, "Thou shalt not steal." I am capable of also judging, so far as to know that it is good when it has acted on my soul. It is like taking food. I may be entirely ignorant of the process of nutrition and digestion, yet I may know the full value of food, and be conscious of the invigorating effect produced by the food when eaten.

Although there may be more or less difficulty in some of the details, yet the spirit of the eighth commandment — that is, the fourth of the second table — seems to run through the whole of this: the prohibition of plunder and theft, with that which connects with it, the lack of tenderness and mercy toward others. How near the fourth and last of these commandments come to one another needs not to be insisted on. Let us go through the chapter briefly now.

How much beyond the mere letter is to be read in the commandments is plain in the tenderness of the opening words. To fulfill the commandment not to steal, you must not consent to the destruction or loss of any thing that is your neighbor's. It must be cared for, guarded, and kept for him.

If before conversion one had a habit of stealing, he must strictly judge this and then labor with his hands in honorable employment, not only for his own support, but for the help of those in need too (v.18). Thus grace known not only corrects wrong, but leads to positive good. For an employee to take small things from where he works is no less than stealing. Many do this without thinking, but a believer is to carefully avoid taking anything that does not belong to him.