Stewards of Our Property, Respecter of Our Neighbor's

Some Musings on Eighth Commandment

By Scott Foster

Exodus 20:15

We need to be reminded that the Law of God really encompasses every command we read in the Bible.  Now to be sure there has been a change in the arrangement of how God's people live their lives in this world and gather to worship God between the Old and New covenants.  So there are certain commandments from the Old Covenant era that are no longer binding, like the prohibition against eating shellfish or the requirement to offer animal sacrifice in order to draw near to God in public worship.  The main reason for such changes has to do with how in the Old Covenant arrangement we find the shadow of Christ and in the New Covenant Christ has come and fulfilled the law.  He brings the temple and much of its worship to an end because he is its fulfillment. 

Nonetheless, when it comes to at least nine of these ten commandments we find them reiterated in the New Covenant Scriptures.  Here is the moral law of God that has a bearing on our conduct as followers of the Lamb.   The Law first instructs us regarding our sinfulness and sins and then points us to Christ as the Savior of sinners.  As we come to trust in Christ and are justified before God, we are then directed by Jesus back to the law as it is further amplified in his teachings and the rest of the New Testament.  Yet the power to keep these laws do not reside in them or in us but in Christ and by faith in him we can keep the law.  Granted we do not do it perfectly but we can experience change over old patterns of sin and disobedience.   The Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us in paths of obedience as we manifest his fruit in and through our lives.  The fruit of the Spirit is summed up in a life of love and it is by love that we in fact keep the law.

Now the eighth commandment concerns honesty in the use of ours and other people's property.  We are simply not to steal, not to take from others what is not ours or to withhold from others what is theirs.  We are not to take what belongs to our neighbor without his or her permission.  So the commandment affirms the right of owning property.  It is not wrong to own property.  This applies not only to objects one might personally possess but to our wages.  We own our wages.  It is our money.  With the proceeds of our wages we take out a loan to buy a house or a car.  We purchase furnishings, clothes and food.  Our neighbors do likewise.  So the commandment actually affirms the right of personal property.  However, the Scriptures also teach that we do not own such things in an ultimate sense.  They are gifts to us from the Father and as such they are entrusted to us to use as stewards of the kingdom.

Like the other commandments we find the meaning to entail not only what is forbidden but also what is required of us if we are to keep this commandment.   Again, there are no better sources of explanation than some of the confessional standards of the Protestant Reformation.

The Westminster Larger Catechism

Q. 141  What are the duties required in the eighth commandment?

A. The duties required in the eighth commandment are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man, rendering to every one his due restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others; moderation of our judgments, wills and affections concerning worldly goods; a foresightful care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustaining of our nature, and suitable to our condition; a lawful calling, and diligence in it; frugality, avoiding unnecessary law-suits, and suretyship, or other like engagements; and an endeavor, by all just and lawful means, to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own.

Q. 142  What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, manstealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing land-marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust inclosures and depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us. 

The Heidelberg Catechism

Q. 110.What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?

Answer: God forbids not only those thefts,  and robberies,  which are punishable by the magistrate; but he comprehends under the name of theft all wicked tricks and devices, whereby we design to appropriate to ourselves the goods which belong to our neighbor: whether it be by force, or under the appearance of right, as by unjust weights, ells, measures, fraudulent merchandise, false coins, usury, or by any other way forbidden by God; as also all covetousness, all abuse and waste of his gifts.

Again we see how all encompassing this commandment truly is.  What the commandment underscores is that we are to be stewards of the wages, resources, property and possessions the Lord has given to us.  Our attitude toward our possessions must be shaped by the Gospel and the grace God has given to us in the forgiveness of sins we have in Christ.  While all these earthly gifts come to us from him, his greatest gift is his Son and only when we embrace Christ will we be able to exercise stewardship over them in a way that glorifies the Giver. 

Three aspects of Gospel or Kingdom Stewardship rise from the foundation of this commandment.

•     As stewards we are to manage our personal possessions in such a way that the Lord receives the first of our income. 

•     As stewards we manage our personal resources, property and possessions by making sure we support ourselves and our families. 

•     As stewards we are to cultivate contentment with what God has given us.

It is not enough simply to avoid stealing.  We certainly need to do this.  However, the eighth commandment endorses a stewardship frame of reference over all our possessions along with respecting the property of our neighbor.  Flowing out of this commandment we find the call to be industrious, frugal yet sacrificial and generous.  We may certainly enjoy our possessions for they are given to us by God to enjoy but we are to guard our hearts from having them possess us.  So we need on the one hand to shun all forms of asceticism that would disparage God's gifts of property etc, while at the same time avoid all idolatrous attachments to such gifts.  These along with a frugal and generous spirit form the perimeters of Christ-centered stewardship and will enable us to indeed keep the eighth commandment to the glory of God.

J. C. Ryle wrote the following on the nature of stewardship.  “Anything whereby we may glorify God is a talent. Our gifts, our influence, our money, our knowledge, our health, our strength, our time, our senses, our reason, our intellect, our memory, our affections, our privileges as members of Christ’s Church, our advantages as possessors of the Bible – all, all are talents. Whence came these things? What hand bestowed them? Why are we what we are? Why are we not the worms that crawl on the earth? There is only one answer to these questions. All that we have is a loan from God. We are God’s stewards. We are God’s debtors. Let this thought sink deeply into our hearts.”  Indeed let it sink very deeply!