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Stephen Ministry

Today is the ninth in a series on the 10 Commandments. Before going to the Scripture verse for today, one verse, a quick reminder of the purpose and perspective for this series. The wrong perspective is that of a prowling God waiting, with some enthusiasm, to punish you for any violation of any commandment. There have been too many sermons and Bible studies from that perspective. Too be sure, we are to take the commandments and our obedience to them seriously. But the point in this entire series is that God gave them to us out of love because He wants the best for us in our lives. I am convinced the best way to live life is according to the standards God has set for us. God wants to provide that kind of life for us through His commandments. And there are consequences to disobedience, not so much in judgment before God—although, to be sure, we will all give an account of our lives before Christ Jesus the Judge, which is why we need Jesus as Savior in our lives—but there are consequences we experience in our lives when we live outside of God’s best for us. There are consequences of broken relationships in violating the 7^th commandment, Do not commit adultery; There are consequences of weariness and stress when we violate the 4^th commandment, honor the Sabbath; There are consequences to families when we violate the 5^th commandment, Honor your father and mother. Violate the commandments and we will suffer consequences in this life for it. God wants to protect us from that. And so the starting place in this series on the 10 Commandments is not a wrathful, vengeful God waiting to punish you for violations. Nor is it on a judgmental, condemning Christian—myself or anyone else—pointing a disapproving finger at your violations. Rather, the starting place is on a loving God who wants you to experience the very best there is to be had in life. With that understanding, let’s look at the commandment for today.

From Exodus 20:15, "You shall not steal."

During the course of this series I have suggested that our society today is very far away from obedience to the 4^th commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," and the 7^th commandment, "You shall not commit adultery." That being said, we might suggest that the commandment society today remains closest to following is the 8^th commandment, "You shall not steal." Yes there many examples in society today of violations of this commandment—as there have been in societies throughout history. But, for the most part, our society today still considers it wrong to steal. Get caught stealing something from someone, or some business, and you will pay the penalty for it. Pertinent to our society today, get caught cooking the books of your business and you will suffer consequences for it.

That being said, it is worth taking a look at our society, and ourselves, concerning our attitudes about what is stealing and what is not. I came across some interesting statistics from the Department of Commerce regarding employee theft in our society today. To begin with, it is estimated that employee theft costs American businesses $50 billion annually. That figure comes out of another estimate that 75% of employees steal at least one time from their employer, and of that 75%, half continue to steal regularly. The Department of Commerce study goes on to state that the cause for one out of three businesses that fail every year is employee theft. 33% of businesses that fail annually is due to employee theft.

A company called Spherion, which assists people in finding jobs and businesses finding employees, conducted an anonymous survey of their own employees. One topic in that survey included employee theft. What they found was interesting. Now, keep in mind that Spherion does not manufacture or produce expensive items like TV’s or car stereos for employees to steal. Most of the theft from a company like Spherion would involve office supplies. Here’s what their survey discovered:

-20% of their employees had taken office supplies for personal use

More interesting, the survey revealed that the percentages of thefts increased with a person’s education and salary level. For example:

-13% of employee theft occurred with high school graduates

-27% came from college graduates

-22% from post-graduate degreed employees

As for salary:

-$15,000 to $35,000 = 11% of employee theft

-$75,000 > = 25%

It would appear that our society has developed a sense of entitlement when it comes to stealing. Taking office supplies—paper for our printers at home being a big one I would bet—isn’t stealing because we’re "entitled" to it.

Of course it is stealing. The value of an item doesn’t make it any less stealing. It’s stealing! And it is also a slippery slope. Take a little item here and suddenly moving up to a bigger item there doesn’t seem so bad. A bigger item here, an even bigger item there, and suddenly we find ourselves in a deep pit of business thievery.

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, writes about this slippery slope in an article for a business website. Writing about the crisis in business ethics in such examples as Enron and Worldcom, Collins asserts that "[Some business executives were a part of] the malleable masses. These were people who, in the presence of an opportunity to behave differently, got drawn into it, one step after another. If you told them 10 years ahead of time, ‘Hey, let’s cook the books and all get rich,’ they would never go along with it. But that’s rarely how most people get drawn into activities that they later regret. When you are at step A, it feels inconceivable to jump all the way to step Z, if step Z involves something that is a total breach of your values. But if you go from step A to step B, then step B to step C, then step C to step D, then someday you wake up and discover that you are at step Y, and the move to step Z comes about much easier. The people who make up the malleable masses weren’t bad at the outset. But through a series of gradual steps, they ended up in bad situations in over their heads."

That, by the way, is a wonderful illustration of sin in general, not just the movement to unethical business practices. A flirtatious look here, an inviting comment there and one finds one’s self on the slippery slope toward adultery. A ream of paper here, a padded expense report there and one finds one’s self on the slippery slope of stealing.

The slippery slope of stealing exists in areas outside of business theft as well. How’s your honesty in filing your income tax? Ever paid for something at a store, walked away and discovered you’d been given too much change? What did you do? Keep it? Or did you go back and correct the clerk’s mistake? Isn’t keeping it, no matter how small, stealing?

I can tell you one area where keeping a clerk’s mistake is not stealing—fast food. This is an area of special dispensation when it comes to the 8^th commandment. Have you ever tried to return the extra fries they mistakenly gave you? I realize more often the case is you didn’t get something you ordered—our family now has a drive through policy of checking our order before leaving the window. But, have you ever tried to return the extra fries? I have and I can tell you this—they won’t take them back. It makes sense when you think about it because who knows what you might have done to those fries when they were in your possession! So, I can tell you from experience—when you get more than you ordered from a fast food place just keep it as a special gift that day. They won’t take it back and I trust God does not view that as stealing.

But be careful of the slippery slope of "entitlement stealing," a small theft here and a small theft there. It’s all the same—it’s still stealing and it is a slippery slope that leads to larger thefts, finding yourself at step Z because you started with steps A, B, C and D.

The commandment to not steal covers a wide range of what constitutes stealing—fast foods being the only exception! We’ve been using The Shorter Catechism from our Book of Confessions as a Profession of Faith throughout this series. There’s a Larger Catechism also which, as the name implies, gives expanded responses to the questions of the catechism. I somewhat serendipitously stumbled upon the Larger Catechism response for this commandment while looking for the Shorter Catechism response we’re using today. Part of what the Larger Catechism defines as stealing includes, "truth, faithfulness and justice in contracts and commerce between people; rendering to everyone his due," I thought about tips with that one. Do you tip honestly? You may not like the practice of tipping, but in most cases—for whatever reason the system works this way—that person is paid a minimal salary and is dependent upon tips. The fact of the matter is if the system were different the meal you’re paying for would be significantly higher if we did away with the practice of tipping and paid waiters and waitresses a better wage. Do you "render to everyone his or her due" when it comes to tipping? Or in paying salaries as an employer? By definition in the Larger Catechism you’re stealing if you don’t. The Larger Catechism includes "vexatious lawsuits" in its definition of stealing. By that definition, our society may be viewed as far removed from obedience. Hopefully you are not filing "vexatious lawsuits" against someone. Like the judge who won the 2007 Stella Award for ridiculous lawsuits. I don’t know the derivation of the Stella Award, but it’s been given over the past several years to the person filing the most ridiculous lawsuit. You probably heard of this one. A judge in Washington, D.C., by the name of Pearson filed a lawsuit against a dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants. Judge Pearson was asking for $65 million plus in damages…for a pair of pants! Fortunately, the judge hearing the case dismissed it and ordered the Judge Pearson to pay all court costs. Pearson has filed an appeal about which the Stella Award sarcastically, but deliciously, notes he has lots of time for because he’s been dismissed from his job.

Such "vexatious lawsuits" lead to another award that is given annually, the award for the most ridiculous labeling on products. I don’t know if this award has a name, but lawsuits like the one filed against McDonald’s a few years ago because a woman spilled hot coffee on her lap has led to businesses thinking up every possible scenario and placing a warning label on their product as a caution for that scenario in order to avoid a lawsuit. So your coffee cups now come with a label, "Caution, contents are hot!" One of my personal favorites is the caution on a baby stroller that says, "Caution: remove baby before folding stroller." Amazingly, people have won large sums of money with such vexatious lawsuits. But I think the Larger Catechism is right—it’s a form of stealing.

Such examples indicate our society may not be so close to obedience of the 8^th commandment as I think.

Again, God wants to protect us and provide for us through obedience to the 8^th commandment. Some of the things I believe God wants to protect us from and provide us with are:

Protection from the consequences of getting caught in our stealing, providing for us, instead, our freedom. That may seem like a no-brainer, but we often walk the slippery slope of sin without thinking through the consequences. I recently read of a 19 year old kid who figured out a way (through the internet!) to produce fake bar codes for electronic equipment at one of the electronic stores—a Circuit City or a Best Buy type of store. He then proceeded to use the labels on different pieces of equipment, purchasing some equipment that normally cost around $250 for as little as $30. When he got caught, he pleaded with the police to just let him go home because he didn’t realize how serious the consequences would be. He was charged with felony theft, convicted, and sentenced to several years in prison. Obviously, God wants to protect us from that and provide for us a life free of such consequences.

Perhaps less obvious is that God wants to protect us from a guilty conscience and provide for us a clear conscience. Did you ever steal something as a kid? Most of us probably gave in to that temptation at some point, whether it was a piece of candy or a pack of gum. And didn’t your conscience bother you to the point where you couldn’t even really enjoy the item you stole? God wants to protect us from living with a guilty conscience—worrying about whether or not we’ll get audited by the IRS, worrying that we might lose our jobs if our stealing is discovered. God wants to protect us from that. And I believe God also, in giving us this commandment, wants to protect us from materialism and provide for us, instead, a healthy attitude toward material things. We’ll have more to say about that in two weeks regarding coveting, but it is a part of this commandment as well. Coveting something is step A. Somewhere along way comes step K, or step L where we actually steal something we’ve been coveting. God wants to protect us from materialism and provide for us instead a healthy attitude toward material things.

So, God gives us this commandment, "You shall not steal," to provide for us the best that life has to give. And I believe God has a broad definition of what it means to steal—including small change from a retail store, justice in our contracting with other people, office supplies from our employer, and rendering fairly to others what they are due.

Let’s spend a moment of silent reflection considering how we might experience God’s best for our lives through obedience to His commandment, "You shall not steal."