Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1750
October 4, 2026
Deuteronomy 5.19 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Eighth Commandment – What is Forbidden”
“And you shall not steal.”
What is Forbidden:
- Theft of Any Kind
Today is our second sermon on the Eighth Commandment. Last Sunday we looked at what this Commandment requires and today what the Commandment forbids. It is out of the justice of God that we shall not steal. His justice stands against theft of any kind. Certainly this Commandment has been broken many times since the fall of Adam and Eve, but in our time, with all the technology we have, there seems to be much more opportunity for people to steal from others. We hear about retirement funds being wiped out by scammers. That is one of the Eighth Commandment sins that I hope gets a harsh judgment!
As I mentioned last Sunday, this Commandment protects a person’s property. One reason for the Eighth Commandment is to place a wall of protection around what God has given to each of us. In response, we are required to live in truth, faith, and justice, and practice good stewardship and do that which affirms the love of neighbor. When we do what is required and do not do what is forbidden, we protect the integrity of “You shall not steal”.
There are a lot of ways we can break the Eighth Commandment. The most specific and direct connection of the Eighth Commandment to the New Testament might be Ephesians 4.28, which I also quoted last Sunday. “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.” One of the amazing things about this verse is that the former thief is called to work so that he will have something to share with anyone in need. This is interesting because one of the sins against the Eighth Commandment is failure to share with anyone in need. The thief is called on to stop sinning in two ways, taking another person’s property and failing to help someone in need.
Failing to do what is needed is a sin of omission. So, in 1 John 3.17, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Theft occurs when we have the means to help someone and refuse to do so. Now, we could interpret from the language here that John is talking about helping our brothers and sisters in Christ. And that would be a fair assessment. Anytime we are faced with helping someone, we have some discernment to consider, especially with unbelievers. So, the Proverb helps us in this matter. “Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. 20Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags” (23.21). I’m not sure about the eating meat part, but the main point is to be wise and discerning when we are called upon to help another person. When we fail to fulfill a need when we are able to do so, we break this Commandment.
Another specific term used in the Larger Catechism is robbery. Robbery is connected to misplaced trust and points to idolatry as well. Psalm 62.10, “Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.” We are forbidden to make stealing into an idol.
Kidnapping falls under the Eight Commandment and in particular in the Bible, kidnapping for the purpose of enslaving. Exodus 21.16, “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” This was a problem in both the Old and New Testaments (enslavers in 1 Tim 1.10) and persists to this day in things like sex trafficking.
There are two conditions at the root of theft that come from within us. The first is unbelief. This seems rather obvious since unbelievers have no moral grounds outside of the Ten Commandments upon which to base their lives. That is one of the reasons there is so much theft, so many scammers, and people seeking ways to take another person’s property.
The second “inside” root cause of stealing is covetousness. This is the mentality that says, “I want what you have and I am going to take it!” This connects Commandments number 8 & 10. We could easily make the argument that theft is a form of idolatry as well. These two root causes come from our own sinful nature.
A second cause of theft is from outside of us, that is, the devil. He is the great deceiver who will ask us again and again, “Did God really say…?” Did God really say do not steal? Did He really say do not covet? We have to be prepared in the knowledge of God’s Word to be able to say, “Yes, God said it!”
- Stealing From God
Another text that I quoted in the last sermon was from Malachi 3.8 about stealing from God. “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.” God’s people were commanded to bring a tithe to the Lord and they failed to do so. But stealing from God is not just about tithing, not just about financial failures. We rob God when we fail to praise and give thanks. We grieve His Spirit. We rob God when we fail to keep any of the Commandments – Sabbath, for instance, taking away from the Lord’s day. We are called upon on the Sabbath to rest in Him, to worship Him, to stop our work, and to focus on prayer and the Word and other things of the Kingdom.
The Bible also speaks about failing to find joy in God’s gifts and when we do, we rob God. Deuteronomy 12.7, “And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” The breaking of Commandment is in the “shalls”. You shall eat and you shall rejoice! The same is said in the feasts, “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful” (Deuteronomy 16.13-15). How might that play out for us today? We shall rejoice in the gifts and blessings of God. And we shall rejoice in the gifts of God given to others. We shall not rob ourselves of joy and we shall not rob God of seeing that joy in us. It grieves the Spirit when we rob God of tithes or joy in us.
Let’s make that connection. Turn again to Ephesians 4 beginning at verse 25, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil. 28Let 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. 29Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Throughout this list of exhortations, we could pick out Commandment after Commandment and in the midst of it is the exhortation not to grieve the Holy Spirit, not to rob God by our sin.
- Stealing From Others
As I may have said earlier, there are a lot of ways we can break the Eighth Commandment. One that the Larger Catechism lists is kind of an indirect form of stealing, that is, receiving stolen goods. The Bible verse behind this one is Proverbs 29.24, “The partner of a thief hates his own life; he hears the curse, but discloses nothing.” We become partner to a thief when we receive stolen goods. We might think, “well, how can I know if something is stolen?” We cannot always tell, but sometimes the Spirit may convict our hearts to think twice in any given situation, something too good to be true. Or how many times might we record something off the internet that we should purchase, or watch something on YouTube that is obviously bootlegged off a network? I’ve watched a game or two that is on ESPN, to which I do not subscribe, but some guy in China is posting it on YouTube. Usually I wait until after the game and watch legal highlights!
Other sins of theft include fraud, moving boundary markers, or dishonest scales or measures. Have you ever wondered if the gas pumps are measured correctly? Theft can occur with bad faith contracts, any oppression of the poor, or extortion. Stealing is found in bribery, harassing lawsuits, and hoarding goods to increase their price.
Then there are the thoughts and desires that break the Eighth Commandment. Those who have excessive desire for wealth or excessive attachment to worldly things. Jesus teaches this in Luke 12.15, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” These kinds of thoughts and desires rob us of life. Proverbs 1.19, “Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” What thieves and robbers do not seem to comprehend is that breaking the Commandment on stealing takes away the life of the thief. What we know is that God gives life, His Word gives life, His Commandments give life. Breaking Commandment leads to death. The love and desire for the things of this world shuts the love of God out of our lives. 1 John 2.15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” If we can put these three thoughts to memory, it would help us to daily discern worldly thoughts and desires:
- desire of the flesh,
- desire of the eyes,
- the pride of life.
To counter these desires to steal and rob is to set our minds on God’s kingdom and things above. Colossians 3.2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” It is to know and obey the Ten Commandments! It is to focus on Jesus and His teachings. It is never allowing ourselves to become distracted by excessive commitment to the things of this world. Jesus covers that well in Matthew 6.25-34, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Keeping Commandment, no matter which one, is about the pivot of Matthew 6.33. Jesus goes through how we need not be anxious about our life. God will take care of us. Look to creation itself, for creation does not worry about God’s care. Another root cause of theft is anxiety over things. A root cause is when we think “thy thingdom come!”* The counter, the alternative, the pivot in our thinking, comes when Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” This is what the world hates. This is what the devil hates. This is what our sinful nature hates...when we turn the desire completely around to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. It is when we repent of worldly thoughts and desires and recognize that Jesus has imputed His righteousness to us so that we can think clearly and think godly thoughts that desire, not the things of the world, but the things of God. This is the power of the gospel. This is why Jesus came and died and rose again, so that we could have victory over sin and the things that lead to death. This is how we are able to keep the Eighth Commandment, do what it requires and not do what it forbids. Let us offer our lives to God in humble submission and joyful obedience to do all God commands. Amen.
* “Thy Thingdom Come” is a phrase I once heard from a monk.
