caveat

Just an editorial note: I started this blog in 2012 and had been posting somewhat regularly (according to my desired pace) for about two year—ending in 2014. After 2014 I took a pretty long hiatus and came back two posts ago—2019.

I mention this to say that when I wrote many of these posts I was a lot younger—that means less experienced, less knowledgable, more presumptuous, less wise, and more error-prone in my writing.

I am not saying this because I am ashamed of anything I wrote (I think much of it is quite good). I am only saying it so that grace may be given to me for some of my post's shortcomings.

In the coming months I will be going through my older posts and making corrections—grammatical, theological, emotional, etc.. There will be redactions (I'm sure) and maybe even outright deletions.

So please show grace, show patience, and most importantly, enjoy those things I have written because, like I said, I still think much of it is quite good. God bless.

Stealing and Covetousness (Part 2)

The Baptist Catechism (Keach’s Catechism) 

Q. 87. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment? A. The tenth commandment forbids all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his. (1 Cor. 10:10; James 5:9; Gal. 5:26; Col. 3:5)

One way to differentiate between covetousness and theft (besides theft being an action and covetousness being a matter of the heart) is to realize the differing motivations behind the two. To covet is to desire something that isn't one's own possession. And this desire may culminate in theft which is the physical endpoint to one's desire for things that aren't there’s.

Stealing (or theft) does not always involve desire in the same way that covetousness does. To be clear, theft always involves desire but unlike covetousness it does not always desire out of unnecessary greed.

For example, a man has a car––a 1999 Ford Explorer––which runs fine. He may covet his neighbors 2019 Mercedes coupe. He doesn't need his neighbors car, it's simply unnecessary greed (or as the catechism describes it––"envying...the good of our neighbor").

Theft may arise simply out of true necessity. Which does not justify the act but is simply a matter of self preservation that does not necessarily imply ill-will towards the person being violated.

For example, a man is homeless and on the brink of starvation. He sees a man selling food (hotdogs). He runs up, takes the food without paying, runs away, and eats it. There's really no ill-will here, as hard as it is to believe. He could have been equally content buying, had he the money, or not stealing at all, had he not been starving. One way to look at it is this: in theft, one needs and so they desire, and in coveting, one desires and so they need.

Proverbs 6:30-31 (NASB)
30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals
            To satisfy himself when he is hungry;
      31 But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold;
            He must give all the substance of his house.

 †

Stealing and Covetousness (Part 1)

One biblical concept that a former pastor of mine informed me of that has stuck with me until today is what is called the "put off, put on" principle. For those of you who are unaware of what this is, the Apostle Paul, in his letters, had a habit of not only telling believers to quit bad behaviors ("put off") but to also adopt new behaviors to replace them ("put on"). Nature abhors a vacuum and this was Paul's (well, the Holy Spirit's) way of filling that vacuum with something profitable.

One application of this principle is found in the book of Ephesians and has to do with stealing:

Ephesians 4:28 (NASB)
"He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need."

Paul's "put off" directive—"He who steals must steal no longer"
is followed by a "put on" directive—"but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good"
Paul even gives the godly rational for this new behavior—"so that he will have something to share with one who has need."

Later on in the letter he defines covetousness in a list of condemnable behaviors and I'll explain why I'm bringing this up:

Ephesians 5:5 (NASB)

"For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

 As is commonly understood, covetousness is the father of stealing. It is the desire for what a person has. The 10th commandment states:

Exodus 20:17 (NASB)
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

(Interestingly, the command not to steal in the decalogue precedes this command as the 8th commandment. Also interesting is how in Ephesians the command not to steal is also preceding the command not to covet and is given separately.)

†