As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The Law of the 10 Commandments is broken down into two groups in first, Loving God about all else, and the second in, Loving your others as yourself. The Holy Ghost Inspired me years ago though to point out that the summation of all 10 Commandments is THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
If you take honor from God, you steal from Him, as robbing His Name, to not worshiping Him. It is the same situation in robbing authority of dignity, to stealing life, cheating in sex, taking someone's good name, to plotting to steal what they have in covetousness. It is all about stealing which breaks down all of the boundaries which bring peace and prosperity.
When the regimes steal from you, it is called taxes. They steal too much and people stop working or they become cheats on their taxes. When people steal from each other, it breaks all trust and all reason for working. It is a vicious cycle, and it climaxes in anarchy as those who are recipients of usury or landlords concentrate wealth, and those who have not hope of owning themselves clash as society stops producing, when only segments of welfare and financiers get their money for free, while fewer and fewer will work as it is all confiscated from them legally.
This is why the Bible forbids usury or interest on money, and why the Bible has 7 and 50 year Sabbaths so debt is cancelled, so society is able to recoup itself in distributing it's fortunes on an equal scale, and people are not punished all their lives for bad things happening to them.
Thou shalt not steal.
Q. What does this mean?
A. We must fear and love God, so that we will neither take our
neighbor's money or property, nor acquire it by fraud or by
selling him poorly made products, but will help him improve and
protect his property and career.
Thou shalt not steal is a most complex and far reaching Commandment, because it touches on all the Commandments
An example of how far reaching all the Commandments are, is that it is stealing if you see even your enemies property out of it's place and do not return it back to them. This fits with even lusting after a person is adultery and hating someone without rightful cause is murder.
Exodus 23:4
If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
The worsts of theft is Spiritual theft. People always have excuses not to tithe their 10 percent. That is ridiculous in God tells us that what we tithe, to even strong drink, as long as it is brought before Him and enjoyed, (not in drunkenness as there is reason in this), that fulfills the law. Yet people will not give to themselves as they are so greedy that they think God might get something.
Deuteronomy 14:26
And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,
That is not to state though that celebrating before God the riches you have is the end of the Law. There are requirements in providing for continuance of the Christian Church, as you need a place to be buried in, and there is requirement of providing for the poor.
I remember an East European Pastor who used to smuggle Bibles into the Warsaw Pac in his car in secret compartments. He said the border guards knew very well he was bringing in Bibles, but could not find them or more to the point did not care to find them, as they stood and watched his reactions as they searched.
The Pastor was asked how dangerous this was, and how dropping them off might be better, but his reply was, "The Bible says GO YE and not THROW YE".
Far too many people donate a few dollars at charity, and call it a day in their Christian lives, and let others do the work, as they do not want to waste the time with real people, as it would get in the way of texting or reading about how wonderful they are in the press. Your neighbor is not some grubber on a sheet of paper at some charity, where the charity workers are getting the lion's share of that donation. Your neighbor is someone who needs help in a driveway cleared of snow or their child being offered an occupation, and then they are afforded the dignity of making their way in their lives, and you not expecting to have them licking your shoes for the rest of their lives.
You steal from people who are poor when you expect to enslave their thankfulness.
Proverbs 19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.
Matthew 25:40
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Every person needs to be reminded that as God loved us first before we loved Him, that everything in this world is God's before we got our ungrateful fingers on it, plotting how to get more of what others have.
This touches me personally in being homeless, but the lessons in human greed is profound. Rich farmers here simply once they were told they were millionaires, because thee worst of people in not caring about others. They bought up land, and then let the houses fall down in not selling anything to people, which would provide children for schools and more taxes to relieve their burdens.
Before that these greedy people were selling just the homesteads with the trees, of 10 acres as satan forbid that people have 40 acres, as instead of having a 1000 acres, they have 970 acres.
I discuss this vanity often with TL and Martin Luther railed against the rich in their selfishness too in robbing society. My neighbor who has no children, but loves to work, could have sold his acres for a million dollars and simply rented his aging parents farm where he grew up, but land fell, he is getting old now, and what he has will be squandered to his ungrateful nieces and nephews.
It is a fact that people have and people always want more, as there is never enough to fill the emptiness inside of them, and the richest of all are the emptiest of all in being void of God. It is why I always marveled at Billy Dixon of the Old West, who did quite well, but the thing he loved best was drinking his coffee from a quart tin cup, and eating a buffalo steak cooked over chips, under the open skies.
That where your heart is, is where your soul is, and there is little contentment in most people's souls, because they are constantly being dishonest and stealing something from God or others as they are terrified of being vulnerable, in they might have to depend on God, or not be able to control other people, who only smile at them because they are plotting to get that rich person's money.
I use these examples to the dimensions of theft and their reasoning in fear. People steal from this blog all the time, and should know that stealing from the poor is a very deadly sin. I pity them sincerely when the payment will come due.
I have mentioned the trials of trying to create this blog in there criminals who engage in "checking", which is they steal credit cards, and then donate a few dollars to see if a card is active. I am diligent in reporting this to the authorities and cancelling suspect payments immediately. It all takes from my time though in this blog and that robbing me of my time, is another form of theft.
Jeremiah 22:13
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Lying to people is stealing their trust. Employing cheap foreign labor is stealing an American's job. Being rich and taking a Social Security payment, because you paid in, when you do not need it, is stealing from others who do need it. There are many ways in every Commandment in how to be a thief and everyone is in denial of their being a robber, just as your shortchanging God from praise to your responsibility in being good stewards of the Christian Faith, is theft as much as robbing a bank.
If you do not have ask God, for He has an unlimited supply.
Psalm 37:4
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
But do not expire your eternal Life over anything in this world which will not make it into eternity.
II Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
Ephesian 4:28
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Nuff Said
agtG
