The Eighth Commandment by Milton C. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 20.

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The Eighth Commandment

By Milton C. Wilcox

The Law of God — No. 13

The Eighth Commandment

MILTON C. WILCOX

The eighth word of the ten words of God is,—

“Thou Shalt Not Steal”

It is not difficult to understand. Like all the other precepts of God’s law, it is addressed to the individual. The individual will be held responsible. He cannot hide behind the subterfuges of church or race or nation. God addresses the responsible “thou,” and the person must render account to God.

“Thou shalt not steal.” Stealing is unlawfully taking that which belongs to another, or without right appropriating that which belongs to another. It includes appropriating by force, or thrusts, which is robbery. Robbing is an intensive form of stealing. Highway robbery is another form of stealing. Burglary is another. Getting money under false pretense is still another method. It is hiding behind a deception for the purpose of taking property which belongs to another.

It is not less a transgression of God’s law if we steal from the rich, or from the government, or from the railway, or from some big corporation. He who steals from any one wrongs his own soul, perverts his own conscience. God will never ask in the judgment whether the victim was rich or poor. The motive, the deed, will be our accusers. To be a commandment keeper means that the soul can be intrusted equally well with a million dollars or a five-cent fare.

Slandering your neighbor or friend is stealing his good name. We do not recall the exact quotation, but the substance of it is this, that he who steals my purse steals trash, but he who robs me of my good name robs me of that which is of infinite worth. The truth of this is confirmed by Scripture. “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” It follows, then, that the slanderer and the backbiter, the destroyer of reputations, is a thief, a transgressor of the eighth commandment. He robs those whom he slanders, of reputation.

The Sabbath is the Lord’s. It belongs to him. He who takes it for his own pleasure or profit is stealing God’s time. To Sabbath breaking he adds the sin of theft.

“The tithe is the Lord’s.” He who withholds the tithe robs God. So it is expressly declared in Mal. 3: 8, 9. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” Thank God, there is bountiful promise to the souls who will give up their robbery, and bring to God the tithe. Verse 10.

Not infrequently God gives to some man good thoughts, or a splendid plan to meet difficulties or advance work. He tells it to Brother A, who on the first opportunity uses it as if it were original with himself. Anything of this kind holds within itself the very principle of theft.

There are many ways of violating the commandment, which we need not mention to the enlightened, sensitive soul that the Spirit can impress. May the Spirit of God through our Lord Jesus Christ write this law upon our hearts, that we may willingly, gladly, render to every one his own. In a fuller, larger sense may the injunction of the apostle come to the heart, “Let him that stole steal no more.”

* Mountain View, Cal.