Stealing from Others

Read Question 110 of the Heidelberg Catechism

Stewardship is the underlying foundation of the eighth commandment. Numerous are the practical prohibitions which flow out of the principle of stewardship.

First, our Catechism mentions the obvious: Theft and robbery are forbidden. We steal from our neighbor when we take or withhold something which belongs to him. We steal whenever we force someone to give us something unjustly.

Secondly, we also steal when we commit fraud. Committing fraud involves deceit and trickery. Our Catechism mentions several ways fraud is committed:

(1) Unjust weights, ells, and measurements. This refers to an old practice used by dishonest store owners. The weights, used on a balance scale, would be marked higher than their true weight. For example, if you bought five pounds of flour, the weights might read six. By paying for six pounds when you received only five, the store owner could pocket the full profit of the sixth pound.

Unjust ells were similar to unjust weights. An ell is 45 inches and was used as an old English measurement for selling fabric. Sometimes a store owner would sell clothing a fraction less than 45 inches and call it an ell.

All unjust measurements are stealing.

(2) Fraudulent merchandise. This includes false advertising, deceptive packaging, and exaggerated price mark-ups. Changing the odometer reading of a car to deceive a prospective buyer, for example, is fraudulent.

(3) “By any other way forbidden by God.” This includes charging excessive interest rates (usury), using counterfeit money, writing bad checks, cheating on income tax returns, engaging in vandalism, borrowing without asking, and declaring bankruptcy simply to escape debts. We steal when we take what we have not earned—for example, large lottery winnings. We steal when we withhold wages or payments from others. We steal when we buy things at low prices which we believe have been stolen.

The Bible says no one may “defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such” (1 Thes. 4:6).

Do you feel the guilt of fraud? Pray for the grace of repentance. Pray to become a Zacchaeus before Christ: “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8).

— JRB

Scripture Reading: Luke 19:1:10

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