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Foundations For Success

8th Commandment: Be Honest

The Proper Acquisition of Wealth

Most of God's wisdom as expressed in ancient scripture is not exclusively about prayer, praise and heaven but deals with the everyday life concerns of us humans. One of those concerns is with our possessions and property. Do we have a right to own property? Are their any limitations or parameters to how we go about acquiring property and possessions? Interestingly, the law against stealing goes along way toward giving us God's thoughts regarding property.

When the scriptures prohibits thievery it is defending private property. When the scriptures prohibits taking what does not belong to me it is presupposing that there is a correct way to acquire property.

When the scriptures command that we not steal from others it is telling us that we have no rights to the property of another: that whether or not they choose to give or share their possessions is entirely a matter between the individual and God.

Many people today think that if they refrain from stealing a shirt from a clothing store or cash from a Gas Station they have kept the law. But the wisdom of the ages tells us there are all sorts of ways to steal.

False Scales

Proverbs 30:23 prohibits the use of trickery when one is determining the value of an object. If you were selling an ounce of gold, it would be stealing to leave an alloy in the metal and yet sell it as 24-carat gold. It would also be stealing to rig the scale to display a false weight.

When do we do this? When a mechanic replaces perfectly good spark plugs, telling the owner of the car that they were corroded, he is stealing. When you lie about the condition of the roof on a house in order to raise its sales value, you are stealing. Whenever we misrepresent an item as being something it is not-like passing off a fake Rolex watch for the real thing-we have stolen from the individual who purchased the item.

Actually, even for the most self-serving person, it should be obvious that such behavior is short sighted. With whom do you want to continue to do business? The person whose behavior tells you that you can trust them? When a mechanic comes to me and says, Mr. Wilson your car really didn't need any work, I will be certain to continue to use his services as well as go tell my friends about him.

Fraud

Failure to give someone their just wages is also stealing. Anytime we withhold money due a person we are defrauding them. If I have something that rightfully belongs to you but refuse to give it to you I am a thief.

If I borrow money from you and do not pay it back and make no effort to re-negotiate the loan, but simply decide to not pay it back I am stealing from you. If I accidentally back out of my driveway into your car and do not let you know what I did, I have stolen from you.

If I promise to pay you a certain wage and then fail to keep my word, I have stolen from you. I know employers who often motivate their salespeople by promising certain bonuses. However, when someone reaches the goal set to earn the reward, they are told that they really didn't make it. Somehow they failed to sell a certain item or didn't see the small print (that wasn't there in the beginning) that stipulated they needed to contact the home office 2 weeks prior to let them know they were close to the target numbers. In other words the employer defrauded his workers.

We can also defraud God by failing to honor God with a portion of our income. (Malachi 3) How do we do that? We do it by not giving to our churches, synagogues, charities, widows and orphans (John 1:27), and indeed anyone in need (James 2:14-17).

God gives us talents, resources, capacities, opportunities and material blessings and asks only that we give a portion of our income. Being a God of justice, God doesn't ask more from the poor than from the wealthy nor more from the wealthy than from the poor. Everyone gives the same ten-percent. If you wish to give more, good for you but all that is required is a tenth. It's a way for us to thank our Creator, to show gratitude for our relative abundance, to remember that in eternity everything is His and simply on loan to us. Thus, the truism - you can't take it with you. The ancient Pharaohs tried, but alas, all their gold and silver was left behind for the enrichment of common grave robbers! And of course, giving is the key to practicing, Jesus' example of caring for those in need (Luke 10:25-37). It also trains us to be generous, which Jesus equates with authentic spirituality (Luke 11:41).

Government Sponsored Theft

One day King Ahab decided that he wanted a certain piece of property that belonged to a man named Naboth. He offered to purchase the property but was turned down. Naboth wouldn't sell. The King was distraught over the matter, which bothered his wife, Jezebel. They then conspired to have Naboth convicted of a capital crime so that he would be executed and they then could step in and confiscate his property.

The King and his wife had done some pretty dastardly things, but this one was so bad that God sent His minister, Elijah, to let them know He saw what they did and would judge them for it. Just as individuals must not steal, neither can governments. Passing laws to take away what belongs to private citizens does not make the action permissible.

Question: While I do not go next door and steal cash from my neighbor, is it possible to steal from him, nevertheless, by voting for laws that will unjustly confiscate his hard-earned money for my own ends?

The avenue to wealth is not through taking what belongs to others, but through labor, sacrifice, faith and generosity. Yes, there are times when people are left without any means to care for themselves. These people need our charity to get back on their feet. But Scripture does not envision charity as a lifelong source of income but as a temporary measure only.

Possessed by Possessions

Everything we have can be traced back to the goodness of God. It is He that has equipped us to produce and possess all that we have. It is necessary to our spiritual health that we remember this. If we fail here we run the terrible risk of being possessed by our possessions. We hold these blessings as gifts to be managed for God. As soon as we allow things to own us those things cease being blessings and become miniature gods that own our souls.

Generosity is a great preventative for such dangerous behavior. Caring for our extended families, giving to charities and churches, serving others when they are in need are all ways to remind us that we have been blessed, to be blessings to others, and not simply to hoard to ourselves.

People who remember that all they possess has come from God are not distraught when they lose their possessions or in some manner suffer a financial setback. They know that just as God blessed them in the past, He can and will do so in the future. He is the ultimate source of all that they are and all that they have. For people of faith, there is no need to steal from someone, for they know that God blesses faith-filled labor.

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Speak Truthfully