A Call to Stewardship – The Eighth Commandment

A Call to Stewardship

The Eighth Commandment

Exodus 20:15

“You shall not steal.”

Deuteronomy 5:19

“‘And you shall not steal.’”

All things have been created to serve God’s purposes in bringing glory and honor to His Name (Ps. 119:89-91). God distributes His blessing among men as He will, to whom He will, and in the proportion that He wills. He calls each person to exercise stewardship over that which has been entrusted to him (Matt. 25:14-30). By prohibiting stealing God teaches us to learn contentment, to seek Him for wisdom and understanding concerning proper stewardship, and to honor and aid our neighbors in their own calling before the Lord.

The more careful we are in guarding against stealing, the more we should expect to see the good purposes and rich blessings of God abounding in our midst. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it (Ps. 24:1). Men must honor His decisions about the distribution of goods among humankind and work to accomplish a proper stewardship of what has been entrusted to them. But we can only do this by knowing Him, keeping His commandments, and using our gifts and goods according to the sovereign purposes of God.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.