Vultures under Cover

15 January

Thou shalt not steal. Exodus 20:15

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Nehemiah 5

Charity is the goal of the law. The rule of charity is that every one’s rights should be safely preserved and that no one should do to another what he would not do to himself. In defiance of the law are thieves who secretly steal the property of others, seek to gain from the loss of others, accumulate wealth by unlawful practices, and are more devoted to their private advantage than to equity. Rape of plundering is theft, since there is no difference between robbing one’s neighbor by fraud or by force.

So that God might warn His people against all fraudulent injustice, He uses the word steal in Exodus 20:15, which is something we naturally abhor as disgraceful. Still, we know that men bury their misdeeds under many coverings and that they convert those deeds appear as prudence, and pretexts. By craft and low cunning their deeds appear as prudence, and those who cleverly overreach others, take in the simple, and insidiously oppress the poor are spoken of as provident and circumspect. The world boasts of vices as if they were virtues and freely excuses those in sin. But God wipes away this gloss when He pronounces all unjust means of gain to be theft.

An affirmative precept is connected with the prohibition Thou shalt not steal, for those who do not steal must also inculcate liberality and kindness and the other duties whereby human society is maintained. So that we may not be condemned as thieves by God, we must endeavor, as far as possible, to ensure that others should safely keep what they possess and that we promote our neighbor’s advantage no less than our own.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Think about your first reactions when you hear of another person’s misfortune, particularly someone who has harmed or hurt you. Are you most concerned with their profit or with yours? How can the prohibition on stealing apply to you?

365 Days with Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke