The Decalogue series continues with a sermon on the 8th Commandment: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). The issue of stealing begins with an understanding that everything belongs to God. It is the Lord that grants stewardship to people, therefore, when a person takes what was not delegated to them, they steal from another, and disregard God’s delegation of stewardship to another.

People can steal a multiple of things, such as items, people (kidnapping), time, intellectual material, boundary lines, weights (or measurements in the market place – which indicates cheating others), and cheating others by selling inferior items. This sermon identifies how stealing is an issue of morality, and includes the issue of owning private property – and how God ordains private property, but private property is not an absolute right – because “The earth is the Lords, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1).