Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal.

“You shall not steal." (Ex. 20:15, Deut. 5:19)

What is the Eighth Commandment?

The eighth commandment is, "You shall not steal."

In the eighth commandment God reveals another way that you are to love others as you love yourself—by not stealing from them. The Old Testament Hebrew word for steal (גָּנַב, ganav), similar to its New Testament Greek counterpart (κλέπτειν, kleptein), refers to the act of wrongfully taking something that belongs to someone else.

Love to your neighbor requires you to hold sacred not only your neighbor's life (sixth commandment) and marriage (seventh commandment), but also their possessions (eighth commandment). Just as in murder you are taking someone else's right to their life, and in adultery you are taking someone else's right to their spouse, in stealing, you are taking someone else's right to their possessions.

Like all the commandments, this command has a narrow and a broad meaning. Just as the sixth commandment includes the sin of anger that is at the root of murder (Matt. 5:21–22), and the seventh commandment includes the sin of sexual lust that is at the root of adultery (Matt. 5:27–28), so the eighth commandment includes the sins of envy and greed that are at the root of stealing.

And like all the commandments, the purpose of this command is not to rob you of pleasure and joy in life, but just the opposite. The Bible teaches that true happiness and joy cannot be found by taking things you want that others have, but by learning how to be content with everything that God gives you, and generously sharing these things with others.

In the beginning, after God revealed the sanctity of human life and marriage, he revealed the sanctity of work and personal possessions for the flourishing of humanity. After God united Adam and Eve in marriage, he commissioned them to begin fulfilling his mission on earth by blessing them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion" (Gen. 1:28).

God's commission to Adam and Eve involved two primary objectives: multiplying and ruling. His commission to multiply called for Adam and Eve's procreation in marriage, through which God would fill the earth with their descendants. And God's commission for them to rule called for their vocation of work, through which God would accomplish his mission for the world through them and their descendants.

God's purpose for filling the earth with his image bearers through their procreation was so that through their vocation (work) they would be his "sub-workers."[1] In Genesis 2:15 we read, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it."[2] Although the paradise of Eden's garden was perfect, it still required Adam and Eve's work to reach its full potential.[3]

Everything you earn and own through your work is a gift from God that he has temporarily entrusted to you as a steward, not only for your sake, but also for the sake of his purposes in the world.[4] Therefore, in God's creation order for the world, there is a God-given human right to own possessions that are earned through work.

God's command not to steal is a command to respect the personal possessions of others. Stealing is not only an offense against an individual, but also against God and his design for how humanity and societies are to flourish. Obeying the eighth commandment emphasizes the sacredness and dignity of work, underscores the respect of individual property rights, and creates a society where people enjoy the fruit of their labor and recognize their calling to steward all their possessions for God's purposes and honor.

Like all the commandments, this command has both a negative and positive dimension, both vices that God forbids and virtues that God requires.

What is forbidden by God in the Eighth Commandment?

In the same way that the sixth commandment forbids you to harm or destroy the sacredness of life by anger and murder, and the seventh commandment forbids you to harm or destroy the sacredness of marriage by lust and adultery, the eighth commandment forbids you to harm or violate the sacredness of work by sins like envy and greed that lead you to stealing what belongs to someone else.

Since God ordained the sanctity of your work as the means for you to accumulate and share possessions, he forbids you to desire or take anyone else's possessions.[5] The tenth commandment, "you shall not covet," even commands you not to envy any of the possessions of your neighbor.

Why is stealing such a serious offense to God? It's because stealing reveals your core discontentment and dissatisfaction with what God has given you in life, including not only your physical possessions but also your status, your accomplishments, and your relationships. To have "more" than what God has provided you, you steal from others and thereby reveal your lack of trust in him and your lack of love for him and others.

The biblical words for "steal" often refer to someone's literal theft of personal property (Ex. 22:1–4), but the Bible presents a multitude of other ways you can steal.[6] Stealing involves not just taking someone's tangible possessions, but also property, relationships, positions, rights, ideas, and reputations.[7]

Stealing can take a myriad of forms, including:

• robbery (Mark 10:19)

• extortion (Ps. 62:10)

• kidnapping (Ex. 21:16)

• bribery (Isa. 33:15)

• human trafficking (1 Tim. 1:10)

• using dishonest measures (Prov. 20:10)

• bringing unjust lawsuits (1 Cor. 6:7)

• fraudulent business dealings (1 Tim. 3:8)

• injustice in contracts (Deut. 24:15) 

• borrowing without returning (Ex. 22:14)

• unethical loans, usuary (Ps. 37:21)

• receiving stolen goods (Prov. 29:24)

• moving property boundaries (Deut. 19:14)

• being lazy and slothful (Prov. 18:9)

• withholding fair wages (Lev. 19:13)

• not paying your debts (Ps. 37:21)

• not paying your taxes (Matt. 22:21)

• plagiarism (Jer. 23:30)

• hoarding (Prov. 11:26)

• fraud (1 Thess. 4:6)

• love of money (1 Tim. 6:5)

• envy of others (Jas. 5:9)

• unnecessary extravagance (Prov. 21:20)

• wasteful gambling (Prov. 13:11)[8]

Three major categories of stealing include seizure, deception, and defrauding.

Seizure includes not only dramatic acts of robbery or burglary but also everyday behaviors that you might not think of at first as stealing, such as taking small items from work or using your employer's resources for personal benefit. Similarly, "borrowing" items from people and failing to return them is another form of theft.

Deception is another form of stealing. The Bible strongly denounces the use of dishonest measures to gain profit, an ancient practice that's evolved into modern-day false advertising and overstated claims in sales tactics. Proverbs 20:23 says, "Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good." Deceptions like this are stealing through trickery, misleading people into spending under false pretenses.

Defrauding is unjustly withholding something that is due to another person. This includes not paying for products or services you have received, or not paying on time, which uses the provider's resources without compensation. Other examples include not reporting damage you've done, under-declaring your income, inflating your expenses, or not working the full hours for which you're paid.

What is required by God in the Eighth Commandment?

Like all the commandments, this command has both a negative and positive meaning. The Bible teaches that the way you grow is by "putting off" sin and "putting on" righteousness (Col. 3:1–17). God requires you to be content and do honest work so that you can share generously with others in need.

When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he explained both the negative and positive meanings of this command: "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need" (Eph. 4:28).[9]

Obedience to this command requires you not only to stop stealing but also to start exercising integrity as God's steward in all your work and with all your possessions. This begins by seeing everything you earn and own as a sacred gift from God that he has temporarily entrusted to you as a steward for your sake and for the sake of others.[10]

Author Jerry Bridges teaches there are three basic attitudes you can take toward possessions. The first says, "What's yours is mine; I'll take it." This is the attitude of the thief. The second says, "What's mine is mine; I'll keep it." This is the attitude of the self-centered unbeliever. The third says, "What's mine is God's; I'll be a steward of it so I can share it generously with others." This is the attitude of the true follower of Jesus Christ.

The purpose of your work is not merely accumulating things for your personal pleasure and comfort, but so that you can provide for your needs and the needs of your family, and so that you can give generously to others in need.[11]

Instead of stealing to get, God calls you to be working so that you might generously give. However, the problem is that many are not generous with their possessions because they are not content with what God provides for them through their work. So, they steal by either wrongfully taking or wrongfully keeping what belongs to others.

The Bible teaches that one of the worst and most common forms of stealing—by keeping for yourself what rightly belongs to someone else—is stealing from God. How do people steal from God? In Malachi 3:8–10 God himself asks this question:

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions... Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Mal. 3:8–10)

You rob God when you wrongfully keep for yourself what he has revealed is rightfully his. Part of being a good steward of all that God graciously gives you through your work is obeying his command to give back to him, cheerfully and regularly, a generous portion of your income as an offering to him for the sake of his mission in the world.[12]

Obedience to the eighth commandment not only forbids you to steal from God and others, but also requires you to honor and love God and others with all that you earn and own through your work. Paul taught Timothy that this included learning how to be content with what God provided for him through his work.

Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.[13] 

In Jesus’ instruction to pray for "our daily bread," he is not just teaching you to ask your heavenly Father to give you all the provisions that are necessary to sustain your physical life each day.[14] His broader purpose is to teach you how to trust in your heavenly Father to give you what is necessary each day to carry out his mission through your life—with or without the daily provisions you may think are necessary.[15]

While Paul warns that thieves and the greedy will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), he also celebrates the transforming power of the gospel that is beautifully displayed in all those who were once thieves, "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11).[16]

Catechism Questions

What is the Eighth Commandment?

The eighth commandment is, "You shall not steal."

What is forbidden by God in the Eighth Commandment?

God forbids me to harm or violate his design for work by coveting or stealing anything that rightly belongs to someone else.

What is required by God in the Eighth Commandment?

God requires me to be content and do honest work so that I can share generously with others in need.

Footnotes:

[1] God's work did not stop at creation. Rather, it began there as a majestic display of his providence. As soon as God rested on the seventh day from his original work of creation, he immediately began his sovereign work of providence. God's work today includes carrying out his purposes through his image bearers as his "sub-workers" as they align their work with his in the world.

[2] As we compare the imagery in Genesis 1 with Genesis 2, we go from a picture of God exercising sovereignty through humans over all creation (Genesis 1), to God exercising this same sovereign rule through individual humans in very specific places on the earth—such as the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2). Here we learn that God designs us in his image so that we will cultivate and protect the unique realms of his creation which he places under our influence, to accomplish his will on earth.

[3] God designed your work to be not only the means through which he provides you with the personal possessions you need in life, but also the means through which he carries out his mission in the world through your life. God put humans into paradise to work before sin entered the world. Therefore, work is not part of a curse from God and a necessary evil because of sin. Instead, it’s a blessing from God meant to give purpose to your life as you flourish according to his design. However, work is now cursed with toil and vanity (Gen. 3:17–19). All human work, no matter how menial it may seem, is not just a job but a calling from God at the center of God's purposes. Work is the instrument through which God works to accomplish his will, not only to provide things for you and your family, but also to provide for others. So, when we work, Luther writes, "We are the fingers of God." In one of Luther’ letters in 1520, he describes how God carries out his work through many kinds of work. "A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another." In Works of Martin Luther, edited by Henry Eyster Jacobs and Adolph Spaeth, (Philadelphia: A.J. Holman Company, 1915) 69.

[4] When Paul reminded Timothy of the transient nature of all his personal possessions over which he was only a temporary steward, he wrote, "For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world" (1 Tim. 6:7).

[5] Princeton Seminary professor, Charles Hodge, taught that the foundation for the eighth commandment is the "divine right of property," that the Creator "so constituted man that he desires and needs [the] right of the exclusive possession and use of certain things.... [This] is the only security for the individual and society." Systematic Theology vol. 3. Edited by Anthony Uyl (Woodstock, Ontario: Devoted Publishing, 2016) 191. Original publishing date 1940 by William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All text of Hodge’s Systematic Theology is public domain by Congress (1872).

[6] As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, the eighth commandment also prohibits us from taking our neighbor’s goods “by means that appear legitimate” (Q&A 110).

[7] It is theft to steal someone's reputation, destroying their good name by malicious gossip and slander.  "Who steals my purse, steals trash," wrote Shakespeare, "but he that filches from me my good name...makes me poor indeed."

[8] After the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 142 lists many examples of stealing, like these above, it concludes with these statements to show that the list is much longer: "And all other unjust or sinful ways of taking, withholding, or enriching ourselves from what belongs to others...allowing ourselves to become distracted from trusting God in the way that we acquire, maintain, and use worldly goods...and all the other ways that needlessly jeopardize our money and possessions and defraud ourselves of the use and comfort of the things God has given us."

[9] The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 74 tells us, "What is required in the eighth commandment?" Answer: "The eighth commandment requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others."

[10] The Heidelberg Catechism Question 111 answer reads, "That I promote the advantage of my neighbor in every instance I can or may; and deal with him as I desire to be dealt with by others: further also that I faithfully labor, so that I may be able to relieve the needy." The New Anglican Catechism 337 says, "As God’s steward, how are you commanded to use your possessions?  As I am able, I should earn my own living, care for my dependents, and give to the poor. I should use all my possessions to the glory of God and the good of creation." In To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, edited by J.I. Packer and Joel Scandrett (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020) 102.

[11] Paul said, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" (2 Thess. 3:10). Paul also instructed Timothy, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim. 5:8). Your work should be done honestly, diligently, and cheerfully, realizing that you are ultimately serving the Lord in all that you do and with all that you earn and own through your work (Col. 3:23–24).

[12] The Bible teaches that your motivation for giving tithes and offerings to God should not be mere duty or obligation, but a response to God's astonishing grace and love he has poured out on you in Jesus Christ by giving you everything you have. When Paul asked the believers in Corinth to give a financial offering to help serve the churches in Jerusalem suffering from severe famine, he wrote: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich...Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work" (2 Cor. 8:9; 9:7–8).

[13] Paul writes, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11–13).

[14] Jesus' instruction to pray for our daily bread echoes an ancient Jewish prayer: "Feed me with the food that is needful for me" (Prov. 30:8). Proverbs 30:9 instructs us to ask God for protection from the temptations of both poverty and riches: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

[15] J. I. Packer writes, "Now comes the real test of faith. You, the Christian, have (I assume) prayed for today’s bread. Will you now believe that what comes to you, much or little, is God’s answer, according to the promise of Matthew 6:33? And will you on that basis be content with it, and grateful for it?" Growing in Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2007) 190.

[16] A beautiful demonstration of God's radical love and grace toward those who break the eighth commandment is found in the story recorded in Luke 19:1–10 of Jesus’ encounter with a wealthy Jewish businessman named Zacchaeus who was well known for being a thief. Jesus does not condemn him for his greed and stealing; instead, he forgives him and offers him a new life. In response, Zacchaeus says, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." The good news is that the greedy and thieves can be washed clean, made new, and set forth on a new lifelong journey in which they flourish by honoring the sacredness of all they earn and own through their work.