The Seventh Commandment

Next to our own persons and our wedded companions, our temporal treasures are the dearest to us. God designs protection for them also. He has commanded that no one damage or curtail the possessions of his neighbor. "To steal" signifies nothing else than to obtain another's property by unjust means. It briefly embraces every method in all lines of business, by which advantage is taken of a neighbor's disadvantage. Stealing is a wide-spread, universal vice. But it is so little regarded and seriously dealt with that it exceeds all bounds. Should all be executed who are thieves and yet resent being called so, the world would soon be desolate and there would not be executioners nor gallows enough. For, as I said, we must regard as stealing not only picking pockets and breaking into safes; stealing is also taking advantage at market, in the stores, in groceries, hotels and restaurants, in factories, in short, wherever business is transacted and money is exchanged for goods or labor.

We will illustrate this in a more forcible way for common people, that it may appear how godly we are. It is stealing when a man-servant or a maid-servant is unfaithful in duty and does, or permits, any injury which could easily have been avoided; or when he or she is otherwise indifferent and careless through laziness, negligence, or wickedness, annoying and inconveniencing master or mistress, and doing all wilfully—for I do not speak of taking advantage unintentionally or through oversight. In this way a servant can annually defraud the employer of a dollar, thirty or forty dollars or even more; which, if some one else had secretly taken, he would have been suspended by a rope. But the servant is even defiant and insolent, and no one dares to call him a thief. I may say the same of mechanics, workmen and day-laborers, all of whom act wantonly, knowing not how to cheat their employers enough. Besides, they are lazy and unfaithful in doing their work. All such are worse than secret thieves. Against the latter we can guard by locks and bolts, and, when they are caught, we can restrain them by punishment. But against the former no employer can be protected. None dare look upon them with suspicion or charge them with theft. No, ten times rather would the employer lose the money out of his purse. Here are neighbors, good friends, one's own domestics, to whom he looks for favors; and these are the first to defraud him.

In like manner, dishonesty is rampant and in full force at the market and in every-day business. In barter, the one deceives the other with inferior goods, false measures, unjust weights, counterfeit money, dexterous tricks, clever financiering and plausible tales. Again, one defrauds when he overcharges and takes advantage of his fellow-man.

Who can mention all the species of fraud? In short, thievery is a universal art, the largest guild on earth. Viewing the world in all its vocations, it is a universal den of thieves. Therefore, there are also men whom you may call gentlemen-robbers, land-grabbers and road-agents, quite above the safe-robber or pilferer of petty cash. These occupy seats of honor, are styled great lords and honorable, pious citizens, and, under the cloak of honesty, they rob and steal.

Yea, we might well let the lesser individual thieves alone if we could only arrest the great, powerful arch-thieves, with whom princes and rulers associate. They daily pillage not only a city or two, but all Germany. Yea, if brought to justice what would become of the head and protectress of all thieves, the holy See of Rome, with all her adherents, who has dishonestly appropriated to herself all the treasures of the world and holds them today in her grasp? Such is the way of the world that he who can publicly rob and steal runs at large in security and freedom, claiming honor from men, while the petty, sly thieves, guilty of only a small offense, must suffer, to contribute to the appearance of godliness and honor in the other class. Yet, the latter should know that before God they are the greater thieves, and that he will punish them as they merit.

Now, we have shown how far-reaching and inclusive is this commandment. It is truly necessary, then, to keep it before the lower classes of society; to explain it to them, restraining them in their wantonness. The wrath of God must ever be held up to them, even before their very eyes. Such preaching is rather for villains and rogues than for Christians, though it were more fitting that the judge, prison-keeper or executioner do this preaching. Let every one know, then, that he is under obligation, at the risk of incurring God's displeasure, not to harm his neighbor nor take advantage of him in any business transaction. But more than that, he is faithfully to protect his neighbor's property, and further his interests, especially if he takes remuneration for doing so.

He who wilfully disregards God's commandment in respect of these things may persist in his course and escape the law, but he shall not escape God's wrathful punishment. Although he may practice his defiance and arrogance for a long time, eventually he shall be a vagabond and a beggar, and suffer all calamity and misfortune. Now, it is the duty of you servants to care for the property of your master and your mistress, for which service you have your living. But you go your unjust ways, taking your wages as thieves, and expect to be respected as noblemen. Many such are there, who are insolent toward master and mistress, not willing to do them a service to protect their interests. But beware! What shall be your gain? When you come to a household of your own, God will recompense you with all kinds of misfortune. Where you have stolen or done harm you will have to pay for it thirty-fold.

So shall it be with mechanics and day-laborers. We are obliged to suffer now their intolerable insolence. They play the part of noblemen in the use of other people's possessions and intimate that they are to have whatever they demand. Let them overreach as long as they can. God will not forget his command. As they have served, so shall they be rewarded. He will not permit their prosperity to flourish; it shall surely wither. Success in life shall not be theirs. They shall never accumulate anything. If our government were well regulated, such wantonness might be effectually restrained, as in the time of the Romans. They promptly dealt with such offenders and others took warning.

A like fate shall be theirs who make of the free public market a place of extortion and robbery, where the poor are daily defrauded. New and famine-producing impositions are practiced. Every one misuses the market in his own wilful, proud and defiant way, as if it were his privilege and right to sell at any figure he chooses and no one could interfere. Let them practice their cheating, extortion and avarice. We trust in God, who will, when they have completed the measure of their extortion, pronounce their curse. Their garnered grain shall spoil, their vintage shall fail and their cattle shall die in the stall. For the dollar fraudulently gained, their entire possessions shall be consumed by rust and they will never enjoy them.

We have daily evidence that nothing stolen or dishonestly acquired contributes to prosperity. How many strain after wealth day and night and grow not a dollar richer! And even if wealth be accumulated, the possessor must suffer calamities which spoil his enjoyment of it and prevent its transmission to his children. But we do not heed the lesson; we go on unconcerned. Then God is compelled to punish us and teach us ethics in a different way. He permits one civil tax after another to be levied upon us, or a troop of soldiers is quartered upon us, who instantly empty our purses and safes to the last penny, and in addition show their gratitude by burning and destroying our homes and farms, and outraging and murdering our wives and children. In brief, however much you steal, twice as much will be stolen from you. Who falsely obtains, and gets by violence, will himself suffer similar treatment. For, since every one robs and steals from others, God is a master in punishing one thief by means of another, else what should we do for gallows and ropes for all that merited them?

He who will receive instruction knows that God has given this commandment and it is to be seriously regarded. To you who show your contempt for us, defrauding and robbing, we will submit. We will endure your insolence, and forgive, as the Lord's Prayer teaches. We know that the righteous shall not want, and that the greatest injury you do is to yourselves. But beware how you deal with the poor, of whom there are many at present. When there comes to you one who must live upon the pittance of his daily wage, and you inhumanly exact from and turn away him who should be the object of your pity, he will go away and in his sorrow and misery, because he can cry to none other for help, will cry to heaven. Beware, I say again, as carefully as you would beware of Satan. For that appeal of distress will be no light matter. It will be with power beyond you and all the world to sustain. It will reach God, who watches over hearts sorrowful and distressed, and he will avenge this their wrong. If you disregard that cry and defy God, consider whose wrath you have provoked. Then if success is yours, before all the world you may pronounce God and me liars.

We have now given sufficient warning and exhortation. Him who will not heed we will leave to be instructed by his own experience. But these truths should be brought home to the young, to teach them to shun the perverse ways of the multitude; to help them to regard God's commandment and avoid his wrath and punishment. Our duty is only to teach and reprove by the authority of God's Word. To civil authorities belongs the responsibility of restraining injustice. Their eyes should note the affairs of traffic and their voice should regulate them, so that the poor be not oppressed and harassed nor burden themselves with other men's sins.

Enough has been said on the definition of "stealing." The definition must not be too narrow. It must be applied to all our dealings with our neighbors. Summing up, as we did the other commandments: It forbids any conceivable wrong to our neighbor in depriving him of any part of his possessions or interfering with his enjoyment of them; it forbids consent to such wrong, even enjoining all possible prevention; it commands that we add to his possessions and advance his interests; and we are to relieve him in want by help and advice, whether he be friend or foe.

He who seeks and desires good works finds here ample opportunity in the things that are pleasing to God. And these works are accompanied by the richest blessings. For all we do in sincerity for the good of our neighbor, we shall be abundantly compensated. King Solomon teaches: "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto Jehovah, and his good deed will he pay him again." Prov 19, 17. Here we have the Lord of all wealth. His sufficiency can never fail and he will not suffer us to want. So we may enjoy in peace of conscience a hundred-fold more than we could acquire by unjust dealing. He who does not desire to be so blessed, will suffer sufficient wrath and ill fortune.