Thou shalt not steal. Exodus 20:15
Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The eight commandment condemns manstealing and slave dealing, and forbids wars of conquest. It condemns theft and robbery. It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life. It forbids overreaching in trade, and requires the payment of just debts or wages. It declares that every attempt to advantage oneself by the ignorance, weakness or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the books of heaven. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 309)
Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws, are guilty of robbery toward God. And they are robbing their fellow men also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short....The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good. (Christ's Object Lessons, 346)
Reflection: Often we think of stealing only in a monetary sense; However, to steal because we could have helped someone in need, but didn't, is for most, a new thought. Today, let us make better choices in our temperance.
Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The eight commandment condemns manstealing and slave dealing, and forbids wars of conquest. It condemns theft and robbery. It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life. It forbids overreaching in trade, and requires the payment of just debts or wages. It declares that every attempt to advantage oneself by the ignorance, weakness or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the books of heaven. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 309)
Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws, are guilty of robbery toward God. And they are robbing their fellow men also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short....The Lord holds us guilty when by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good. (Christ's Object Lessons, 346)
Reflection: Often we think of stealing only in a monetary sense; However, to steal because we could have helped someone in need, but didn't, is for most, a new thought. Today, let us make better choices in our temperance.
RSS Feed
