"You shall not steal" (Deuteronomy 5:18). It was a Tuesday evening; my dad had brought several of his children to the church building for the weekly Catechism Classes. Because we had classes at different times, we needed to wait for each other. The intend was that we would complete our homework while not in class. On this night, my friend enticed me to join him on a trip to the local variety store. On the way, he instructed me on the finer arts of shoplifting. He left successfully; I left with a stern warning that next time I would leave by police escort. Desire! That is the issue this covenant word addresses. Desire for stuff; the love of things. Who is not faced with this temptation on occasion? The Bible repeatedly warns us about it. Paul tells us how foolish it is to fall for the devil's wiles, "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it" (1 Timothy 6:7). Many of Jesus' stories warn against the danger of this desire for wealth. Consider also the stories of Achan in Joshua 7 and Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Achan's story is during Israel's entrance into the land of promise. The Acts 5 story comes at the beginning of God's new people, the church. The two stories parallel each other. At these crucial moments of covenant history, God's people face the same danger: the desire for wealth. And then there is Judas, one of Jesus' twelve. How could he have fallen? He had preached the gospel, healed the sick, feed the poor, but his heart was in his wallet. As John would later comment, "he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it" (John 12:6). Like Cain, he refused to change course. In the end, the devil could take him; and take him he did. If we are not careful, we too will be taken. Paul also wrote, "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Timothy 6:7-10). How can we guard ourselves? It begins with putting God first. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). This is especially important while we are busy earning money. Ask yourself often, "Am I here to make money or to serve God in this place at this time?" It is a question of what's in first place in our lives: God or money? Serving both doesn't work. Putting God first leads to contentment. Paul also wrote, "But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (6:8). Desire for money and contentment are opposites here. I think we can go deeper. A lack of contentment with what we have suggests that God has done something wrong. He has not given me enough. Let us return to the covenant word, "You shall not steal". We could rephase it to say, "I may not claim for my own something that belongs to another." For the God follower this has implications for commerce and banking, for buying and selling, for saving and investing, for owning possessions and giving them away. It means employees should share in the profits they make. We are prohibited from manipulating someone else for the sake of personal gain. It prohibits the accumulation of goods by unjust means, or at the expense of other people. I suggest it says something about gambling which exploits people's greed. Moses undergirded this word with instructions on interest, pledges, bribes, correct weights and measures, moving a neighbour's property lines, as well as laws that protected the weak and poor from oppression, provided release for slaves and ensured the poor had access to the needs of life. The Bible offers another antidote to stealing. We seek God. Then we know God. C.S. Lewis wrote: "God loves us; not because we are loveable but because He is love; not because He needs to receive but because He delights to give." Again, from Paul, "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 through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Knowing God, we receive his grace and we become like him. We imitate him. If God is a giver, so are his children. Thus, not only is contentment the opposite of stealing, so is generosity. We lean into contentment as we share the gifts God has given us.

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