And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.—Genesis 1:26–31

“If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution."—Exodus 22:1–6

Therefore the 8th Commandment is unique. It protects property and possessions. By implication, we are also right to think it protects another person’s time and talents and opportunities—everything over which people have been given stewardship. 

Without the 8th Commandment, therefore, the Ten Commandments would not cover all aspects of life. 

We would have God’s instructions protecting worship, life, marriage, family and truth. But where would the Ten Commandments tell us what we should do with our possessions and our talents and opportunities? Yes, the first four commandments would instruct us in the worship of God, but beyond such worship, would we be expected to achieve anything beyond mere subsistence living? Would we be expected just to act as the animal kingdom does: eat, sleep, bear offspring, and die, with no other achievements to show the excellence of the human race created in the image of God? 

But the 8th Commandment implies that we have property to care for. Therefore it is the 8th Commandment that sets us apart from the animal kingdom as property owners and those who have been given stewardship of possessions. In that way the 8th Commandment relates to most of our work activity for most of our earthly lifetimes.

If human beings were all alone in the universe, without any accountability to any God, then people might assume that “society” or government should take the property away, lest people use it for their own selfish purposes. This is the view of Communist societies. 

But if God himself has commanded, “You shall not steal,” and if in that commandment God himself establishes a system of private property, then it immediately follows that we are accountable to him for how we use that property. Scripture views us as stewards who will have to give an account of our stewardship. This is because, ultimately, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).

We now have greater insight into the wisdom of God in the 8th Commandment. Private ownership of property, which is established by God implies responsible stewardship and accountability for the use of that property. Once I realize that God commands others not to steal my land or my ox or my donkey, or my car or my laptop, then I realize that I have an individual responsibility for how those things are used. I have been entrusted with these things by the God who created the universe, and I must act as a faithful “steward” to manage what he has entrusted to me. 

This idea of stewardship includes much more than merely physical possessions and land. God has also entrusted us with time, talents and opportunities. We have these things as a stewardship from God as well, and we are accountable for how we use them. 

Here we see the dehumanizing evil of Communism. Karl Marx said, “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in a single sentence: Abolition of private property.” 

But if government takes away the right to own property, then I am no longer free to act as a steward in deciding how that property is to be used, for I can no longer control the use of that property. 

And governments that prohibit private property trap their people in poverty forever—communist countries (North Korea, Cuba, Russia and Eastern Europe under Communist China under earlier Communism—pre-1978)

There is another implication to this idea of stewardship of private property. If God entrusts me with something, then he expects me to do something with it, something worthwhile, something that he finds valuable. This is evident from the very beginning when God placed Adam and Eve on the earth. He said …

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. 

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion … over every living thing that moves on the earth.”—Genesis 1:26–28

The Hebrew word translated “subdue” (Hebrew kabash) means to make the earth useful for human beings’ benefit and enjoyment. God was entrusting Adam and Eve, and by implication the entire human race, with stewardship over the earth. And God wanted them to create useful products from the earth, for their benefit and enjoyment and benefit. (That’s what “subdue the earth” means.)

This implies that God wanted Adam and Eve to discover and create and invent products from the earth 

• at first, perhaps, simple structures in which to live and store food,
• and later, more complex forms of transportation such as carts and wagons,
• then eventually modern homes and office buildings and factories, as well as cars and airplanes—the entire range of useful products that could be made from the earth.
• God gave to human beings—ability to create value in world—didn’t exist before.

Example: small plastic disk, worth 5 cents

Stewardship of the earth implies this kind of productivity. Stewardship of resources implies the expectation of human achievement & human flourishing. When God entrusts us with something, he expects us to do something worthwhile with it. (This is reaffirmed famously in the Parable of Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).

Therefore the 8th Commandment gives (1) the opportunity for human achievement (by entrusting property to us), (2) the expectation of human achievement (by making us accountable stewards), and (3) the expectation of human enjoyment of products made from the earth, with thanksgiving to God.

God does not want us to create wonderful products from the earth merely so that we would have more temptations to avoid, but so that we would have more products to enjoy, with thankfulness to him.

Now human flourishing includes more than material inventions—it includes art and music and literature, and the complex and wonderful relationships we find in home and church and community. (I’m not focusing on those today.) But all of those activities still depend in some measure on products produced from the earth—food to sustain life, construction materials to build houses and buildings with, furnaces and air conditioners to make the buildings comfortable, and cars and airplanes to travel and enjoy fellowship with friends and family, and an computer-driven email network to arrange where and when to meet!

And so God gave human beings an innate desire, a drive to understand and to create from the earth. This drive is amazingly powerful and it is unlimited. Rabbits and squirrels, birds and deer, are content to live in the same kinds of homes and eat the same kinds of food for thousands of generations. But human beings have an innate desire to explore, to discover, to understand, to invent, to create, to produce—and then to enjoy the products that can be made from the earth. This innate human drive to subdue the earth has never been satisfied throughout the entire history of mankind. This is because God created us not merely to survive on the earth but to flourish.

God has created us with very limited needs (food, clothing, shelter) for our physical survival, but he has also created us with—and I want to be careful that you understand how I mean this—God has created us with limited needs but unlimited wants for new and improved products.

Example: Cell phones. For many centuries, human beings did not know that they wanted cell phones, because such things did not exist. (In fact I lived quite happily without a cell phone for about 40 years of my life, but now I have one. It’s very useful—but it’s also enjoyable! I think it is included in 1 Timothy 6:17, where Paul says that God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” I think the “everything” includes cell phones.

The same is true of electric light bulbs, plastic water bottles, gas furnaces, air conditioners, automobiles, computers and airplane travel. For thousands of years, human beings did not know they wanted these things, because nobody knew they could be made. But human achievement continues to progress, and thereby human beings give more and more evidence of the glory of our creation in the image of God. With such inventions we demonstrate creativity, wisdom, knowledge, skill in use of resources, care for others who are distant (through use of a telephone or by email), and many other God-like qualities. And I think we should enjoy these inventions and give thanks to God for them!

Example: Airplane
Not: “Forgive me Lord, for being a sinful materialist and using all these resources from your earth”
But: “Thank you Lord, for this amazing invention, this airplane—and thank you for putting petroleum in the earth that could be made into jet fuel to power this airplane—this is amazing, Lord! Thank you, thank you!” 
And thinking, “This is so much fun!” Not, “please forgive me for enjoying this too much.”

I want to change the way we view ordinary things—coat, car, grocery store, phone—with amazement for God’s goodness.

What is driving this insatiable human desire to flourish on the earth? I don’t think we should just dismiss this drive as greedy materialism or sin. It can be distorted by selfishness and sin, but the drive to create and produce and enjoy useful products ultimately comes from a morally good God-given instinct that he placed within the human race before there was any sin in the world at all, when he commanded us to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over all of it.

In addition, ownership of property motivates people to create, invent, and produce, because they have hope of keeping and enjoying what they earn. Therefore the ownership of property, which is implied by the 8th Commandment is essential for human flourishing. Without ownership of property, people would not have the hope of enjoying the fruit of their labor—and so would not be motivated to create, produce, flourish. God in his wisdom gave a command that laid the foundation for human flourishing throughout all ages of human existence on the earth.

Scottish professor of moral philosophy Adam Smith, in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations (p.581, 1994 ed.) explained why the hope of enjoying the fruits of one’s labor inspires people to be productive and lifts entire nations out of poverty:

That security which the laws in Great Britain give to every man that he shall enjoy the fruits of his own labor, is alone sufficient to make any country flourish. ... The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance ... capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity.

Plants and animals show a measure of God’s glory by merely surviving and repeating the same activities for thousands of years, while human beings glorify God by achieving much more than mere survival. We glorify God by understanding and ruling over the creation and then producing more and more wonderful goods from it, for our enjoyment, and with thanksgiving to God. God is the one who “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1Timothy 6:17). Not to ask forgiveness for enjoying, but to enjoy!

And “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:4).

Now here’s the application to business: Businesses make all this human flourishing possible. More than families, churches, governments, schools, hospitals, clubs, or any other organizations, new and better products are invented and produced by businesses. Businesses are the main social structure that brings about human economic flourishing on the earth. 
If you work in a business, you are making or distributing or selling products that help other people ...

• that help them eat and sleep and be healthy
• to help them learn and communicate
• that help them enjoy family and friends
• that help them enjoy the wonderful resources of God’s amazing Earth.

In other words, if you work in a business, your work is doing good for other people. You are doing “good works,” and after we are saved, the Bible tells us that we are to do good works:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.—Ephesians 2:10

I realize that the Bible gives warnings against loving material things too much:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you."—Hebrews 13:5

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. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.—1 Timothy 6:9–10

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.—Matthew 6:24

And I strongly disagree with the “health and wealth gospel” that teaches if you have enough faith—or if you just give enough money to a certain ministry—then God will make you prosperous. Jesus was poor and Paul was poor and Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you” when he healed the man lame from birth (Acts 3:6). And James said, “has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5). I’m certainly not saying, I am emphatically not saying, that if you are faithful Christian God will make you rich. Often he will not.

But I’m also not saying that prosperity is in itself evil. It brings temptations and dangers, but I think it is still basically a good thing, and in itself it is part of what God intended for us as creatures made in his image. In warning about the dangers of prosperity, I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater

Paul also warned against the opposite of materialism—a false asceticism, promoted in the early church by people who were constantly speaking against the enjoyment of material things that God has placed in this world:

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"  (referring to things that all perish as they are used)-- according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.—Colossians 2:20–23

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.—Philippians 4:12–13

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.—1 Timothy 6:17–18

And so I think that the command “You shall not steal,” when viewed in the context of the entire Bible’s teachings on stewardship, implies that God created us not merely survive but to achieve much and to flourish on the earth. And to flourish with enjoyment, abounding in thanksgiving to God.

When I speak about the goodness of producing and enjoying cell phones and cars and airplanes and air conditioning, another question arises: what about the poor nations of the earth, where people do not have the opportunity to enjoy these things?
In the nations of the world where the Bible has been the main influence on people’s moral values, and where people have believed in private property, and the moral goodness of developing the resources of the earth, poverty is less common. (See The Poverty of Nations, pp. 318–325.) In addition, people in these nations have more income, which enables them to be healthier and better educated, take better care of the environment, and have more choices of where they work, where they live, and where they travel.

And this is exactly why “business as mission” is so important: We send Christian books and teachers to train church leaders in poor countries. We send medical missionaries to heal people’s physical bodies. We send educational missionaries to help build schools to educate people’s minds. And we send business missionaries to heal the economic productivity and economic systems of poor nations, by word and by deed.

An important part of the task of business as mission must be to teach what I’ve been talking about today—the moral goodness of private ownership of property and economic productivity.

[SECTION SKIPPED BECAUSE SHORT ON TIME]

Recently I spent about three years researching and writing about solutions to poverty in poor nations. I did this in conjunction with an economics professor in my home church, Dr. Barry Asmus. The result was a book, The Poverty of Nations, published by Crossway books.

Our conclusion was that short-term aid is good because it can help meet urgent needs, but it will never provide a long-term solution.

If we send food to hungry people in a poor nation, it meets an urgent need, and they can eat. But it doesn’t solve the deeper problem, which is that the poor country is not producing enough of its own food. The long-term solution is for the country to produce enough food to feed its own people. The long-term solution is increased economic productivity.

If we send doctors and dentists and nurses to treat sick people in a poor nation, it meets an urgent need. People are healed. But it doesn’t solve the deeper problem, which is that the poor country is not producing enough of its own doctors and dentists and nurses to treat its own people. The long-term solution is increased economic productivity, which will make this possible.

In short, the only long-term solution to world poverty will come when nations are producing their own prosperity, not when they are forever dependent on other countries. Such a transition has happened in many countries (such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore) even in our lifetimes, and we believe it can happen in every country, if biblical principles are followed.

Now one broader application before I close: Obeying the 8th Commandment rightly is immensely challenging. Only someone made in the image of God can obey it, and even those redeemed by Christ never obey it perfectly in this age. 
Now someone might think “I’m not a shoplifter, or an embezzler or a thief. I don’t cheat on my taxes. I think I have been obeying the commandment, ‘You shall not steal.’”

But have you been a faithful steward? Faithful stewardship of what God entrusts to us requires wise use of all of our possessions and time and talents and opportunities.

Faithful stewardship requires use of immense wisdom and mature judgment in the complex balancing of multiple factors such as love of neighbor, care for one’s family, wise planning for the future, fear of God, desire to advance God’s Kingdom, and a desire to subdue the earth to the glory of God.

Grateful stewardship in obedience to the 8th Commandment also requires avoiding the temptations and sins connected with possessions, such as gluttony, greed, selfishness, materialism, and waste. It also requires that we avoid laziness, apathy and false asceticism. While self-interest is acceptable in biblical ethics, selfishness and greed are not acceptable, but are distortions of rightful self-interest.

And the stewardship requirements implied by the 8th Commandment are life-long. They begin in childhood, with the responsibility to care for one’s toys and small responsibilities, and they continue until the day of one’s death, when we must make wise choices regarding the disposition of any goods that we leaves behind.

Therefore who among us can say from his heart, “I know that I have always made right stewardship decisions. I know that God is pleased with how I’ve managed my resources. I’ve made judicious allocations of funds between giving to others, investing, saving, and using for my own present enjoyment. I have been a wise steward of all the intellectual, creative, artistic, and managerial opportunities and abilities that God entrusted to me. My talent has made 10 talents more”?

I doubt any living person could honestly say that today, for, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

Therefore the challenge of the 8th Commandment is immense. The immensity of the challenge should not discourage us, however. It should excite us that God has entrusted such a great challenge to us. It should excite us to know that God fills us with joy and delight as we seek by his power to accomplish these tasks.

Hidden within the simple words, “You shall not steal,” we discover something of the infinite wisdom of God. Through these words, God laid the foundation for ...