The eighth commandment: honest gain
The eighth commandment requires the lawful getting and furthering of our own and others' wealth and outward estate, and forbids whatever unjustly hinders them. Since everything belongs to God, we work honestly with what he has entrusted to us, guard our neighbour's goods, and share with the poor.
This week's questions
Which is the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment is, Thou shalt not steal.
Question 73
What is required in the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
Question 74
What is forbidden in the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbour's, wealth or outward estate.
Question 75
Last week the seventh commandment guarded our neighbour's purity; the eighth guards our neighbour's goods and livelihood. Both answers this week speak of our own estate and our neighbour's together.
Stewards of what is entrusted
The commandment does not despise property, but it first asks whose it is: "The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1). We are stewards, not owners, and so Question 74 speaks of the "lawful procuring and furthering" of wealth. In its first proof text Jacob, having made Laban's flocks increase many times over, asks when he may provide for his own household (Genesis 30:30). Paul says that whoever does not provide for his own household "has denied the faith" (1 Timothy 5:8), and the law tells Israel to help a countryman who has become destitute, "so that he can continue to live among you" (Leviticus 25:35). The next proof text reaches even to an enemy's goods:
If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.
Exodus 23:4-5
Deuteronomy adds that we must not ignore what a brother has lost, but keep it until he comes for it (Deuteronomy 22:1-4). The Larger Catechism lists among this commandment's duties "truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce", giving and lending freely as we are able and others need, a lawful calling and diligence in it Larger Catechism, Q. 141. The Heidelberg Catechism sums it up:
That I further my neighbor's good where I can and may, deal with him as I would have others deal with me, and labor faithfully that I may be able to help the poor in their need.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 111
Theft in many forms, and restitution
Stealing is wider than taking what is not ours by stealth. The Heidelberg Catechism counts as theft not only what the magistrate punishes but every trick to draw our neighbour's goods to ourselves, "whether by force or with show of right", such as false weights and measures and usury, and also "all covetousness, and all useless waste of his gifts" Q. 110. Scripture condemns dishonest scales (Proverbs 11:1), wages withheld from workers (James 5:4) and debts left unpaid (Psalm 37:21). Question 75's proof texts in Proverbs warn that a life given to pleasure, drink, gluttony and fantasies ends in poverty (Proverbs 21:17, 23:20-21, 28:19); so the Larger Catechism names idleness, prodigality and wasteful gaming among the ways we harm our own estate Q. 142. The same answer names "man-stealing", after Paul's list of those the law condemns (1 Timothy 1:10), and later Christians took up this teaching against the slave trade (see Abolition and social reform).
What has been wrongly taken is to be returned. Zacchaeus, meeting Jesus, said, "if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold" (Luke 19:8), and the Larger Catechism requires the "restitution of goods unlawfully detained". Question 75's last proof text turns the thief's hands into giving hands:
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.
Ephesians 4:28
The English pastor Matthew Henry puts it briefly: "Idleness makes thieves" Matthew Henry. Work is for our neighbour's need as well as our own living. The Catechism names no economic system; under any, the commandment asks us to earn honestly, pay fair wages, repay our debts and share with the poor. See also Vocation in the Reformed Faith course, and How should I think about money?, What is work for? and Must Christians tithe?
To ponder this week
Is there anything I hold that is not rightly mine, and what good can I do this week with what I have for someone in need? If something borrowed and never returned, or a debt put off, comes to mind, settle one this week. Then share something, however small, with one neighbour who needs it.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
According to Question 74, what does the eighth commandment require?
- Practice 2 of 6
In Exodus 23:4-5, a proof text of Question 74, what are we to do with an enemy's stray ox or donkey?
- Practice 3 of 6
What does the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 110, count as theft?
- Practice 4 of 6
According to Ephesians 4:28, why should one who used to steal now work with his own hands?
- Practice 5 of 6
What did Zacchaeus say he would do about what he had taken by cheating?
- Practice 6 of 6
Which is true of "man-stealing", which the Larger Catechism, Q. 142, forbids under the eighth commandment?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.