Is it OK to steal?
So, is it OK to steal...sometimes? Most if not all followers of Jesus would say that it is not OK to steal...ever! God himself, blessed be He, said, "You will not steal." I mean, it is one of the 10 sayings or commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
But did you know that according to Jewish Oral Torah, which is an explanation of how to live out the written Torah (law), that all commandments must be suspended in order to save a human life with the exception of 3, idolatry, incest and murder.
Oral Torah says that one should prefer death over committing any of these three. So, I suppose that if one, on the brink of death, having exhausted EVERY and ALL other means of survival, including soup kitchens, benevolence ministries in churches, dumpster diving and begging, if one's very life depended upon whether or not he/she could steal a morsel of food, I suppose one would be acquitted.
But, come on! Most of us do not nor will not find ourselves in a situation like that! A situation in which we will find ourselves, however, might be, "hey, lend me that CD/DVD you have so I can make a copy of it!" or "Here in South America, computer software is way too expensive to buy in stores so you HAVE to buy it off the street!" How many of us copy songs, movies, software and pictures that clearly state that it is illegal to do so? And, how many of us bear the name of Jesus and still do these things?
If your life hangs in the balance, if your earthly existence will truly end, no more brain function, nor more pulse, no more life unless you copy that Eagles CD for your collection, then by all means, go ahead!
But if your life does not depend upon you breaking the law in order to survive, which it does not by the way, then think about this: "So because you are lukewarm, neither hot (a good thing) nor cold (also a good thing) I am about to spit you out of my mouth." -Revelation 3:16
Come on people! Do we want to be just like Jesus or is being mostly like Jesus good enough for you?
Shalom
But did you know that according to Jewish Oral Torah, which is an explanation of how to live out the written Torah (law), that all commandments must be suspended in order to save a human life with the exception of 3, idolatry, incest and murder.
Oral Torah says that one should prefer death over committing any of these three. So, I suppose that if one, on the brink of death, having exhausted EVERY and ALL other means of survival, including soup kitchens, benevolence ministries in churches, dumpster diving and begging, if one's very life depended upon whether or not he/she could steal a morsel of food, I suppose one would be acquitted.
But, come on! Most of us do not nor will not find ourselves in a situation like that! A situation in which we will find ourselves, however, might be, "hey, lend me that CD/DVD you have so I can make a copy of it!" or "Here in South America, computer software is way too expensive to buy in stores so you HAVE to buy it off the street!" How many of us copy songs, movies, software and pictures that clearly state that it is illegal to do so? And, how many of us bear the name of Jesus and still do these things?
If your life hangs in the balance, if your earthly existence will truly end, no more brain function, nor more pulse, no more life unless you copy that Eagles CD for your collection, then by all means, go ahead!
But if your life does not depend upon you breaking the law in order to survive, which it does not by the way, then think about this: "So because you are lukewarm, neither hot (a good thing) nor cold (also a good thing) I am about to spit you out of my mouth." -Revelation 3:16
Come on people! Do we want to be just like Jesus or is being mostly like Jesus good enough for you?
Shalom
Comment
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Comment by Bonnie Garner on June 14, 2009 at 9:25pm - Once again, Mark, you have made us stop and think. So often we go through life on auto pilot and don't really think about what we do or the consequences. As long as we aren't hurting anybody else (or so we think), we feel we are doing a pretty good job. It is very easy to get caught up in the world and do what "everybody else is doing".
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