rdfs:comment
| - You shall not steal is one of the Ten Commandments, which are widely understood as moral imperatives by legal scholars, Jewish scholars, Catholic scholars, and Post-Reformation scholars. The book of Exodus describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by God to Moses, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, and later written on tablets by Moses. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV)
|
abstract
| - You shall not steal is one of the Ten Commandments, which are widely understood as moral imperatives by legal scholars, Jewish scholars, Catholic scholars, and Post-Reformation scholars. The book of Exodus describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by God to Moses, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, and later written on tablets by Moses. Though usually understood to prohibit the unauthorized taking of private property, this commandment is sometimes interpreted to apply more narrowly to the “stealing” of a person (kidnapping) or “stealing” of sex (rape). In either case, there is ample evidence to conclude that the unauthorized taking of private property was prohibited in ancient Jewish cultures and that stealing and greed were considered grave evils in early Christian cultures. The book of 1 Corinthians asserts that thieves, swindlers, and the greedy will be excluded from the kingdom of God as sure as adulterers, idolators, and the sexual immoral, but that those who leave these sins behind can be sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV) The command against stealing is seen as a natural consequence of the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The prohibition against desiring forbidden things is also seen as a moral imperative for the individual to exercise control over the thoughts of his mind and the desires of his heart.
|