And welcome to another Bible and business video series episode. I’m Bill English and I’m the publisher here at Bible and Business and I want to thank you for joining me today. We are in the fourth of a 30 part series right now. Ah from my book biblical wisdom for business leaders. 30 sayings from Proverbs.
So what I did was I wrote a book and applied it to business leadership from the 30 sayings in Proverbs chapter 22, verse 17, all the way through the end of chapter 24, which is really verse 34. And so there’s 30 sayings there, I wrote the book, I applied it to business leaders and business owners. And today is the part four of this 30 part series. And the title of today’s episode is do Not Steal. So before we get started today however, I just like to have you head over to Bible andbusiness.com check out my website and of course look at you’re welcome to participate in my Facebook page, my LinkedIn page, and my Twitter handle.
But you’re also welcome to email me, Bill at bible. Andbusiness.com it’s not uncommon for somebody who watches a video or listens to this podcast to get a hold of me and say, hey, here’s what’s happening in my business or here’s what’s happening with my career and we kind of talk it through, I pay it forward with people. And so if you’d like to just talk about a situation in business with me, I’m happy to have that conversation with you. So let’s go ahead and get started. We’re going to look at the topic of not stealing.
And this really comes in two different proverbs. One is from chapter 22 versus 28, and the other one is chapter 23, verses ten and eleven. Let’s read them both. 22 28 reads like this, do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors. Okay.
And chapter 23, ten and eleven says this, do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is strong and he will plead their cause against you. So with these two sayings, I think our attention is directed back really towards protecting the poor. And you got to remember that this is an agrarian society, so protecting the fields of the widows and the fatherless is a common theme in Proverbs. And you can see some of the citations there on the slide and that’s because when you’re economically disadvantaged with limited financial resources, it was going to be difficult to have someone represent you in legal disputes. And so people coming in and moving boundary stones, they didn’t have fences back then, they didn’t have GPS, so they would set up these stones that obviously could be moved.
And so when you moved the stone, you were actually stealing or taking land. So let’s say that that the field next to you has 40 acres and you have 40 acres. And over the next two or three years, you move the stones maybe 100ft each year so that no one really notices. And over time you maybe pick up one or two or three acres that way and you’re basically incrementally stealing land from the other person. And when you do that, it’s really difficult to prove.
And if you are a widow or your fatherless, it really becomes economically almost you’re almost unable to hire the legal help that you need in order to even take the matter to court. So under Mosaic Law, tribal territories were set by sacred lot and they were not to be moved. And so moving that ancient boundary stone here or moving an ancient landmark and basically entering the fields of the Fatherless by moving the landmark so that you had more land and they had less land, that is a sin. And at least in verse eleven, it says, for their redeemer is strong. God’s going to know about it and he’s going to bring the case against you if you do this.
So we need to understand that this is a form of stealing, moving the ancient boundary stones. But in the larger topic of stealing, we need to first understand that this violates our relationship with God and it violates our relationship with our fellow man. So stealing isn’t just about I want this and what you have, I want, so I’m going to take it from you. It’s really first and foremost a violation of relationship. And then secondly, robbery or stealing expresses discontent with God’s provision and disregard for his generosity to others.
So if God has given to others more than what he’s given to you and I, and we think that we deserve it, and then we go and steal it from them. Kind of the Robin Hood thing, robbing from the rich and giving it to the poor, there is a flavor in there where we’re actually expressing discontent with God’s provision for us and God’s provision for the other person. I also want to just make a note here that stealing betrays our love for materialism that is really antithetical to our covenant relationship with God. What we have is a result of God’s generosity and our love should be reserved for God and for others. We really shouldn’t be loving the material things that we have.
And finally, as is pretty much commonly known, stealing is a violation of private property. Moving a boundary stone not only robs what rightfully belongs to the other, but also reduces the other’s ability to provide for his family. So going back to my illustration of moving the boundary stone, say 100ft every year, and after three to five years, maybe you picked up another two or three acres, you’re also limiting what that other person has in order to provide for his family. So it’s selfish and it’s wrong and it’s not something that should be part of the Christian life. Now just a few more notes here.
When it comes to business.
Those who steal intellectual property, this has intellectual property in view. This whole thing about not moving an ancient boundary stone set up, in other words, not stealing, this is very much in view in terms of covering intellectual property. So one method of stealing, which is becoming very common in our churches, is plagiarism. And this is where a pastor takes a sermon that has been preached by somebody else and he preaches it for his own and he doesn’t give credit where credit is due. It’s one thing to say, I’m going to preach the sermon by G.
Campbell Morgan or by Martin Lloyd Jones or by John Calvin or by just put in the name. And I just want you all to know that I’ve put some of my material in, but I’ll let you know when I’m using the others material. I don’t think anybody has a problem with that. But if you just say, I’m going to grab this sermon preached by Andy Stanley, you know, 40 years ago, and I’m going to preach it as my own, that’s not only a form of stealing, it’s also a form of lying. You’re saying to the congregation, this is my work, when it really isn’t.
And so you really want to stay away from that. And if you’re a pastor who happens to be watching this, I’m just going to say, do your own material. Do you don’t do somebody else. And if you’re accustomed to taking somebody else’s sermon notes or major sections of another person sermon and presenting it as your own, then you need to really take a long step back and ask the Lord, am I stealing and am I lying? And then I think you need to respond as God tells you.
So not only is this stealing happening in the church in terms of intellectual property, but it also happens in business. And it happens in business most often when we take ideas from somebody else and we present it as our own idea, we don’t want to do that. If somebody else comes up with the idea, then we need to be the ones to say, hey, this is a great idea, but it wasn’t mine, it was this other individual’s idea. We need to give credit where credit is due. So my final thought here is let’s become content with what God has given to us materially, both in amount and in quality.
Let’s rejoice when we reflect on our covenant relationship with God, because it is he who gives us the ability to create wealth. And I just want to stop there for a second. God gives some people the ability to create much larger sums of wealth than other people, and we need to be content with that. We need to be okay with it. That some people just seems like whatever they have turns to gold.
We may not be that way, but we need to be content with that. And we need to be okay with God’s provision for us. So I’m going to continue reading now. Who gives us the ability to create wealth and rewards us according to the abilities he has given us? So let’s trust god’s sovereignty regarding his provision for us.
Let’s present our work product faithfully and honestly. Let’s give credit where credit is due. Let’s be careful not to move an ancient boundary stone. Let’s not steal. Now, in our next episode next week we’re going to be looking at proverbs chapter 22, verse 29, and we’re going to look at this idea that competence wins every time.
So until next week, I want to thank you for joining me today. I’m bill english, the publisher here at bible and business, and I hope that you’ll come back next week for our next episode on competence. Until then, I hope you go out and make it a great week. Take care.