Pastor Ben teaches why stealing is fundamentally against the teachings of Jesus, emphasizing that it reflects a lack of trust in God’s provision and a selfish desire to take more for oneself at the expense of others. It highlights the Christian values of community, mutual support, and the ethic of working for the common good. Key points include the importance of being useful through labor, sharing resources with those in need, and finding one’s role within the Christian community. References to scriptures such as Ephesians 4:28 and Titus 3:14 underscore the message that believers are called to live productive lives to help others, embodying the teachings of Jesus.
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Pastor Ben Willey
Excerpt from “The Way”
Video Transcript:
why does stealing violate the way of Jesus? Why is it so against the way of Jesus? We know it is, right? Anyone knows there are ten commandments, and we know stealing is not a good thing. In our own hearts, the moral code, we know, hey, that’s not right, but why?
What’s wrong with stealing? What does stealing violate? The first thing I think is, because stealing says what God has given me is not enough. I should have more. I should have more than what God has allowed. Whether that’s through the leadership of my company or through, through the leadership of my country and the taxes that are taken, I should have more that God has allowed.
I should have more than what my social security gives me. I should have more than what I’m given by allowance by my parents. I should have more than what God has given. And that the means of getting those more is not earning but taking. I think that’s the first deep value of the way of Christ that’s violated by stealing.
The second is very simply, stealing says, I am more important than you. You should have less of that, and I should have more, so I’m going to take it. My company should have less, I earn them more, so I should find a way to take some more. The government, boy, don’t they have enough money, I’m going to find a way so that I get a bigger piece of the pie through my dealings.
But that’s not the way of Jesus, right? That’s not how his discipleship, discipling under him will function. The community ethic in the kingdom of God following this rabbi is that the church is an organism that’s, it’s not in competition and taking from each other. It’s not a survival of the fittest. It’s not, I need to get more.
And that person needs to get less. It’s a sense of a body working together. And so like, okay, you need more blood going to send more blood to that organ because that one’s in need. Oh, we need, this one’s got a cut here. I got to send more white blood cells to that spot because that spot’s in need. It’s a way of sharing because we’re all in this together.
The way of Jesus is not the survival of the fittest. It is the belief that there is enough to go around. And the rabbi will provide what we need. Second thing that we’re called to in Ephesians 4, 28, says be useful. Work with your hands. Labor. Do some work. Uh, Titus 3, 14 hits on this as well. It says our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
Literally, talking about here is do more work so that you can earn more money so that you can help more people. I think that’s the simple text that we’re dealing with here. I think that there’s other resources that, of course, that we have than just our physical labor and our finances, our researches, sources, but time, attention, love, gifting.
But what we’re supposed to do with those is not. Uh, to, to put it under a bushel, um, uh, Robert Mulholland says that spiritual formation is becoming like Jesus for the sake of others. We are to be useful and this ethic is lived out under this rabbi of Jesus Christ. It’s lived out within this community of taking care of others that we are called to do work.
Now some of you work too much. Others of you. Don’t work enough. And here’s, here, here’s my, my fear is talking about this. Be useful is some of you are walking in here of like, I don’t know if I have one more minute of my day to do more work. And this is the only moment I have not been with my children or not been at my job.
I’m sitting in here and you’re saying, do more work. I don’t think Paul’s talking to you in that way, but there’s others of you that there’s, That, that are not doing all that you are called to do. You’re not living out your, your function of God and, and, and you. The hours on the TV and the video games just keep adding up and up and up and, and you can keep telling yourself, well this is just self-care, but you know, you’re called to more than this and, and, and, and we’re called to be a part of something.
And this following of Jesus is not just sitting back and watching our Jesus, it’s being with him. It’s entering the places he’s entered. It’s loving the things that he loves. It’s being Like him in our environments Doug lindow last week. I think do we have this slide? I should have checked this Yeah, doug lindow at the thing where uh, we voted and have mike come in our our lead pastor And and he challenged all of us I wrote this down, as he said, I thought it was so meaningful.
He said, I want you everyone to write this down and um, I don’t know if anyone else did, but I sure did. It was a moment for me. He said, write these two things down. This is the first one. I will find and fill my roles within the body. I’m committed to the unity of the body. Just those two simple statements.
I remember just as Doug had had us do that and I was looking at a piece of paper and I’m just like, I don’t know. I’m called to something. I’m called because I’m a part of this group of people that are following the way, the way of the rabbi, the way of Christ himself. And I literally then ask the question, Okay.
What’s my job in this? How can I do this for the sake of the body? This is, this is what Paul is teaching these Gentiles. He’s saying, hey, it used to be survival of the fittest and everyone just go get for themselves. But not, not when we’re following this Jesus. Not if you’ve been taught in Him. In Him we all got a job.
And, and nobody retires from it, right? In him, we all got a job and no one’s too young for it. In him, we’ve all got this responsibility for the unity and building up of the body. And, and lastly, going into the third thing is saying, to share with those in need. This simple explanation, Paul is writing and you can almost feel the pen as he’s, as are the quill that he’s writing.
And he’s like, Oh, I’m telling these Gentiles, what does it mean to follow this rabbi? What does it mean to walk in this way? And he’s like. Share. It means what you get is not for you. And there is a sense of resource that’s talking about here, uh, that appears to be financial. You don’t take stuff, you earn stuff.
But why do you, why do you earn? It’s to share 2100 times in the Bible. Jesus talks about the poor. That’s not a social agenda. My goodness. It’s not a political agenda. It’s not anything but trying to live out the way of the rabbi. Jesus said the poor you will always have with you. Right the consciousness in the New Testament to take care those within the body those with that are not in the body To take care with those who are in need in Rome right after And he’s in a Roman jail writing this right and so right after The church starts to expand in Rome and they’re like hey This is this way the way that everyone’s talking about we need to squash it But they had to literally come a come up and talk as leaders saying hey We want to squash the way of this rabbi.
We want to squash the way of Jesus, but here’s what we got to figure out What are we gonna do with the poor? Because the people of the way are taking care of the poor right and left and we don’t know what we’re going to do with the poor because they are solving that problem. Secondly, the primary Christo centric reason to earn more money and get more stuff is to take care of people.
Third, this leads to a question. If you, a simple question of where am I blessed? Where do I have? What, what am I given? Has God blessed me with a big house? Awesome. The kingdom can use that house. God’s blessed you with like, man, you make a ton of money. That’s so cool. Don’t give it back. But give some of it away.
God’s blessed you with, um, just an incredible heart for children. Oh, be useful. Teach them. God’s given you a, a, a heart of, or given you time. And you’re sitting there like, hey, I, I’ve taken care of a lot of the needs. And I’m sitting there retired now. One of my favorite things about this church is y’all retired people work.
I love it. God’s blessed with the musical ability. God’s blessed with health. God’s blessed you with the gift of extroversion. God’s blessed you with the thoughtfulness of introversion. God’s given you a desire to pray, given you a heart for special needs. Where has God blessed you? Where has God invited you into to following him in this unique way?