We are now in the second part of the eighth commandment.
Thou shalt not steal.
Just four little words.
Yet there is such great truth, so much involved in just these four words,
in just this one commandment, that this is the second part of our study
regarding this eighth commandment.
Now, the command is, in the first instance, a recognition of the rights of property.
Remember that.
Property is not theft.
God gives man, God gives you, gives me the right to own property.
Man is, by his creation, able to possess,
and to deny the possibility of possessing property is to make theft impossible.
In the last analysis, all possessions belong to God.
Never forget that.
Everything that you and I have, all possessions,
we say, of course, that this is mine.
You proudly boast of your possessions and say, this is mine,
or you say, I have accumulated this or have accumulated that,
but in reality, in the final analysis, all possessions belong to God,
as all wealth is created by God.
Thus, recognizing the rights of property,
the commandment forbids any violation of these rights for illustration.
Let it be taken for granted that men do possess the things which they call their own.
It will once be seen that there are only three ways
in which man can come into possession of anything, anything that you have,
anything that you possess, any property that you might have.
You have come in possession of that which you possess by one of three ways,
either by the free gift of another person,
or by toil, which receives something as legitimate return,
or by theft, having taken it from someone else,
something that belongs to another person.
The commandment recognizes the first two and forbids the third,
and the reason for this will be discovered by an examination of the three.
The first two are based upon the essential laws of human interrelation,
namely, love and work.
The first of such is the law of love,
the gift bestowed by one upon another, or by another upon one,
is an expression of love and becomes the property of the one to whom it is given.
It is something earned by toil, by hard work,
for the possession of which the work done has been a legitimate return.
You have been paid for it.
You have received a legitimate return for it,
in that it has also benefited the person who received it.
That, too, is property rightfully acquired.
Theft violates both of these laws.
The thief cannot love the person from whom he steals.
Know that.
It's very difficult for the person from whom the theft is made to love the thief.
The thief violates the law of toil by attempting to possess without toil,
without work, and thus to take from another something for which
no equivalent return is made.
And thus the commandment recognizes the true rights of property,
the rights of love and work, and forbids the possession of anything
except upon the condition of obedience to these laws.
That's the reason I say to you, remember, broadly speaking, broadly stated,
the Eighth Commandment forbids all forms of communism,
which deny man's right to property.
God clearly states, man can possess.
You have a right to property.
You have a right to possession if you have gotten it the right way.
But it must be gotten either by love, by gift, or by toil, by work.
But what something, and to me this is very beautiful,
if you turn to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, the 28th verse,
let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor,
working with his hands a thing which is good, that he may have whereof why.
Oh, oh, here's a stickler.
Here is something that's going to be hard for somebody to take.
That's somebody who's worked hard.
You've earned that which you've gotten.
Someone may have given you a substantial gift,
and you've got it all tucked away, you know, that little nest egg of yours.
You've got it all put away, as someone has said of another.
You have the first nickel they ever earned.
Oh, that somebody you may not feel as though you've been hoarding anything,
but as sure as you're born,
you're one of the biggest hoarders of property,
of possessions of anybody in your block, of anybody in your hometown,
of all of your relatives.
God gives man the right of possession for one reason.
It's the scripture.
I'm giving the word of God.
That he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.
You said I never dreamed it was in the Bible.
Sure it is. Read it.
That's God's word.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians, the 28th verse.
God gave you, God blessed you.
You have the right to possessions for one purpose and one purpose only,
that you may give to him that hath need.
Do you want to know something?
This wonderful plan of economics that God has for men and women is one of the greatest.
And the reason that we're in the mess that we're in nationally, internationally,
and even with ourselves is because we're living contrary to God's word.
Even our plan for economics, we're living contrary to God's wonderful plan.
It was never in God's plan that a government was supposed to support its people.
God's real plan was the way those precious old fashioned Missouri farmers used to do it.
Oh, you say you're old fashioned, Miss Cooman.
You think so?
Not one of them ever thought about the government supporting them.
Why, I don't think that there was a farmer in Missouri way back there when Papa was living
that ever got a check from the government,
ever sat and waited for that day on the calendar when the government would be sending him his allotment.
No.
Those old Missouri farmers helped each other out.
And I tell you if the crops were bad, why,
the one who had a little more than the other would share what he had with his neighbor.
And when it came time to harvesting, why, they didn't have to have unions.
They had an unwritten union among themselves.
They never thought of paying somebody for coming in and doing the work.
Why, when it was time for Papa to harvest, Mr. Borksted and Mr. Tebencamp
and all the neighbors would come over and help Papa do all of his harvesting.
Then when his crops were all harvested and they got the wheat in,
then they'd all go over to Mr. Borksted and they had such a good time doing it.
Honestly, I can remember Mama telling what good times they had.
The women, why, they never thought of hiring women to cook the meals.
No, they had no problem about how they can get their meals cooked.
And do you want to know something?
Those women in those days never had nervous breakdowns.
They didn't have to have psychiatrists.
Why, my word, I don't think they even knew they had nerves.
They were too busy baking biscuits.
They were too busy making cornbread.
They were too busy feeding those men of theirs who were out in the field working.
And those men were working 14, 16 hours a day.
Papa got up 4 o'clock in the morning.
They tell me that he even put lanterns on his binders and on his farm equipment
and worked after the sun went down and after it got dark at night,
especially if he thought it was going to rain the next day, and he had to get his weed in.
They never thought about nervous breakdowns.
They never thought about psychiatrists.
That's right.
Sure, and happy.
Oh, they were happy.
If one needed something, they shared it with his neighbor.
If one had more than the other, they shared it with the one who needed it.
My friend, that's God's word.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor,
working with his hands, the thing which is good,
that he may have whereof to give to him that hath not.
God has blessed you.
God has prospered you, not that you might hold it unto yourself
and use it selfishly, but he's given it to you to give
and to use in helping those who are less fortunate.
Oh, God's plan of economics is one of the greatest in the world,
and we need to get back to it.
I'm telling you people, that's why.
Do you know something right here in the office?
I just had a telephone call, and a man said,
Ms. Kuhnman, would you please, if you have somebody who needs a job,
would you please contact them?
I have no plea.
We had three such calls in one week.
We contacted every man that we knew who was receiving
a monthly allotment from the government.
Not one would take the job because he said that it didn't pay
as much as the paycheck he was getting from the government,
and he would make more by not doing anything,
and so we had to call the men back and say,
we're sorry, but we can't get anybody to take the job.
Because men are so spoiled, people are so spoiled now,
that they make more doing nothing.
I tell you, my poor papa and dear Mr. Borgstedt
and precious Mr. Temkamp back there would turn over in their graves
if they knew what was going on now.
And you cannot be happy.
You cannot be contented.
You cannot feel good on the inside.
You cannot have the blessing of God.
You cannot expect heaven's best if you are not living
according to God's rules and God's plan for man is to work.
And it's just like that.
I'm giving you the word of God.
This is it.
We are allowed to possess that we may pass on to others.
Now, somebody says, oh, Miss Cooman, I do.
I tell you, I take care of my wife's mother.
I always am amused at that.
A man will never say his mother-in-law.
My wife's mother and I take care of the grandmother
and all the rest of it.
I sure do my part.
Just a minute, Stella.
You may be stealing from the person who is more important
to you than any human being in the whole world.
You may not think of stealing a thing as small as a coffee bean.
You pride yourself in the fact that you have never stolen
and the thought of stealing is far removed from your mind.
And yet God's word teaches that in his great plan of economics
for man, if out of that which you are permitted to possess,
you are not giving him his part, then you are a thief.
You are a robber.
Will a man rob God?
He asks the question and then answers it.
Yet ye have robbed me.
I shall continue with God's great plan of economics
in our next heart to heart talk.
God bless you.