Foreword:
The following exerpt is taken from The Ten
Commandments by Arthur W. Pink
(BAKER BOOK HOUSE, 1994 GRAND RAPIDS, MI)
In this blog series I will work through this very
important article a paragraph at a time – asking my reader comprehension style
questions at the end. I have been much convicted by the writings of Pink and I
pray your walk will also be strengthened meditating on his teaching of
scripture …
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT PART III
Another way in which we rob God is by an unfaithful
discharge of our stewardship. That which God has entrusted to us may be just as
really outraged by our mismanagement as if we interfered with another's trust
or plundered our neighbor's goods. This commandment then requires from us that
we administer our worldly estate, be it large or small, with such industry as
to provide for ourselves and those dependent upon us. Idleness is a species of
theft. It is playing the part of the drone and compelling the rest of the hive
to support us. So prodigality is also a form of theft, since extravagance and
wastefulness are a spending of that substance which God has divided to us in
"riotous living." He who remains in secular employment that requires
him to work on the Lord's Day is robbing God of the time which ought to be
devoted to His worship. Before passing on it should be pointed out that one who
obtrudes himself into the Gospel ministry without being called of God in order
to obtain an easy and comfortable living is "a thief and a robber"
(John 10:1).
God has ordained that men should earn their bread by the
sweat of their brow, and with that portion which we thus honestly obtain, we
must be satisfied. But some are slothful and refuse to labor, while others are
covetous and crave a larger portion. Hence many are led to resort to the use of
force or fraud in order to gain possession of that to which they have no right.
Theft, in general, is an unjust taking or keeping to ourselves what is lawfully
another's. He is a thief who withholds what ought to be in his neighbor's
possession just as much as one who takes his neighbor's property from him.
Hence this commandment is grossly violated both by management and labor. If in
the past the poor have been wronged by inadequate wages, the scales have now
turned in the opposite direction, when employees often demand a wage that
industry cannot afford to pay them. If on the one hand it is right that a fair
day's work should receive a fair day's pay, it holds equally true that a fair
day's pay is entitled to a fair day's work. But where loafing obtains it does
not receive it.
1) What forms of stewardship do you think Pink is referring
to in the first sentence? Are you guilty or do you know cases where others have
been guilty of such theft?
2) When a person is lazy who can they be said to stealing
from and how? Think in terms of time, money, labour, effort, example and
provision.
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