Friday of Trinity V - Devotion in semi-Exile

Lection for Friday after Trinity V 
1 Samuel 1:1-20      Galatians 5:1-26

It is my hope and prayer that you are enjoying this excursion into Luther’s Large Catechism. Today we continue the “first part” on the Ten Commandments, specifically, the “The Seventh Commandment.”

OK, read what Luther says.
        [First Part:] The Ten Commandments
            The Seventh Commandment

222 “You shall not steal.”

223 Next to our own person and our spouse, our temporal property is dearest to us. This, too, God wants to have protected. He has forbidden us to rob or pilfer the possessions of our neighbor. 224 For to steal is nothing else than to acquire another’s property by unjust means. In a few words, this includes taking advantage of our neighbor in any sort of dealing that results in loss to him. Stealing is a widespread, common vice, but people pay so little attention to it that the matter is entirely out of hand. If all who are thieves, though they are unwilling to admit it, were hanged on the gallows, the world would soon be empty, and there would be a shortage of both hangmen and gallows. As I have just said, a person steals not only when he robs a man’s strongbox or his pocket, but also when he takes advantage of his neighbor at the market, in a grocery shop, butcher stall, wine- and beer-cellar, work-shop, and, in short, wherever business is transacted and money is exchanged for goods or labor.

225 Let us make it a little clearer for the common people so that we may see how honest we are. Suppose, for example, that a man-servant or maid-servant is unfaithful in his or her domestic duty and does damage or permits damage to happen when it could have been avoided. Or suppose that through laziness, carelessness, or malice a servant wastes and neglects things to the vexation and annoyance of his master or mistress. When this is done deliberately — for I am not speaking of what happens inadvertently and unintentionally — a servant can cheat his employer out of thirty or forty gulden or more a year. If a thief had taken such sums he would be strangled with a noose, but the servant may even become defiant and insolent and dare anyone to call him a thief!

226 The same must be said of artisans, workmen, and day-laborers who act high-handedly and never know enough ways to overcharge people and yet are careless and unreliable in their work. All these are far worse than sneak-thieves, against whom we can guard with lock and bolt, or if we catch them we can deal with them so that they will not repeat the offense. But against the others no one can guard. No one even dares to give them a hard look or accuse them of theft. One would ten times rather lose the money from one’s purse. For these are my neighbors, my good friends, my own servants, from whom I expect good; but they are the first to defraud me. 227 Furthermore, at the market and everyday business the same fraud prevails in full force. One person openly cheats another with defective merchandise, false measures, dishonest weights, and bad coins, and takes advantage of him by underhanded tricks and sharp practices and crafty dealing. Or again, one swindles another in a trade and deliberately fleeces, skins, and torments him. Who can even describe or imagine it all? 228 In short, thievery is the most common craft and the largest guild on earth. If we look at mankind in all its conditions, it is nothing but a vast, wide stable full of great thieves.

229 These men are called gentlemen swindlers or big operators. Far from being picklocks and sneak-thieves who loot a cash box, they sit in office chairs and are called great lords and honorable, good citizens, and yet with a great show of legality they rob and steal.

230 Yes, we might well keep quiet here about various petty thieves in order to launch an attack against the great, powerful arch-thieves who consort with lords and princes and daily plunder not only a city or two, but all Germany. Indeed, what would become of the head and chief protector of all thieves, the Holy See at Rome, and all its retinue, which has plundered and stolen the treasures of the whole world and holds them to this day?

231 This, in short, is the way of the world. Those who can steal and rob openly are safe and free, unmolested by anyone, even claiming honor from men. Meanwhile the little sneak-thieves who have committed one offense must bear disgrace and punishment so as to make the others look respectable and honorable. But the latter should be told that in the eyes of God they are the greatest thieves, and that he will punish them as they deserve.

232 This commandment is very far-reaching, as we have shown. It is necessary, therefore, to emphasize and explain it to the common people in order that they may be restrained in their wantonness and that the wrath of God may be continually and urgently kept before their eyes. For we must preach this not to Christians but chiefly to knaves and scoundrels, though it might be more fitting if the judge, the jailer, or the hangman did the preaching. 233 Let every one know, then, that it is his duty, at the risk of God’s displeasure, not to harm his neighbor, take advantage of him, or defraud him by any faithless or underhanded business transaction. More than that, he is under obligation faithfully to protect his neighbor’s property and further his interests, especially when he takes remuneration for such services.

234 A person who willfully disregards this commandment may indeed get by and escape the hangman, but he will not escape God’s wrath and punishment. Though he pursues his defiant and arrogant course for a long time, still he will remain a tramp and a beggar and will suffer all kinds of troubles and misfortunes. 235 Now, you servants ought to take care of your master’s or mistress’s property, which enables you to stuff your craw and your belly. But you go your own way, take your wages like a thief, and even expect to be revered like noblemen. Many of you are even insolent toward masters and mistresses and unwilling to do them the favor and service of protecting them from loss. 236 But see what you gain. When you come into property yourself and have a house of your own — which God will let you acquire to your undoing — there will come a day of reckoning and retribution: for every penny you have taken and for every penny’s damage you have done you will have to pay back thirty-fold.

237 So will it be with artisans and day-laborers, from whom we are obliged to suffer such intolerable insolence. They act as if they were lords over others’ possessions and entitled to whatever they demand. 238 Just let them keep on boldly fleecing people as long as they can. God will not forget his commandment. He will pay them what they deserve. He will hang them not on a green gallows but on a dry one. They will neither prosper nor gain anything their whole life long. 239 Of course, if our government were well regulated, such insolence might soon be checked. The ancient Romans, for example, promptly took such offenders by the scruff of the neck so that others took warning.

240 The same fate will overtake those who turn the free public market into a carrion-pit and a robbers’ den. Daily the poor are defrauded. New burdens and high prices are imposed. Everyone misuses the market in his own willful, conceited, arrogant way, as if it were his right and privilege to sell his goods as dearly as he pleases without a word of criticism. 241 We shall stand by and let such persons fleece, grab, and hoard. 242 But we shall trust God, who takes matters into his own hands. After they have scrimped and scraped for a long time, he will pronounce this kind of blessing over them: “Your grain will spoil in the garner and your beer in the cellar. Your cattle will die in the stall. Yes, where you have cheated and defrauded anyone out of a gulden, your entire hoard will be consumed by rust so that you will never enjoy it.”

243 Indeed, we have the evidence before our very eyes every day that no stolen or ill-gotten possession thrives. How many people scrape and scratch day and night and yet grow not a penny richer! Though they gather a great hoard, they must suffer so many troubles and misfortunes that they can never enjoy it or pass it on to their children. 244 But because we ignore this and act as if it were none of our business, God must punish us and teach us morals in a different way. He lays on us one affliction after another, or he quarters a troop of soldiers upon us; in one hour they clean out our chests and purse down to the last penny, and then by way of thanks they burn and ravage house and home and outrage and kill wife and children.

245 In short, however much you steal, depend on it that just as much will be stolen from you. Anyone who robs and takes things by violence and dishonesty must put up with another who plays the same game. For God is a master of this art; since everyone robs and steals from the other, he punishes one thief by means of another. Otherwise, where would we find enough gallows and ropes?

246 Whoever is willing to learn a lesson, let him know that this is God’s commandment and must not be treated as a joke. We shall put up with those of you who despise, defraud, steal, and rob us. We shall endure your arrogance and show forgiveness and mercy, as the Lord’s Prayer teaches. The upright, meanwhile, will not want, and you will hurt yourself more than others. But beware how you deal with the poor, of whom there are many now. 247 If, when you meet a poor man who must live from hand to mouth, you act as if everyone must live by your favor, you skin and scrape him right down to the bone, and you arrogantly turn him away whom you ought to give aid, he will go away wretched and dejected, and because he can complain to no one else, he will cry to heaven. Beware of this, I repeat, as of the devil himself. Such a man’s sighs and cries will be no joking matter. They will have an effect too heavy for you and all the world to bear, for they will reach God, who watches over poor, sorrowful hearts, and he will not leave them unavenged. But if you despise and defy this, see whom you have brought upon yourself. If you succeed and prosper, before all the world you may call God and me liars.

248 We have now given sufficient warning and exhortation. He who will not heed or believe this may go his own way until he learns it by experience. But it needs to be impressed upon the young people so that they may be on their guard and not follow the old, wayward crowd, but may keep their eyes fixed upon God’s commandment, lest his wrath and punishment come upon them too. 249 Our responsibility is only to instruct and reprove by means of God’s Word. To restrain open lawlessness is the responsibility of princes and magistrates. They should be alert and resolute enough to establish and maintain order in all areas of trade and commerce in order that the poor may not be burdened and oppressed and in order that they may not themselves be charged with other men’s sins.

250 Enough has been said concerning the nature of stealing. It is not to be confined to narrow limits but must extend to all our relations with our neighbors. To sum up, as we have done in the previous commandments: On one hand, we are forbidden to do our neighbor any injury or wrong in any way imaginable, whether by damaging, withholding, or interfering with his possessions and property. We are not even to consent to or permit such a thing, but are rather to avert and prevent it. 251 On the other hand, we are commanded to promote and further our neighbor’s interests, and when he suffers want we are to help, share, and lend to both friends and foes.

252 Anyone who seeks and desires good works will here find ample opportunity to do things which are heartily acceptable and pleasing to God. Moreover, he graciously lavishes upon them a wonderful blessing: We shall be richly rewarded for all the help and kindness we show to our neighbor, as King Solomon teaches in Prov. 19:17, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” 253 Here you have a rich Lord. Surely he is sufficient for your needs and will let you lack or want for nothing. Thus with a happy conscience you can enjoy a hundred times more than you could scrape together by perfidy and injustice. Whoever does not desire this blessing will find wrath and misfortune enough.