Leviticus 19:11-13

In Leviticus 19:9-10 we learned not to be greedy, stingy, grasping. We are to cheerfully, generously and voluntarily leave enough for others to glean from our fruitful fields. This is a way to take care of those who don't have what we have. We are to share our blessings. If we glean our fields to the last straw and grasp even the last grape for ourselves, we are selfish and neglecting the poor. If we count out every penny, rub every dollar bill, take our delight in how we can skin others, we are not exhibiting godly behavior. We are selfish and greedy. This leads into the next of God's commands. Sin often builds upon sin.

Leviticus 19:11-13 ESV  “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12  You must not use my name to make false promises. If you do that, you will show that you don't respect the name of your God. I am the LORD!  13  You must not cheat or rob your neighbor. You must not hold a hired worker's salary overnight until morning."

Exodus 20:7 KJV  "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
Exodus 20:15 KJV "Thou shalt not steal"
Exodus 10:16 KJV "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor"

These are in the Ten Commandments.

Stealing
"Which is to take away another man's property by force or fraud, without the knowledge, and against the will of the owner thereof. Thefts are of various kinds; there is private theft, picking of pockets, shoplifting, burglary, or breaking into houses in the night, and carrying off goods; public theft, or robbing upon the highways; domestic theft, as when wives take away their husbands' money or goods, and conceal them, or dispose of them without their knowledge and will, children rob their parents, and servants purloin their masters' effects; ecclesiastical theft or sacrilege, and personal theft, as stealing of men and making slaves of them, selling them against their wills...as all overreaching and circumventing in trade and commerce, unjust contracts, not making good and performing payments, detention of servants' wages, unlawful usury, unfaithfulness with respect to anything deposited in a man's hands, advising and encouraging thieves, and receiving from them..." - John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

False Witness
"Neither publicly in a court of judicature, by laying things to his charge that are false, and swearing to them, to his hurt and damage; nor privately, by whispering, tale bearing, backbiting, slandering, by telling lies of him, traducing his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions, whereby he may suffer in his character, credit, and reputation, and in his trade and business" - John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Selfishness
If we are so selfish, greedy and grasping to the uttermost, might we not easily also try to grab what belongs to others and see it as a bargain? Not only do we grasp the last grape in our field but, might we step over the land boundary and steal grapes from our neighbor as well? It's not a great leap from the sin of selfishness, greed, and idolatry to stealing for our profit and then lying to cover our tracks. If he gets away with it, he will be more apt to continue the practice and add to his stealing and lying by swearing, in the name of God, that he is telling the truth. We are not to cheat, rob, steal, lie, defraud for our own gain or for our own thrill. We are certainly not to oppress someone else by our false witness in the name of God.

There used to be a couple of shows on TV. One was Extreme Couponing and the other was Extreme Cheapskates. Both were good examples of people who got out of balance. There were those who made it the business of their every waking moment to find ways to get something for nothing. It wasn't illegal but they would clip coupons, use rebates and store sales/specials in ways that ended up giving them stuff for free. It's one thing to use coupons and rebates responsibly and use what's offered to help lessen your cost of groceries (or other things). But it's something else when you have an entire room of your house (basement, garage, etc) filled to the brim with hoarded items you got for nothing. These people would load up multiple grocery carts FULL of food, take an hour at the checkout and walk away with spending less than $10. Now, they took food off the shelves so that others could not buy it. Not just 1-2 cans of green beans but every can of green beans for themselves leaving nothing for anyone else to "glean" off the shelves for their families. No one else could use a coupon to buy a can or two because the store was wiped out. It's selfishness and greed. They selfishly tied up the cashier for an hour so no one else could check out at that cash register. They counted every coupon, pinched every penny, rubbed every dollar, made the cashier go back and check it again, etc until they were satisfied that they had skinned the store as close to the bone as possible. Then they would take their hoard home and stack it on shelves and feel satisfied. Their idol. There is no way they could eat and use that many products in a year! (I do not mean to include those on the show who used couponing to help others in need.)

Luke 12:16-26 ERV  Then Jesus used this story: "There was a rich man who had some land. His land grew a very good crop of food.  17  He thought to himself, 'What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.'  18  "Then he said, 'I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my wheat and good things together in my new barns.  19  Then I can say to myself, I have many good things stored. I have saved enough for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!'  20  "But God said to that man, 'Foolish man! Tonight you will die. So what about the things you prepared for yourself? Who will get those things now?'  21  "This is how it will be for anyone who saves things only for himself. To God that person is not rich."  22  Jesus said to his followers, "So I tell you, don't worry about the things you need to live—what you will eat or what you will wear.  23  Life is more important than food, and the body is more important than what you put on it.  24  Look at the birds. They don't plant, harvest, or save food in houses or barns, but God feeds them. And you are worth much more than crows.  25  None of you can add any time to your life by worrying about it.  26  And if you can't do the little things, why worry about the big things?

Then there were the cheapskates. They made themselves, and everyone around them, miserable to save a dime. One woman wouldn't let her friend urinate in the commode. They urinated in bottles and disposed of it so that she didn't have to flush the commode and use water. She only allowed him to take a few minutes to shower or she would go and cut the water off on him. She refused to use her stove. In order to save money on electricity, she would use a handmade solar stove. Another man would literally bicycle around town (to save on the expense of a car and gas) and go to places where people sometimes lose or drop change and he would go through it and pick up the change. Now why he couldn't work a job and make his own wages, I don't know. He had the intelligence, the physical ability (he was cycling around town), and the time but he was picking up change. One man picked up road kill, took it home and put it, whole cloth, into this freezer. Didn't skin it, gut it, process it, clean it... just put it whole in the freezer. Then he would do whatever to eat it later. Another person would literally go from table to table in a restaurant and ask the diners to give them their leftovers. They took it home to eat. Not because they didn't have money to eat but because it saved them their own money.

Their idol was money and they were willing to do anything to save money no matter how bizarre. It didn't matter to them if they hurt someone else such as their spouses, children, other people. All that mattered was saving themselves money. Their hoard was money. And they will eventually find themselves very lonely, just them and their money. And what good will that money do if they just hoard it and never enjoy it? There is balance and they've lost all balance to become stingy, grasping every grape. We should save, but we should also be generous. We should plan for our old age, but we should also enjoy our current life because we aren't promised an old age. It's balance.

Honesty
We must be scrupulously honest and transparent so others will know we are honest. We must be careful and accountable so no one can accuse us of stealing and lying. The Israelites were to be different from the pagan nations. Heathen, idolatrous nations routinely steal and lie. Satan is the father of lies so it's not surprising when lost people naturally, and normally, lie and steal. But we are not of this world and it should not be the same with us. Our sin nature would tempt us to lie and steal. But we are called to be different and we must strive against our worst impulses and be honest. It may cost us something to be honest but God will bless it back to us one way or another.

I once knew a man who didn't like the paperwork it took to fill out and request money to cover his expenses. He didn't like to have to keep receipts to go with the purchase request, etc. So he dragged his feet, complained, tried to get the procedures changed so he could get money whenever he wanted, no questions asked. You and I can see how that would go in the long run. And the fact that he went to such extremes to become less accountable made me suspicious. I think he wanted to pad his expenses. You see the procedures were there to protect the man and his honesty (no one could question his honesty when there is a paper trail and receipts) as well as the church and those who donated to the church. There is a reason for scrupulously following good procedures and being accountable. If it's aggravating, it's aggravating, get over it. It's there for a reason. If you remove the aggravation, you may not have the accountability, transparency and honesty that is demanded by God. Of course, there are those who still look for ways to circumvent every policy and procedure put in place to prevent dishonesty. Don't be one of those people. That's the ways of the world and not the ways of God.

Defrauding our neighbor
We are not to defraud our neighbor. My husband and I went to a neighbor's house when they had a yard sale. We wanted to buy something but we didn't have enough cash on hand. The neighbor worked with us by setting it aside while we went straight to the bank, got the cash, took it back to him and then took our purchase home. He worked with us. And we did not try to defraud him. We didn't haggle, we didn't cheat. We didn't give him the cash we had and take the object with the empty promise of returning. We didn't waste time making him worry if we'd come back. We knew it was a fair price and we were glad to pay. It saved us money. I believe we both acted as good neighbors. We didn't defraud each other just as God commanded.

We should not try to move our land boundaries to defraud our neighbor. How many arguments over land boundaries have their been when someone has deliberately tried to take what isn't theirs to take?

We shouldn't defraud our neighbor by letting our home and property get in such bad shape that their house and property loses value. Some people have lived in neighborhoods where one person lets their house get in such bad shape it devalues the whole rest of the neighborhood. I realize that sometimes we are talking about someone who, through no fault of their own, is unable to mow their yard or pay to have it mowed. But many times it's due to laziness, slovenliness, perverseness, meanness. They bring the whole neighborhood down. That's defrauding your neighbors.

As Christians, we should be good neighbors. We shouldn't be trying to take advantage of our neighbors, defrauding them, costing them due to our actions. If my child breaks a window with his baseball, or hits a neighbor's car with his bicycle, I should be johnny-on-the-spot with the offer to pay for the damages. On the other hand, if it's your neighbor's child who breaks your window, DO NOT defraud your neighbor by charging more than it costs to replace the window in order to make money off the deal, or drag your feet to fix the problem.
Don't withhold wages
If you hire someone to do a job, whether it's in your business or a contractor at your home, pay them what you promise to pay them. Pay them a decent price and don't try to get something for nothing. I realize that many contractors and businesses pad their product or service too much. So it doesn't hurt to look for a better price, shop around. But don't expect someone to do a job for nothing. They have to cover their normal expenses and make some profit. If you squeeze someone too hard, you get what you paid for, nothing. If you expect a painter to paint your house for a bargain, then bargain paint will be what is used and it won't last long or you get shoddy workmanship. I know, right now, buying the quality paint I want costs $60-$75/gallon (building material has gone up astronomically). Then there is the painter's labor and his expenses (overhead, vehicle, gas, supplies, paintbrushes). Only he knows how much time it takes to do a quality job. So if he gives me an estimate, I need to look carefully to see if it looks within a decent range. He could be taking me for a ride and overcharging me. That's not right on his part. But if I look at it and think it's a decent proposal and I promise to pay him, then I should expect the good paint, the good job and pay him promptly what I promised. If he cheats me, it's on him. He'll have to answer to God for robbing me. If I cheat him and refuse to pay him for his work, it's on me. I have to answer to God for robbing him of his just wages. If there is a real dispute (let's say I find cans of Walmart brand paint instead of the Sherwin Williams I asked for), we need to try and settle it between us amicably. There may come a time when I have to let go and let God. But that's another subject.

If we own a business we should pay our employees a living wage and treat them with respect. If we manage a business for someone else (or for stockholders) we should still be very careful with payroll and employees. We are dealing with human beings, families who depend on their wages. If they are working, they deserve their money and respect. There are an awful lot of people who won't work and expect handouts. Employees are working. So don't try to withhold wages from them or penny pinch them to the point they can't make a decent living. Don't set out to take advantage of people or to push them to impossible demands. And don't hold their earnings so that it becomes a hardship on them. I know some companies like to pay every 2 weeks or once a month and that can put hardships on families.

It reminds me of the old cotton mill days. Cotton mills were desperate for workers in their brand new cotton mill. So they built mill villages full of new wooden homes with real doors and windows, porches and community amenities like churches, schools and communal gardens and pastures. Then they recruited people from the farms and mountains. Illiterate country people. Compared to the log cabins and sharecropper shacks they were living in, these new homes were luxuries. They had real wooden floors, doors with locks, windows with glass, a coal stove. The could walk to work. They had community with neighbors, churches, schools and the company store. But they worked hard, paid rent, they bought from the company store and it was withheld from their wages. The companies employed children so they didn't get to go all the way through school. If you had an accident and lost a hand, you were out of luck. If you didn't like what was happening, you had no choice because if you lost your job it meant you lost your home, your community, your chances for your child to get any schooling, your church, your money. Soon the cotton mill owners came to the realization they didn't have just workers, they OWNED the workers. They would change the quotas and stretch out the working hours for no extra pay if employees didn't meet quotas. They had these people by the throats. Let's say a family of 8 was living in a mill house. Six of the 8 worked at the mill. If the mill owner wanted to fire them, they could. The family loses 6 people's wages, their home, their community and any money they owed at the company store. All the power resided in the cotton mill owner's hands and they oftentimes used their power unmercifully. On the other hand, there were workers who didn't do a good job, or who misused the money they made. Some men were drunks and just sent their wives and children to work in the mill while they drank the money away and did nothing. Then came time to pay the rent or buy food and there was no money because he had drunk it away. Or people who would surreptitiously steal from the cotton mills in any way they could. Or people who deliberately didn't meet quotas in order to drive the quotas down. Cotton mill owners would be looking to up quotas if quotas were made easily while workers would be looking to down quotas so they didn't have to work so hard. There was no balance on either side. No fairness. So unions tried to make inroads into cotton mills. They may have started as real ways to help workers in liaison with owners. But soon unions too became fat, rich and empowered. It's like the pendulum swings too far one way or the other with no balance.

If you are an employer, or managing a business, be sure you use your Christian principles in dealing with your employees and payroll. We are to be different than the heathen, godless pagans around us. People should be saying, "Hey, I want to work for that company. They pay a good wage and they don't demand the impossible from their employees. They seem to treat their employees with respect." Of course you, or stockholders, should expect a profit, but not a huge profit that you made off of skinning your hardworking employees or robbing your customers.