October 28 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

We meet our neighbors as people—and we must respect them as such. "You shall not murder your neighbors. Love them."

We meet our neighbors as male or female—and we must respect them as sexual human beings. "You shall not commit adultery. Live clean lives inside or outside of marriage."

And we meet our neighbors in the field of commerce, in the traffic of goods and services. "You shall not steal. You must be a steward of what I have entrusted to you."

God forbids stealing in all possible forms, from pinching the wages of workers to sky-high salaries of executives, from goofing off on the job to ripping off investors, from cheating on exams to cheating on taxes, from looting a bank to looting the earth. God calls theft a crime.

In our society we change our standards with the circumstances. Certain things may be considered crimes or misdemeanors, but if enough people do them, we "decriminalize" that particular offense. Then we "just live with it."

God's law isn't that elastic. And if we consider it our main task to do God's will in the world, we had better watch carefully that we are not "updating" our standards. Does it still make you angry that our society, from high to low, is shot through with thievery, fraud, greed, bribery, usury, and waste? Do you still hate crooks? Do you still believe it is better to be honest and poor than smart and rich?

We had better make absolutely sure what side we're on. Someone said that the frontiers of the church used to be on the mission fields in Africa and Asia. But now the frontiers are right here in the business world. Here we decide whom we serve—God or mammon. And here honest, God-fearing men and women stick out like martyrs, people branded with a cross.

God does not just insist that we refrain from all forms of theft. The Lord wants us to regard our possessions as a trust that we hold only for a little while. The only lasting advantage of having possessions in the present world is that we have a chance to be stewards who are able to do good works with what God entrusts to us for a little while.

REFLECTIONS

Where is your honesty most put to the test?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.