Know Jack #508 Stealing Home

Taking something that does not belong to you is called theft. God has a commandment against it, society laws against it, and people with integrity shun it. God declares Himself the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, that commandment isn’t going away. Can the same be said for our present distaste for the practice? The rampant practice of theft in our modern society argues against it.

I’m not speaking about taking someone’s physical, personal property like their car or their money. I mean the systematic theft of their personhood, taking from them the opportunity for virtue, eliminating their cooperation in God’s design, and robbing them of the ownership of their decisions.

The generation told they had an expectation of freedom from want, took that as a challenge to work any job they could find and lift themselves from poverty. In today’s socialism of the soul, we think we are entitled to freedom from anything and everything that is uncomfortable, difficult, or negates our victimhood.

It has become society’s duty to care for me, to provide me with food, shelter, healthcare, technological toys, and safety from my own foolish actions. We were told it takes a village to raise a child, and responded by surrendering not only our children, but ourselves as well. Supplying my brother’s every want, or even his every need, through my own efforts is not love.

Being my brother’s keeper is theft. I am stealing his reliance on God’s supply and his opportunity to operate in fellowship with God. My brother needs to exercise his own discernment, act on his own faith, and experience his own joy and his own pain to become himself. Loving him means being there to lend a hand, forgiving his failures, and cheering his victories.