Bible shows how to handle theft

Here’s a single-question Bible quiz for all the scholars. What is the biblical penalty for theft?

If you guessed chopping off a hand, you’re thinking of the wrong religion.

So what is it? Prison? Exile? Death? Something else?

The answer is “something else.” The penalty for theft according to biblical law is restitution. The texts that teach this are too long to reproduce here, but look at Exodus 22 and Leviticus 6 for starters.

This concept means if you stole or damaged your neighbor’s property, you should make it good by repaying his loss. That probably strikes you as common sense.

The Scripture takes that further, with some “uncommon sense,” an added step that should also strike you as just. In most cases, the punishment for theft is not merely returning what you stole, but returning twice that amount.

Why? Double restitution forces the thief to suffer the exact amount of loss that he tried to inflict on his neighbor.

The first 100 percent restores what was taken. The second 100 percent makes the thief deal with what he meant his victim to deal with.

Restitution laws represent a beautiful, symmetric piece of judicial wisdom.

So then, how are we doing on this note? Are we dealing with these crimes in 2017 in a way that is more or less just than the biblical law?

What happens in response to theft? Well, if you’re specially blessed, you might get your stuff back. Good luck with that.

What about when thieves are caught? They are rarely required to pay back what they stole. In fact, in a lot of cases in which restitution is deemed appropriate, this is paid by taxpayers, not by the thief.

Let’s say the thief is sentenced to prison. Now the original victim, who probably won’t be paid back, is forced through government coercion (called taxation) to pay for the criminal’s room and board as long as he stays locked up. The victim is stolen from twice: Once by the illegal thief, and again by the legal one. As a bonus, all the other taxpayers, who were neither criminal nor victim in the matter, are also forced to pay.

It’s genius, I say. We’ve come so far.

Returning to the topic of restitution, this simple Bible principle also points to the ministry of Jesus Christ. As he wrote through the Psalmist, “What I did not steal must I now restore?” (Psalms 69:4)

This is in reference to the Crucifixion of Christ, where the Lord paid off debts he did not owe, on behalf of those who accrued those debts but could not repay them. Every sin represents a “criminal” debt on the part of the sinner towards God. Sin robs God of his glory.

Colossians 2:14 speaks of the heavenly record of our sins as a record of debt. We make ourselves debtors to God. Restitution is owed.

However, Christ’s final words upon the cross were these: “It is finished!” (John 19:30) In the original language, that was one word. It was the word that creditors would write across the debtor’s bill, once the payment was made. Literally, “it is finished” meant, “paid in full.”

The just One died for the unjust. The victim died for the criminals. The righteous One died for sinners; and, the demand for justice, for spiritual restitution, was perfectly met.

Thank God for your freedom today if you know that your debt has been paid.

Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:

[email protected]