The eighth commandment says, "Thou shalt not steal" (Ex. 20:14).  This commandment is truly the foundation of all property rights.  It has been said that private property is essential to have a free society.  Without the ability to own property you cannot be free.  William Howard Taft said, "Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race."  The right to property is one of the most important rights a man can have, and God gave us that right in the eight commandment.

Property Rights:

          The last five commandments establish all property rights.  Without property rights there is no point to having law and order.  Property rights is the foundation of all law and order.  Here is the legal definition to property.  "Property is the highest right a man can have to anything: being used for that right which one has to lands or tenements, goods or chattels, which no way depends on another man's courtesy" (Black's Law Dictionary, First Edition, pg. 953).  Property is the "highest right a man can have to anything."  This right is the basis of what the law seeks to defend.  Property is "The right and interest which a man has in lands and chattels to the exclusion of others.  It is the right to enjoy and to dispose of certain things in the most absolute manner as he pleases, provided he makes no use of them prohibited by law".  It is the right to enjoy and to dispose of certain things in the most absolute manner as he pleases, provided he makes no use of them prohibited by law" (John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary, 1856, "Property").  When someone has a property right in anything they can exclude others from that thing.  If we do not have the right to own something "to the exclusion of others" then we are not a free society.  There is a distinction that must be made.  Property is a right, not a thing.  The thing is simply the subject of property.  "All things are not the subject of property, the sea, the air, and the like, cannot be appropriated" (John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary, 1856, "Property").  Today, people look at this differently.  We speak as if property is the specific thing we are speaking about.  Nothing in heaven or earth is ours.  "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is YHVH thy Gods, the earth also, with all that therein is" (Deut. 10:14).  Everything belongs to YHVH.  We can only have a right to use what is YHVHs.  So how does this fit with the seventh commandment?

          There are many different types of property rights.  It is not just reserved for tangible things like land or automobiles, but property right extend to intangible things like fraud or your reputation.  The scripture says, "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning" (Lev. 19:16).  The scripture does not condemn lying, but does condemn fraud.  There is a clear distinction in the scripture.  God Himself told Samuel to lie to protect his own life (1 Sam. 16:1-5).  The prostitute Rahab is rewarded for her lie to protect the Hebrew spies (Josh. 2:1-15).  Lying can be okay when you are protecting life, liberty, or property.  It might even be okay when you are protecting someone's feelings by saying their meatloaf tastes good, even though it didn't.  What the scripture condemns is fraud.  The legal definition of fraud is "Any trick or artifice employed by one person to induce another to fall into an error, or to detain him in it, so that he may make an agreement contrary to his interest" (A Law Dictionary, John Bouvier, 1856, "Fraud").  Fraud is when you lie to gain something as opposed to protecting something.  This is what the scripture truly means when it condemns lying.

          Many times the lie will turn to slander.  Slander is a specific form of lying to damage a person's reputation.  The scripture says, "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD" (Lev. 19:16).  Spreading rumors about another person will almost always damage their reputation.  Once a persons reputation is damages it is almost impossible to fully restore.  There is an old saying from a Rabbi which goes like this.  A man was once angry with his Rabbi and something he said.  He went about telling all the congregation of many things that were untrue about the Rabbi.  Over time he started feeling bad about the comments he had made.  Upon this remorse he approached the Rabbi and asked his forgiveness.  The Rabbi simply said, "I will forgive you if you do this one thing."  The Rabbi asked him to take a pillow to the top of a hill and release all the feathers of the pillow into the wind.  The man did release the feathers into the wind and came back to the Rabbi to seek forgiveness.  He pleaded with the Rabbi and the Rabbi said, "To receive forgiveness you must do one more thing.  Please go back up to the hill and collect every feather.  Once you do I will forgive you.  This story teaches a very clear point.  Slander is something that cannot be repaired.  There is no way the words can be unspoken.  This is why the Apostle James speaks so aggressively to control your tongue (James 3:1-10).  The words we say can have drastic implications and can cause much damage.  Here is a video to help further understand the eight commandment.

Conclusion:

          The purpose of the eight commandment is simple.  God has established our property rights.  He has declared that He is the true owner of "the heaven and the heaven of heavens . . . , the earth also, with all that therein is" (Deut. 10:14).  God owns everything.  We can work hard and own things also, but secondary to His ownership.  This is how the eighth commandment works.  We have the right to certain tangible and intangible things.  This is always in light of God's true ownership of those tangible and intangible things.  The eighth commandment enforces our property rights.  Under the eighth commandment, all the statutes regarding our property rights can be found.  The titles of law that fit under the eighth commandment are: