The Eighth Word: No Taking!

No Taking!

This week we consider the Eighth Commandment. It is the fourth in a series of commandments that focuses on loving our neighbor.

This study is about possessions, and holding them loosely, so if you are looking for some music to accompany the reading, you could do worse than the "jazz-influenced musical gumbo" entitled "Big Gap" by Dr. John and the Lower 911.

After having dealt with our first neighbor (our parents, the neighbors we are born with), our neighbor's life, and our neighbor's wife, the Second Table of the Ten Commandments shifts focus to our neighbor's stuff. As a goal, guarding our neighbor's stuff ranks a distant third place in terms of this commandment's priorities: the second priority is loving our neighbor as our self and the first is loving God!