Can you imagine a world in which there was no theft? I find it is almost impossible to do. Imagine not needing locks on doors, or cars? No security guards in stores, no pick pocketing or phone scams. We wouldn’t need safety deposit boxes or passwords because no one would steal online either.
If everything was paid for, stores wouldn’t have to pad their prices and the cost of everything would be lower. Insurance companies would lose a lot of work. If no one stole from the tax man, the government would have lots more money to make improvements on infrastructure and amenities.
Just think about the changes to everyday life. No keys to carry around. No security bars on the windows. No safety deposit boxes. No alarms to set and much less need for CCTV cameras, since most muggings and attacks are due to theft. Airports wouldn’t have to shrink wrap bags and car insurance would only have to be against accident.
There would be no voting theft, no identity theft, no car jacking and no racketeering, so no black market goods. Mob bosses would probably still survive on drug sales and prostitution. However, if there was no theft, there couldn’t be human trafficking because that is stealing someone’s child or freedom. Voluntary prostitution would still be around but there would be no kidnapping and no government corruption.
On consideration though, maybe drug sales wouldn’t survive, since addicts usually steal to support their habit!
Imagine how much easier it would be for the police!
A lack of theft would also lead to people being less suspicious of one another, more generous towards those in need, and more honest in other things, I would imagine.
I think we would all agree that such a world would be a much pleasanter place to live in.
It is almost impossible to get one’s head around a world like that isn’t it? Theft is just accepted as part of daily life. Let’s be honest: do you steal? Have you ever shoplifted something, taken hotel supplies from the room, filched a colleague’s pen or stolen a tool at work? For some people taking other’s stuff is justified as okay because “they won’t even notice” or “I’m owed it”.
Now consider this – “Thou shalt not steal” is just one of ten rules for life that God told people to live by! If we cannot even really imagine what a world without theft would be like, let alone live it out ourselves, how on Earth could we think that we could somehow earn our way into heaven or have our good outweigh our bad?
The good news is that we don’t have to be good enough for heaven. One of Jesus’ closest friends was a former tax collector, who basically stole for a living! We are made right with God through believing that Jesus’ death on the cross, as an innocent sacrifice, paid our debt, covered our multitude of sins and clothed us with a holiness that we could never ever come close to deserving.
If we accept that, and ask God to forgive and change us, one day we will live with Jesus in a world without theft – or lying, cheating, murder, sorrow or darkness. Now try to imagine that!!