15 Thou shalt not steal.

The eighth commandment tells us that we must not take the things that belong to another. Perhaps more than any other, this commandment shows us the transcendental nature of morality. It is something that goes beyond our physical nature, into a realm that can only be called spiritual.

For certainly the idea that we “own” anything is only an illusion, at least from a natural point of view. What makes something belong to us? We might say that we own something and have that claim recognized by society, but nature does not respect that claim at all. Nature isn’t convinced that an item belongs to me just because my toil and labor brought it into being, or because some made-up standard says I “earned” it, or because I made some marks on it that match the initials of my name, or because I found it and touched it first. None of those things fundamentally bind that item to me in the eyes of nature. Nature does not see the item as an unextractable part of my person, nor will it make the item perish when I do, nor will it prevent the item from being given to another, nor will it stop the item from being lost or destroyed at any moment.

And yet, even a toddler knows that something is his. Even a toddler knows when something is stolen from him. We may not be able to explain ownership and theft materialistically, but we know they are real. God, evidently, knows they are real also, and He forbids it directly.