Editorial August 21, 1978 Issue

Theft is never petty in effect

Naomi Price

In courts of law petty larceny and grand theft are regarded differently. The penalties for offenses of the first kind can be lighter than for the second. But even if they are remitted by the court, offenders do not escape the consequences of breaking the commandment "Thou shalt not steal." Ex. 20:15; The implications of theft of any kind are so much more serious than people tend to believe. In the court of divine Principle offenders cannot escape detection or sentence, and the penalty is self-imposed.

We may refer to acts of petty theft lightly in Bible terms as "little foxes," but we should remember that in the Song of Solomon we are warned that these foxes are destructive. They "spoil the vines." S. of Sol. 2:15; We are wise to avoid letting what we may consider petty faults commit depredations on our lives even in very minor ways. They are not as insignificant as we think. They can turn out to have serious repercussions, depriving us of the benefit of much of the good we otherwise would naturally enjoy.

The standard of divine creation is perfection and wholeness. In God there is no fault or flaw, and He allows no defect or depletion in anything He creates. His entire universe—the spiritual universe in which we truly "live, and move, and have our being" Acts 17:28; as ideas of eternal Mind—is pure and totally harmonious. Every individual object of creation is complete, reflecting all the spiritual qualities of divine Life and Love. Each one is governed by the immutable law of God and is incapable of departing one millimeter from the ideal standard of exactness, or of losing one milligram of true substance. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his." Science and Health, p. 302; This is the truth of being as revealed through the Christ. It is the divine perfection we are entitled to demonstrate as the only and actual fact of our being.

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