Just Download It

Romans 2:21, “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?”

You’re walking through the mall with your friends and wind up in your favorite clothing store. You find this great pair of jeans, and then look at the price. You tell your friend there is no way that I can afford these. He tells you to just take them, because there is no alarm magnet on it and you deserve them.

“What? Just take them? That is stealing.”

“Don’t worry, they have thousands of pairs and have already made millions off these jeans. They are not going to miss this one pair” he tells you. Then goes on to say, “Think about it, these corporate guys raise the prices and make millions, and those of us that are poor never get the opportunity to own jeans like these, and you deserve them anyway.”

What do you do? Do you take the jeans, because “you” deserve them? They will not miss the jeans in the larger scheme of things, right?

I am praying and guessing that most of the people reading this blog would not take the jeans, because they know stealing is wrong. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother’” (Mark 10:19).

Then why do we think it is alright then to just download music, books and games from the internet that we know should be paid for in any other circumstance, even on the internet? We have rationalized that it is alright to do it if we can find it on the worldwide web. Is it still stealing? If the musician, author, or game maker has not given their permission for free downloading, then is it not the same as just taking the jeans?

Let’s take it a step further. Maybe you are trying to do ministry in a very poor country that cannot afford the same ministry tools as you. Is it alright then to download the material for the cause of Christ? Or is it another rationale? While in Rome, right? If the country lives off of piracy, then it is alright? If you cannot afford it then, why not? No one is going to find out here, and these people would never be able to buy it anyway, so in reality they are not losing any potential customers.

The Internet has given us a whole new set of potentials as it pertains to the old commandment of not stealing. What do we do? What would you do or suggest to someone?

1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”