Can stealing be right if the situation calls for it? Discussing it in a Christian Forum

Having heard the reactions to the scenario in a non-Christian forum, I was curious to hear the reactions to the scenario in a Christian forum. So I posted the scenario of Hans stealing the medicine to save his wife on some Christian Discussion groups.

This time there were equal numbers saying Hans was right as those saying Hans was wrong. However, there were a couple of women who fervently defended Hans' position.

Their main assertion is that life is precious; so precious that God would want us to steal to protect the life of our love ones.

For my part, I reiterated my two main points:

1) God's standard does not change; stealing is wrong in all circumstances.

2) While life is precious, preservation of life must not trump obedience to God.

Our discussion resulted in pages and pages of posts. Most of these two women's posts are reiteration of their main assertion and accusations of my lack of humanity.

Frustrated with my counterpoints, one of the women stated:

Discussing the right or wrongness of an action bears no fruit that I can see.

So I posted the following:

Most westerner believers think that the scenario that I posted is purely hypothetical. Having traveled through parts of central Asia, I know that Christians in the east have to face this type of decisions all the time. Choosing between pursuing holiness and facing possible death for one's self or for a love one. It is amazing to see what happens when they choose holiness. Not only does God provide (e.g., causes a doctor to change his mind or their friends and neighbors rally to support them), but also God uses their actions to win the hearts and souls of Muslim observers.

In the same way, I could choose to obey God and risk my life by traveling to a certain Muslim country or I could say God surely doesn't want me to go because my life would be endangered. I can still remember the comment of an Uzbek cab driver when I walked out the of police station (when the corrupt police officers were shaking me down for money) and no a single officers stopped me. He said in his broken English, "God with you!" God provided my freedom and provided an open door to this Uzbek man's heart.

In fact, I can personally tell you that evangelical Christians in China pray hard for Christians in the west, especially in America, to have the conviction to say this is right and I'm going to trust God to provide when I do what is right. And even if not, I'm going to do what is right because I will partake of glory on the other side of eternity.

Yes, life is precious. However, it is not to be worshipped in such a way that saving the life is more important than obedience to God. And yes, God commanded us not to steal. It applies now as well as in old testament times. So not stealing is being obedient to God.

So many believers say that they offer up their lives to God but do they truly mean it or do they really mean they offer their services as long as their lives or the lives of their love ones are not at stake.

This is the foundation of our faith. Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac. He can choose to obey God or he can say, "No, life is more precious so God must not really want me to take Isaac up the mountain to be sacrificed".

What would you do if you were in Abraham's place? How you answer that question defines of YOUR faith.*

*I'm adding this footnote just in case someone might misunderstand my last statement. I meant that if we truly believe that life on the other side of eternity is much better than this one and that when we accept Jesus as our Savior we would be saved, would we be clinging so tightly to this life that we are willing to say that it's ok to sin if our lives are at stake.