These questions pertain to the 8th Commandment: (1) Is it always wrong for Christians to file for bankruptcy? What if a person is cheated and his business fails? (2) Is it always wrong to keep the prizes from donation draws? (3) How would you view failures to display enough parking coupons when parking in public car parks in Singapore?


In examining these issues, we must be careful not to loose sight of the purpose of the law of God, which is to teach us the nature of God, to show us the standard of behaviour acceptable to God and to lead us to Christ. The law of God must not be reduced to a mere list of do’s and don’ts. The law must be observed out of love and gratitude to the Lord. Thus, we must keep the 8thCommandment out of respect for God’s sovereign and providential assignment of all that belongs to Him, not out of slavish fear nor of a mistaken notion that the more perfectly we keep the law the greater favour we will obtain of God. This must be our attitude when we consider if something is right or wrong as it relates to the 8th commandment. With this in mind:

Firstly, bankruptcy is a legal mechanism by which a person is declared to be unable to pay his debts. When a person is declared a bankrupt, all his assets will be administered by the court,—usually through a Official Assignee,—for the benefit of the creditors. Thus luxury items will be sold to pay the creditors, and as long as the person remains a bankrupt, part of his income will be channeled to his creditors. However, after a period of time, a bankrupt may be discharged of his responsibilities, and he is no longer liable to pay for his debts. In Singapore, under Section 125 of the Bankruptcy Act 1995, the Official Assignee may, in his discretion, discharge a bankrupt after a period of 5 years in bankruptcy and if the debts proved in the bankruptcy are below $500,000. This means that a person who is discharged from bankruptcy, he can have up to $500,000 debts written off. Now, it is not difficult to see that that will be a violation of the 8thcommandment. Debts can be written off only of by the Ultimate Owner of all things, God Himself, which He did under the Old Covenant at the year of the Jubilee (Lev 25:10). We have not such warrant under the New Covenant. For this reason, Christians should not file bankruptcy in order to avoid having to pay heavy debts. However, having said so, we must be charitable to those who were forced into bankruptcy through no fault of their own—such as when they are cheated or when overtaken by natural disasters. In such cases, bankruptcy may be forced upon them by the creditors, or they may be cornered to file bankruptcy. My advice for Christians in such situations would be that they should try as far as possible to return the debt even if the law absolve them of the debt—unless of course, their creditors, forgive them the debts.

Secondly, a donation draw is a means of fund raising designed with an appeal to the vice of covetousness rather than the virtue of mercy, generosity or magnanimity. It is not wrong for Christian to want to give to a worthy cause. But Christians should not overtly participate in games of chance since it not only encourages covetousness, but it is an biblically illegal means of acquiring wealth. There are only two ways sanctioned in the word for acquiring wealth: (1) hard work and (2) gift by the owner (God or the steward caring for the belonging). Now, then if a believer is motivated out of compassion or generosity to want to buy some donation draw tickets, then if he wins a prize that is purchased with the total money collected, then would it not be more consistent for him to return the prize? However, if the prizes are all sponsored by other companies who want to encourage the fund-raising drive, then it would be a somewhat different situation. First, it is not wrong for someone to give something that belongs to him to someone else, even though the latter did not work for it. The 8th commandment is broken when something is taken from someone else without permission or through an illegal means. Second, even though the sponsor would do better if he had simply given to the cause, we are in no position to judge their intentions when they decide to contribute the prizes. This being the case, if a Christian who bought the donation draw ticket purely out of wanting to contribute were to win a prize in the process, I would think it is not wrong to keep the prize as being given gratuitously, though it might be better for him to try to give it back to the cause for which funds were being raised.

Thirdly, the use of parking coupon can be seen as a means to pay for rental of the space to park the car, or it can be seen a toll. In either case, it would clearly require us to pay the amount stipulated to park in the lot. Paying less will be a clear case of theft of convenience. There may be times when we forget the time and stay longer than the amount we put in the car, but that does not make it any less a theft. Though it may at times be painful on the pocket to do so, it would be better for us to overpay than to pay less because God has said "Thou shalt not steal!"