Lying & stealing

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According to dictionary.com
ly⋅ing
1   /ˈlaɪɪŋ/  [lahy-ing] –noun
1. the telling of lies; untruthfulness.
–adjective
2. telling or containing lies; deliberately untruthful; mendacious; false: a lying report.

li⋅ar
/ˈlaɪər/  [lahy-er] –noun
a person who tells lies.

steal
/stil/  [steel] verb, stole, sto⋅len, steal⋅ing, noun
–verb (used with object)
1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.

thief
/θif/  [theef] –noun, plural thieves.
a person who steals, esp. secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.

They both can go pretty much hand in  hand right?
Is one worse than the other?
I can’t see that one is exceptionally worse than the other, they’re both “wrong”.

Now, what does the Bible say about stealing and lying. Isn’t the 8th Commandment “Thou shalt not steal.”, “You shall not steal”, “Do not steal” depending on which translation you’re reading. But they all pretty much say the same thing right? DO NOT STEAL.

Now, most of us here know that taking images you’ve found on Google or any other site is a copyright infringement which also is a form of theft…correct?
Now most of us know that buying bootleg dvd’s or computer programs, etc. is also a form of stealing…correct?
Better yet, I’m pretty confident in saying that we all know that it’s stealing when you take something from the store without paying for it…right?
Is there any difference between these three acts though? They’re all stealing, they hurt the person who originated the work, they hurt the store, but yet some find it okay to do the first but condemn the other two. Does that make sense? Isn’t stealing…stealing?

Of course by blogging about all this if it were done as judging someone then I fall under Matthew 7:1-2 ““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” but then again that’s no concern to me since God can judge me every day and I’m accountable to Him and know that and when I screw up (which is daily) (Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) I ask for forgiveness and give Him thanks for His every renewing grace and mercy.

Now, what if I just acted self righteous & holier than thou…I’d do one of those acts (steal) but yet preach about doing how one shouldn’t do the other (lie or to or not to divulge full information). I’m curious how some justify stealing and yet persecute others for equal or lesser acts of “wrongness” (yes I know that’s not a ‘real’ word, or is it?).

I suppose since our court system has different degrees of crime  (misdemeanor, felony, capital crime, first degree murder, premeditated murder, second degree murder, blah blah you get the idea), that it must be logical that there are degrees of righteousness. Where it’s okay if they lift an image from Google (then later of course claim ignorance, that they didn’t know that it was stealing, even though they’ve been told countless times in the past), but they can condemn the person who watched a bootleg dvd or asked them for a favor of which they performed an act to help but it has to be worded a certain official way, claiming they cannot lie. Hmmm, they can steal, but they cannot lie, even though it isn’t even lying that they have to do.

Or is it just self righteous to steal, blame it on ignorance and then continue on about your way with your nose up in the air but not help those who helped you?

According to Dictionary.com
self-right⋅eous
/ˌsɛlfˈraɪtʃəs, ˈsɛlf-/ [self-rahy-chuhs, self-]
–adjective
confident of one’s own righteousness, esp. when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.

Just some food for thought today.