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Recently, while shopping in Target for our nieces, my wife and I came across a child’s T-shirt emblazoned with “The Toddler Laws of Property”:

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
4. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
5. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

Isn’t it sad that we all know adults who still operate by these childish rules? 

Romans 13.8-10 outlines a more mature mentality: 

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 

Begin with that first statement: “Let no debt remain outstanding.” I am a recovering debt-a-holic. For many years, I used credit cards to purchase things I did not need and could not pay cash for. When my debt load grew so large that I could barely pay for room, board, and necessities, I got help. Why would a reasonably smart guy like me act so foolishly? Because of a toddler mentality: Whatever I wanted had to be mine, right then, and regardless of whether I could afford it.  

My debt also negatively affected my generosity. Because I was constantly behind financially, I increasingly failed to tithe to the Lord’s work. During this period, I always found enough money to buy what I wanted, but I never seemed to have enough to help my church or world missions or local charities. When I got help for my debt, I also began tithing again. I changed my money mentality from “mine” to “Thine.” 

The “mine” mentality doesn’t just show up in how we use money, however. It also shows up in how we treat people. We commit adultery because we want a sexual high. We murder because we want our way and someone else is in it. We steal because we want what we cannot pay for. We covet because we want what we do not need. All of these actions affect our relationships. In each of them, we put ourselves before others, before their marriage vows, their lives, and their property.  

Love, however, operates from a capital-T “Thine” mentality. We treat others as God has commanded us to.  But it also operates from a lower-case-t “thine” mentality. We treat people as if they matter. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the basic rule of Christian ethics. Such a love does no harm to others. Rather, loving Christians treat others at least as well as they wish to be treated themselves. 

So, mine or thine? That’s a basic ethical question, and how you answer reveals how grown up your thinking is.