According to the NT, knowing what is moral or not is based on the Law, as well (Romans 3:20). You conveniently keep leaving out that point. There's no conctradiction here, just as long as you factor in ALL of Jesus' teachings and also do everything (apply the Golden Rule) in NON-sinful ways.
The Bible says that knowing what is moral or not is based on the Law, not "Angel's interpretation of the Law.'
You say that taking what isn't yours is stealing by definition. By that logic, taking a human life is murder by definition, and thus God asked His people to break His own Law numerous times.
It is closer to the truth to say that
unlawfully taking a life is murder. It follows then that
unlawfully taking what isn't yours is stealing. Just as taking another's life can be done lawfully, taking what doesn't belong to you can be done lawfully, sleeping with someone else's wife can be done lawfully, etc...
If you kill someone lawfully, you haven't committed the sin of murder. If you take something lawfully, you haven't committed the sin of stealing, and if you sleep with someone else's wife lawfully, you haven't committed the sin of adultery.
The only way to tell if a killing is lawful or not is to look at the LAW. What type of killing does the LAW say is lawful? What type of taking does the LAW say is lawful? what type of sleeping with other people's wives does the LAW say is lawful?
Taking what's not yours and that which belongs to someone else is stealing, by definition. If I go into a store and take a bottle of water and don't pay for it, no matter how dehydrated and exhaused I am, it would be stealing.
So when God told Joshua to plunder the city of ai, he was commanding Joshua to break His commandment not to steal?
"Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.� Joshua 8:1-2
It seems more likely that when Joshua took from the city of Ai, he was not stealing because stealing means
UNLAWFULLY taking what isn't yours. And since he had been commanded to do so by God, his actions were
LAWFUL and therefore not 'stealing'.
Thus, lawfully taking what isn't yours is not stealing. Unlawfully taking what isn't yours is.
Same goes for murder, adultery, false testimony, and any other law you care to mention.
The Bible doesn't really speak about if David's actions in killing Goliath were right or wrong. But considering that the Phillistines were an enemy nation and were constantly at war with Israel for some time, it's likely that the killing was just parts of an act of war. And killing an enemy during a war is not murder as God commanded it throughout Moses' time.
Right, just as God commanded Joshua to take what wasn't his. The same way that murder means UNLAWFUL killing, stealing means UNLAWFULLY taking what isn't yours, and adultery means UNLAWFULLY lusting after women.
You also say that adultery isn't the act of sleeping with another man's wife? Do you want to follow the Bible and what it says as this section of the forum rules dictates, or do you just intend on making stuff up? The Bible CLEARLY mentions adultery as being either lusting after a married woman or having sexual intercourse with a married woman.
UNLAWFULLY lusting after women, UNLAWFULLY worshiping other Gods, UNLAWFULLY having sex with another man's wife are all adultery.
A better Biblical definition would be UNLAWFULLY breaking a covenant.(including the covenant of marriage)
Sins are an issue of BOTH the heart and PHYSICAL acts. A woman was CAUGHT (seen implies a PHYSICAL act) in adultery in John 8:3-12 and Jesus told her SIN NO MORE. So here we have an example of a physical act being seen and Jesus clearly calling it a SIN.
Jesus knew the woman's heart. That is how he knew she had sinned. John 2:25