Listen to this article:

“The Bible Condemns Locks!” MP3 File – right click and select “save as”, “save link as”, or “save target as” to save it to your computer.


What does the Bible say about locks? Should you use them? Should you rely on God, but use “Common sense”?

Had you ever asked these questions? Or had you just accepted that “The Lord helps those who help themselves”? That saying is not scripture for a very good reason – it isn’t true! In fact, the Bible condemns the use of locks, and condemns YOU for locking your house!

Shocking? Definitely. It is almost 180 degrees from what most people believe today. Do you know why that is? Because they don’t have FAITH to trust God!

To begin with, let’s ask the question “Is God ABLE to protect you if you don’t lock your house?” I think most people would agree that God is ABLE, if He wanted to. So if He is able, is He willing? If He WANTED to protect you, HOW would He do it?

Exodus 34:23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man DESIRE thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.

When you journeyed up to Jerusalem, God promised that no man would EVEN WANT your land. He promised that it simply wouldn’t occur to anyone to steal from you! Does that mean a lock was necessary too? Hardly. Look at the case of Job…

Job 1:8-10 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

Job was a good man. A man that God was pleased to bless. Now this man had a hedge about him, to protect him – a hedge that God had built. Did he also need a high fence to protect his possessions? Certainly not! He already had one!

Satan had no access to Job because God had built a fence FOR him… because JOB RELIED ON GOD! He didn’t rely on his Colt .45, nor on his right arm, nor still on a fence or a lock – he relied on God, and God protected him!

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

When a man who, ordinarily, would have loved to steal something from Job happened to walk by, God said that he wouldn’t desire Job’s wealth (Exodus 34:23). God is quite able to keep someone busy thinking about something else while they walk past your house! He is quite able to make sure that a thief simply doesn’t notice your unlocked car, now isn’t He?

Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Now obviously, believing this… much less doing it… is a matter of faith. How much do YOU trust God? Enough to leave your car unlocked, in a rough neighborhood? Only you can answer those questions, and the others like them.

Generally, the first objection that arises when this subject is broached to someone who doesn’t want to believe it, is “Well, I know, God said He’d protect me… but He also gave me common sense, and any idiot knows you should lock your door in Harlem!”.

And to answer that, let me try to explain why God wants you to trust Him, and not your locks. Remember when you were a child, and earned a spanking? That happened to most of us at one time or another.

Your parent had to spank you because you had started down the wrong road. In order to turn you back on the right path, you needed correction. But let’s say you didn’t want that correction, and so you slipped a foam pad in the seat of your pants to absorb the impact.

How would your parent feel about this? You needed correction, and IF you had been a good child, you should have WANTED the correction in order to grow up a better person! But you prevented your parent from giving you the correction you needed, and when he finds that out, he will know that you didn’t want correction, you only wanted to be left alone.

Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

Now it should be a relatively simple matter to apply that thinking to the case at hand. God has blessed you with, say, $100 bonus from work. Then you sin – now God doesn’t feel like blessing you any more. In fact, He wants to take the hundred dollars He just gave you away from you to punish you!

And so God prepares someone to sneak into your house, and take the hundred dollar bill that was laying on your counter. Unfortunately, you’ve already locked it up in your safe!

Now certainly, if it is important enough to Him, God can find a way to punish you – but if YOU wanted His correction enough, you’d make it easier for him! Instead, you seek to AVOID the correction of God by locking everything you have up so that no one can take it! By hindering God from judging you, you prove to Him that you don’t want his correction, and THAT proves that you don’t want to be righteous, you want left alone! Just like the little boy with a foam pad in his trousers!

I realize that that line of reasoning is… unusual, to say the least. Nonetheless, it stands to reason that if you don’t trust God to deliver you, you are trusting something else.

Psalms 33:16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

If God does decide to seriously correct you, having your wealth locked up won’t help you, will it? Hiring a bodyguard won’t help you if God wants you dead, will it? But if you ARE doing what He wants, and if He IS pleased with you, He will build that fence around you that no one can break down, and you won’t need to lock or hide or protect anything, because no one will even try to steal it! Because IF SOMEONE STEALS FROM YOU, you may be sure that GOD SENT HIM TO DO IT!

Job 5:17-18 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For HE maketh sore, and bindeth up: HE WOUNDETH, and his hands make whole.

GOD is the one who makes sore. He is the one who wounds. He is the one who sends the thief to steal from you, and HE is the one who can protect you from that thief! A Doberman and an ADT Alarm System never will!

Job 5:19-26 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.

If you are righteous, and if you have faith, which simply means that you KNOW you are righteous… then you will have peace. You will dwell in safety, as if you were surrounded by high walls, even though you were in the midst of a war zone.

This is a big step. But… it’s probably a step that it is high time you took. This is the “Strong Meat”, that separates the babe from the adult. How long have you been around the truth? 1 year? 5? 20? 60? How long do you think you can stay a “babe”, and expect to get by without doing more?

Hebrews 5:12-14 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Putting your wealth, your car, your house, much less your own life or that of your family on the line is MEAT. It is something that requires FAITH. So I ask again, do you trust God? Enough to trust that God has built a hedge about you and leave your car unlocked?

If your conscience is defiled, and you know that you are not serving God as you know you can and should… then it would be a very bad idea. Because if that is the case, you don’t HAVE a hedge around you! Why would God build a hedge around a lazy, indifferent seat-warmer?

But if you ARE serving God, then there should be no problem trusting Him to do this tiny thing, because YOU WILL KNOW that there is NO REASON for Him NOT to protect you!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email


If you enjoyed this article you need to check out our comprehensive Bible Study Course! Learn how to study your Bible and get the answers to life's most important questions directly from God's word!




Post navigation