I used my employer’s equipment and electricity to mine cryptocurrency without their permission.\u00a0I didn’t realize the full implications of what I was doing until some time had passed.\u00a0When it finally struck me that what I was doing was unequivocally theft, I immediately stopped.<\/p>\n
My employer never realized (or suspected) that I was doing this, and the costs were not significant enough every month to be noticed. I work for a company with lots of monthly expenses, so my theft would have been difficult to find, even if they were searching for it. I paid them back for all the electricity I used mining and for all the electricity needed for cooling costs.\u00a0I added quite a bit more (more than 20% by following the Old Testament model to ensure they benefitted financially from all of this).\u00a0I was able to pay them back so that they didn’t realize they were being reimbursed for anything.\u00a0I did this by under-reporting my expenses (I purchased things for them as part of my normal course of employment and didn’t list them on my expense reports).<\/p>\n
I have confessed this to the Lord, begged for forgiveness, and have absolutely repented (the fact that I did this at all is wrecking me emotionally).\u00a0I have also confessed to my wife (a fellow Christian) and will confess to another Christian in the next few days.\u00a0However, I don’t know if I must also confess to my employer (since they are unaware anything happened and benefitted financially from what I did).<\/p>\n
I have waited to decide what to do until I could make sure the funds were repaid because I fear I would not be able to repay them if they fired me.<\/p>\n
Is confession to the Lord, my spouse, and another fellow Christian (along with more than full restitution of the funds) sufficient?<\/p>\n
Thank you for your help!<\/p>\n\t
Using your employer’s equipment for personal business is a form of theft. What you did to correct the problem was right. You attempted to correct any damage you might have done, and you went to God to confess your sin. That is what is required (II Corinthians 7:9-11; I John 1:9).<\/p>\n
If your employer asked you about this matter, then God requires that you be honest and tell him what you had done, why you stopped, and what you did to make up for the losses you caused. But I don’t find a requirement to incriminate yourself. Rather, you remove sin from your life and move on to better things. When we talk about confessing your sins to those you have wronged, it involves settling problems that the other person knows exist, and so to restore a good relationship, you let that person know what you’ve done to change.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I used my employer’s equipment and electricity to mine cryptocurrency without their permission.\u00a0I didn’t realize the full implications of what I was doing until some time had passed.\u00a0When it finally struck me that what I was doing was unequivocally theft, I immediately stopped. My employer never realized (or suspected) that I was doing this,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-66642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-confession"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8723,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-it-is-wrong-to-use-instrumental-music-because-the-new-testament-doesnt-mention-it-then-it-would-be-wrong-to-use-electricity\/","url_meta":{"origin":66642,"position":0},"title":"If it is wrong to use instrumental music because the New Testament doesn’t mention it, then it would be wrong to use electricity.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My brother was a member of the Church of Christ which is why I know something about their beliefs. They didn\u2019t use musical instruments when singing songs because, as he told me, musical instruments were not mentioned in the first-century church. Neither was electricity, but that sure didn\u2019t keep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41724,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-reporting-a-possible-theft-gossiping\/","url_meta":{"origin":66642,"position":1},"title":"Is reporting a possible theft gossiping?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is complicated so I'll sum it up for you: I play a sport and there is a guy who runs the state championship tournament. 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Recently, while I was on my shift, three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86068,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-case-of-rationalization\/","url_meta":{"origin":66642,"position":5},"title":"A Case of Rationalization","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary Smalley via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 The word \"rationalize\" is on my short list of words whose spelling and meaning don't go together. Somehow, they just don't fit. 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