I hope as we’ve worked though the Ten Commandments that we have begun to view them as interconnected, making up in a sense a perfect circle. As we saw in the beginning of this series, breaking the Tenth Commandment is one way of breaking the First Commandment. Perhaps no where in Scripture is the inwardness of Christ’s teaching as evident as with this commandment—inward in the sense that within is where sin begins. It truly identifies where the problem resides—the heart, and where all needed Godly change must take place. Let’s begin with Exodus 20:17: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s”. God’s word reveals that Satan—originally “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel 28:12) started on the road to becoming the twisted, evil being he is today when he began coveting God’s position as Most High (Isaiah 14:12-14).
As with each of the previous nine commandments, the tenth is directed toward our relationships. It specifically deals with the thoughts that threaten those relationships and that can potentially harm ourselves and our neighbors. Covet means "to desire" or "to take delight in beyond God’s acceptable bounds." It indicates "to long after a property that belongs to another in order to enjoy it." It is covetousness to allow oneself to indulge in thoughts that lead to actions named in the other nine commandments. Coveting can lead to murder, adultery, stealing and lying. Coveting thoughts lead to ungodly deeds. Coveting normally arises from two sources. It often begins with an allure for something one desires to possess. It also arises from a persistent inclination for something more abstract like a desire for position, power, or recognition. The first is generally stimulated from without, the second generally from within. Both are equally bad.
This commandment if one considers the connection back to the first commandment is intriguing. In essence they are both designed to act as governors, controlling whether we keep the other commandments. Covetousness flips our priorities so that we seek and covet things ahead of our personal relationship with God. This is why Paul equates covetousness with idolatry (Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5). Idolatry is any violation of the First Commandment. When one is obsessed with possessing something, that person invariably begins to idolize it. These scriptures help us to better understand the meaning of “covet” and how serious it is when we break the Tenth Commandment. God commands us to look to Him as our primary Provider (Matthew 7:7; James 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:17).
In prohibiting coveting, it defines not so much what we must do but how we should think. It asks us to look deep within ourselves to see what we are on the inside. Our desire should be to contribute to the well-being of others, to make our presence in their lives a blessing to them. This commandment pierces through surface Christianity, truly revealing whether a person has surrendered his will to God or not. The spiritual requirements for keeping this commandment are in some ways more rigid than any other because they cut through to one’s thoughts.
Personal character is a matter of our hearts as well as our outward behaviour. God, who knows our every thought, is judging our hearts, thoughts, and motives as well as our behavior. He expects godliness in our deeds and our desires, in our actions and our attitudes (see Isaiah 55:8-9; 2 Corinthians 10:5). Christ carries impurity back beyond the lustful act to the first touch of the hands to the look of the eyes—and beyond these, to the first inception of desire (James 1:14-15).
God says in Jeremiah 5:1, "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her." This begins a passage in which the prophet is dispatched to find a righteous person in the city. Jeremiah 6:10-11, 13-15 reveals the dismal results of his search: "To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in. I will pour it out on the children outside, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband shall be taken with the wife, the aged with him who is full of days. . . . Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the hurt of My people saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down," says the Lord. God indicts the entire nation (the entire world for that matter) for its covetousness.
Speaking of one of the last kings of ancient Judah, God said, “Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence” (Jeremiah 22:17). The problem was not limited to the kings, however, “because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely” (Jeremiah 6:13).
Covetousness has always cursed humanity, including God’s people. To better understand the ramifications of this sin, simply consider King David and his position as a man “after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). The story begins, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab…But David remained at Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1; 1 Chronicles 20:1). David, “arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house” and as he looked, he saw a woman bathing, “and the woman was very beautiful” (2 Samuel 11:2). He asked about her and found she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent messengers, and, as we saw before, had her brought to him and he lay with her. Coveting began in his thoughts—his heart —and led to a number of horrible sins.
People have always been tempted to covet, but the opportunities to fall into this trap have increased tremendously with the digital seemingly omnipresence of materialism in today’s world. We are inundated with a constant stream of objects to covet. This world deliberately designs many things to spark wrong desires in us. Our affluent and image-based culture only adds fuel to the problem of covetousness. The smart device in our hand can open new avenues of desire that weren’t available even 20 years ago.
Coveting corrupts our genuine trust in God as our provider, elevating desire for those things above our reliance on God to provide for our physical necessities. The danger lies in slipping into the trap of thinking that what we have just isn’t good enough. In other words, our lives would be so much better if only we had what someone else has. It robs us of contentment, gratitude, and peace of mind. And invariably evil thoughts often lead to evil actions (James 1:13-16; James 4:1-4; Mark 7:21-23). A very common source of covetousness is “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money (covetousness) is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). We are reminded in Ecclesiastes 5:20, NIV “Whoever loves money never has enough”. One theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is covetousness versus contentment.
Covetousness is subtle and insidious, and therein lies the problem. Dealing with covetousness requires a mental awareness of the human weakness to covet as well as an ongoing diligence to combat it. It cannot be defeated without help from God. The negative pulls of human nature are simply too powerful for us to overcome by ourselves. To receive the help we need, we must ask for it—especially requesting that God give us the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). Then we must allow His Spirit to work in us to change the way we think. “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” Paul writes. “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Galatians 5:16-17).
The principle of contentment is a critical key. “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:8). “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NIV). “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26). “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:31-33).
Many scriptures reveal that opposite of coveting is found in godly contentment and a positive desire to help others preserve and protect their blessings from God. Jesus commanded His disciples to “beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). Paul regularly demonstrated that with the help of God, one can be content in even the most miserable circumstances. He gave us the best biblical explanation of contentment in Philippians 4:4-14. Paul had had an incredible amount of suffering and “troubles” in his life (Philippians 4:14). In fact, he wrote this epistle while in prison. Nevertheless, he wrote, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:11-12).
Notice the virtues that promote and accompany contentment: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). “Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6). “Prayer” (vs. 6). “Thanksgiving” (vs. 6). “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7). Think about pure and noble things (Philippians 4:8). Contentment focuses gratefully on what one has rather than pitying oneself for what one does not have. Only when we are content can we then without even a hint of covetousness rejoice when other people are blessed. Our desire should be to contribute to the well-being of others, to make our presence in their lives a blessing to them. The book of Hebrews reminds us not to forget “to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).
If we learn to be “rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,” we will be storing up treasure “for the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:18-19). We should look to the example of the apostle Paul, who said, “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel . . . I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:33-35). It is important to learn the way of give versus the way of get.
Our motives define and govern the way we respond to everyone with whom we come in contact. Our transgressions of God’s law of love begin in the heart, as Jesus Christ confirmed. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness,” He said. “All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23). Therefore, it is fitting that the formal listing of these ten foundational commandments, which define the love of God, should end by focusing on our hearts as the wellspring of our relationship problems. From within come the desires that tempt us and lead us astray.
Let’s conclude this series of pastor’s message on the Ten Commandments with two final inspiring scriptures: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’”. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians1:6)