Covetousness

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.”

Finishing up this small topical Bible Study on the Ten Commandments, we come to the tenth commandment on coveting. Cleanness and uncleanness, with respect to sin and guilt, are ultimately matters of the heart. Outward acts of sin that we commit against people are truly violations of God’s law, and the Lord condemns them. However, the sinful words we speak and deeds that we do are but the fruits of inward sin. Transgression (the act of passing over or beyond any law or rule of moral duty; the violation of a law or known principle of rectitude; breach of command) is not simply an outward matter but a matter of the desires of our hearts and minds.

Matthew 15:19-20 “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.”

Jesus’ exposition of the law in the Sermon on the Mount demonstrates that the commandments deal also inward manifestations of sin. This insight into sin’s being a matter of the heart goes all the way back to the Ten Commandments. This final commandment deals specifically with our hearts and our desires in outlawing the sin of coveting. The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “covetousness” as: A strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing some supposed good; usually in a bad sense, and applied to an inordinate desire of wealth or avarice. Covetousness is a sin of desire; it originates in our heart as we desire something that is not rightfully ours. Coveting is not synonymous with desire in itself. Covetousness is a grasping desire, a longing to possess what belongs to someone else.

Deuteronomy 5:21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

As Christians, we must put to death the covetous desires in our hearts. We must also be wise to the ways that our culture seeks to inculcate and instill covetousness within us. Let us not fall into the trap of covetousness because of worldly secular cultural pressure. The ten Commandments begin with heart desires – that we out God before all else – and end with heart desires – that we not covet. May we apply God’s Law to our hearts and seek the will of Christ that we may not sin against Him.

Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”