You Shall Not Covet
We were created for God. To know him, to love him, to worship him. And to proclaim his glory, to make him known to others. But based on the billboards we see on the highways, and the ads we see on TV and on the internet, it seems we were really created for the newest, the shiniest, the coolest, the most exciting. One pastor called it, “The Cult of the Next Thing.” He said, “The cult’s central message proclaims, “Crave and spend, for the Kingdom of Stuff is here.” I remember a former NFL player and his wife who came and spoke at Antioch years ago. He was joking about her love for shopping and said, “Yeah, we walked into a store the other day, and the spirit of purchase fell on her!” It can happen.
God created us for himself, not for stuff. But he also created us with normal and natural human desires. Our desire for food gets us out of bed and into the kitchen in the morning. Our desire for doing something that matters every day drives us to get a job. Our desire for fellowship gets us into community, especially the spiritual family of a church. Our desire for intimacy, including sexual intimacy, leads us to get married. These are all good desires and the greatest desire that God gave every image bearer is a desire to know our Creator. Because of the fall, those desires, like everything else, have been corrupted. Our desire for food can kill us, can’t it? Our desire for intimacy can drive us to break the 7th commandment in all the ways it can be broken. Our desire to know something greater than ourselves can drive us into all kinds of idolatry and self-deception. This is why God gave us the 10th commandment.
This commandment may be last because it sums up all of the 6 commandments that have to do with loving our neighbor. Paul said as much: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments…are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” This commandment is also a companion to the first one: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Fill in the blank: “If I only had ____________, I would be happy.” Whatever we put in that blank has taken the place of God, who is the source of all our joy and who has met our deepest need and of whom Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom.” So, what is the tenth commandment?
We are told not to covet our neighbor’s house, our neighbor’s wife, and our neighbor’s possessions. Our neighbor may have people who serve him. He may have animals that serve him, like donkeys. I don’t think most of us struggle with coveting our neighbor’s donkey, though I do drive past a cute one near our house. Maybe that’s why God made this commandment apply to everyone when he included the last phrase, “or anything that is your neighbor’s.” We are not to covet anything our neighbor has, from his stuff to his health to his status to his job to his relationships.
This commandment is hidden often because it is in the heart. Covetousness is birthed in the heart as a desire and it grows and matures and leads to sin and death. Exactly as James describes it: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
What is the antidote to covetousness? I would argue that it is contentment, which sadly, many people never experience.
A 14 year-old young man named Jason Lehman wrote this poem in 1989 entitled, “Present Tense.”
“It was spring, but it was summer I wanted, the warm days, and the great outdoors.
It was summer, but it was fall I wanted, the colorful leaves, and the cool, dry air.
It was autumn, but it was winter I wanted, the beautiful snow, and the joy of the holiday season.
I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted, the freedom, and the respect.
I was twenty, but it was thirty I wanted, to be mature, and sophisticated.
I was middle-aged, but it was thirty I wanted, the youth, and the free spirit.
I was retired, but it was middle age that I wanted, the presence of mind, without limitations.
My life was over, but I never got what I wanted.”
The good news is contentment can be learned and is worth whatever it costs. Paul wrote from a prison cell, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
May Christ grow our contentment and help us to put away coveting in all its forms.