The disease of covetousness

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17)

This is the tenth commandment. The previous four commandments concerned mainly deeds or actions (murder, adultery, stealing, lying). But this ones goes deeper - to the level of your thought-life, and even to the level of desire. John Calvin said of this commandment, “They were not only to abstain from evil doing, but also, that what he had previously commanded should be performed with the sincere affection of the heart.” In other words, this commandment concerns our attitudes, our desires.

The tenth commandment speaks to an area, namely your thoughts and your heart attitude, that no one can see but God. This makes it especially difficult. No one but God really knows when you’ve broken it, and thus, it makes us more likely for us to tolerate our own disobedience. After all, who would know?

Listen to what Edith Schaeffer says:

Each of us is capable of being two people, doing one thing which people are observing, even saying one thing which people are hearing, and thinking and feeling a totally opposite thing, being schizophrenic with no one but ourselves and God being aware of it. Each of us has a struggle over some form of hypocrisy, and we are troubled in varying degrees about the situation. (Edith Schaeffer, Lifelines: The Ten Commandments for Today, 198)

This is the very thing that Jesus pointed out again and again with the Pharisees. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:” ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Mark 7:6). It is possible to keep the other commandments outwardly, and still be in sin because of the attitude of our hearts.

But the Scriptures tell us it is even more than that. A covetous heart will lead to the breaking of the other commandments as well. This is one reason why it is a fitting close to the Ten Commandments.

The principle is this: wrong ideas, wrong desires precede wrong actions. Our thought life is the place where all sin begins. Coveting proceeds from the heart (Prov 6:25), brings forth sin, which is finished in the “act” (James 1:14-15).

I don’t think those Enron guys just woke up one morning, and decided it was a good day to steal money from their investors. Rather, years of greed, and ambition, and selfishness culminated in sins of lying and deceit. The same is true with adultery. I don’t think people just wake up one day and decide, “I think I’m going to have an affair, and tear my family apart.” No, it begins with coveting a different life, a different spouse, a more exciting sex life.

Your thought life matters. It is the place of preparation for sin. The principle of reaping and sowing is in play here. You sow a thought, reap and action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Don’t let the sin of coveting go unchecked in your mind and in your heart, because you think no one will know. God knows, and others will know soon enough when the disease takes it toll on you.