Dr. Ron Sumners
April 25, 2004
The first and the tenth Commandments form bookends to this great body of law. They both deal with the intangible - the first, our relationship with the Almighty, and the tenth, our relationship with our own souls. Both involve matters that are nearly impossible for any law to define. After all, who can say when we are putting some other god ahead of the Lord God? And who can judge the boundary between proper wholesome desire and covetousness? These are the most spiritual of the Commandments. A graven image is an object, blasphemy is identifiable words, the Sabbath is a given day, parents are real people, and murder, adultery, theft, and even lies are matters that can be identified. But coveting is a spiritual matter as is failing to put God first in your life.
These two commandments are beyond the ability of the law to enforce. Someone can say that you have bowed before a graven image, but who can say that you prefer another god, unless you announce it? The law can judge when we murder or steal, but who could prove that I have coveted?
Who can know but God, and our own heart? We know in our heart who and what we desire. Coveting is a secret sin, sometimes so secret that we seem to hide it even from our consciousness. But it will be revealed. Our souls will reveal it. Someone has said that covetousness is the "sin of sins" because it opens the door to so many other sins. If we covet our neighbor's wife, we are in danger of slipping into adultery. If we covet our neighbor's possessions, we may easily violate the eighth Commandment - theft, and perhaps also the ninth Commandment, false witness, and perhaps even the sixth Commandment, murder. Coveting enhances the power of other sins.
The dictionary defines "covet" as "to desire inordinately or without due regard for the rights of others." Covetousness is something different from desire. Of itself, desire is a good thing. Desire takes us from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to plenty, from sickness to health. Without desire, the world would die. But desire becomes an evil power when the desire is for that which is wrong, or when the desire violates the rights of others. When my desire for even a good thing makes me covet what you have, my desire becomes a destructive force.
Some of the Eastern religions seek a goal of non-desire. Perfect peace, they teach, is in wanting nothing. Buddhism teaches that desire is the cause of all suffering. The Bible takes a very different position. It teaches that God has provided us with good things that He intends for us to enjoy. So, the handling of our desires is a lifetime moral education.
To covet something is not simply to want it, but to want what belongs to another. Thus, it has to do with our feelings toward our neighbor. We want what our neighbor has. Their having seems to awaken our desire. "Thy neighbor's" is clearly the operative phrase in this Commandment. It is repeated with each example. It is not wrong to want a spouse, an ox, or a donkey - or a computer, or a car, or a Super Bowl ticket - but it is quite another matter to want these things when they belong to my neighbor.
Covetousness is as old as humanity. Obviously, it was a concern thousands of years ago in an agrarian society to which the Commandments were given. But it is a particular peril in our time, partly because possessions form the most important symbol of attainment in our society. We have no titles or heredity privileges, so we make "titles" for ourselves with house, boat, and car.
Covetousness is also a particular peril for us partly because possessions are within the reach of most everyone in the Western world. Coveting is a useless enterprise in many parts of the world because most material possessions are unattainable. But in the West, coveting is endorsed by rational hope. We may well get what our neighbor has and more.
Isn't it ironic that the very fact of abundance has given new power to covetousness? You might assume that we would stop coveting when we all have so much, but it usually doesn't work that way. Coveting is not cured by getting. It has little to do with what we have or do not have. Covetousness is a state of mind, not a state of economy. As long as our hearts are covetous, we will want what the other person has, no matter how much we have or how little they have.
Covetousness is not limited to material things, though this is the main thrust of the Commandment. We may envy our neighbor's popularity or position in the community. We may covet our neighbor's club membership, or we may even covet the office he or she holds in the church. Coveting has many faces, and just when we think we are victorious over its temptation, another attractive face appears.
So, how do we win the struggle with covetousness? Since desire itself is an essential in life, we must maintain a constant relationship with desire. How do we protect ourselves against that level of desire we call covetousness, the desire that destroys?
It's all a matter of vision. I have come to believe that covetousness is a sin that springs from poor vision. For example, what is the value of the thing I covet? If I covet my neighbor's spouse, is that spouse of such value that I would trade my family, my sense of responsibility, and my self-respect in order to gain that person? Or, if I covet my neighbor's house, do I see its price? Do I consider the payments my neighbor has to make or the amount of money he invested to begin with? Do I see the burden of the upkeep? Or if I covet my neighbor's position of prominence - his or her place in the public eye - do I see how tiresome it may be to live in a fishbowl of public attention?
Covetousness is almost always shortsighted. It sees the neighbor's destination, but it doesn't fairly estimate the length of the road leading there. After a classical pianist had completed a concert, an enthusiastic amateur said to the performer, "I'd give ten years of my life to play like that." The pianist answered, "It cost me twenty." Most of the things we covet are available if we are willing to pay the price of time and hard work.
Covetousness always looks for a shortcut. Perhaps that's why covetousness is riding high in our day. The very nature of our sped-up world has geared us to instant gratification. We want what we want immediately, if not sooner! We want to get our fortune with a lottery ticket, solve our marital problems with a weekend seminar, and get our peace of mind with a doctor's prescription. It is the very nature of covetousness to be shortsighted, to look for instant pleasure, instant reward, and instant success.
The poor vision of covetousness is especially dangerous in what it does to our own person. It prevents our seeing what we have, or at least recognizing its value.
The bitter irony of covetousness is that it makes us blind to our own wealth and prevents us from enjoying the beauty, which is already ours. So many people don't enjoy their own home because their eyes are captured by their neighbor's home. They can't enjoy the friends they have because they envy those who live in a world of glamour. They don't drink in the color and quality of their own street because they covet a street in New York or Paris or London. Perhaps coveting does nothing worse to us than rob us of what we already have - including sound judgment about life's priorities.
Coveting distorts our whole sense of values. Jesus said, "Strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). Christian faith doesn't despise the things of the world; to the contrary, it considers them to be God's good gifts, intended for our pleasure and benefit. It warns that we should keep them in their place - and that is always second place. When we covet, we think that some object or person or position will bring us happiness. That is too great a burden to place on any person or thing. Only God can fill the God-shaped vacuum in a person's life. When we allow God to fill the ultimate place in our lives, we can accept money, lands, clothing, honors, and people for what they are: worthy secondary factors in life. God must be kept at the center.
Covetousness also dims our vision of God. I find that I am not inclined to envy when my heart trusts God. It isn't that I necessarily have everything that I want or that I am completely satisfied with my circumstances; I am not that non-materialistic. But when my faith is right, when I am seeing God rightly, I have a deep confidence that whatever is best for me will come my way in proper time. If something is worth having, and if I am willing to apply myself to its proper pursuit, God will help me achieve it. If God does not bring it, I can rest peacefully in the knowledge that He knows better than I, and that I am better off without whatever it is that I thought I had to have.
When I am not seeing God rightly, I focus on my desire, and very often on my neighbor's possessions. The key word in this commandment is neighbor. Our desire for a thing can be created simply because my neighbor has it. Isn't it amazing how an ordinary thing becomes extraordinary and an object of desire when our neighbor gets one? The problem is that we see our neighbor as our competitor rather than our neighbor. I Corinthians 13:4 tells us that "love is not envious." Paul says that we are to weep when our neighbor weeps and rejoice when they rejoice (Romans 12:15). Most of us realize that it is easier to weep with our neighbors than to rejoice with them.
There is no more significant measure of friendship than our readiness to rejoice in our neighbor's gain, particularly if it is something that we desire. At a class reunion last year, a classmate reminded me that I had won an honor that she had been in the competition for. For the life of me, I could not remember the competition, but I might have if I had lost! Our naturally competitive natures are like that.
How much do we love our neighbors? Do we love them enough to rejoice at their good fortune? Covetousness, perhaps more than any other sin, invades my relationship with my neighbor. The Great Commandment of Jesus tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we could ever get that into our hearts, we would have no problem with the tenth Commandment. If I love my neighbor as I love myself, I will find joy and fulfillment in my neighbor's gain. My neighbor's winning would mean as much to me as my own victories.
If that were so, how much bigger would our lives be! When I rejoice at my neighbor's having, I become rich. My relationship with God grows because I can see God's goodness working when I get out of my small, little world. I feel better about life, because I see its blessings more clearly; I see what I have rather than what I don't have! When I covet, my life is so small and petty that I shrink into my own little world of misery, envy, and avarice.
Freeing myself from covetousness leads to a spirit of contentment. The richest people
are not the ones who have the most, but those who are the happiest with what they have!
The tenth commandment frees us up to receive the greatest possession of all: the gift of Eternal life. That is a possession I desire for myself and my neighbor!
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