Subscribe to Ailbe Newsletters
Sign up to receive our email newsletters and read columns about revival, renewal, and awakening built upon prayer, sharing, and mutual edification.
A Matter of the Heart--Note also that coveting is a matter of affections; it gets at what we most desire.
The tenth commandment
Exodus 20.17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Deuteronomy 5.21
“‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’”
Luke 12.13-21; Ephesians 5.5; Colossians 3.5; 1 Timothy 6.6-8
Note also that coveting is a matter of affections; it gets at what we most desire. From the heart flow the issues of life, as Solomon reminds us (Prov. 4.23). In the work of making disciples we don’t give much attention to affections. Mostly we concentrate on transmitting the right information, so that our students will be able to think as they should about the life of faith.
Of course, it is important that we do this. But no amount of clear thinking will suffice to keep us from sin if our hearts are not disciplined to fear and love God first and foremost. The weeds of coveting arise where we are not sufficiently trained in loving God. Undisciplined in this most important focus, our desires can become easily enthralled with all manner of lesser things.
We are beginning to covet when we desire anything more than we desire God. And we can know when this is beginning to happen by considering where our thoughts linger, how we use our time (quantitatively and qualitatively), what we become excited about, and talk about, and so forth.
That which we find we are beginning to desire more than the Lord may not even be manifestly evil. We may find that we think about our work most of the time, or some particular avocation, or even a loved one. But when these become the supreme objects of our desire, they detract from the love of God. Soon enough, the failure to love God first, foremost, and always will corrupt even the love we have for these good gifts of God (cf. 2 Sam. 13.1-13).
This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.