Don’t Covet

Posted by anointedplace on April 23, 2010 · 3 Comments 

Ten Commandments

#10 Exodus 20:17″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.”(NIV)

Covet – Chamad

1) to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in

a) (Qal) to desire

b) (Niphal) to be desirable

c) (Piel) to delight greatly, desire greatly

2) desirableness, preciousness

Some may read this commandment and think that you have never broken it. But I myself have been guilty of it. Not saying since I have that means everybody has but that we can break the commandment without knowing it. Once we know them we can’t escape it on our own. Coveting is like the opposite of faith in God. We all know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). With that in mind, think of all the times we have uttered the phrase: “if I only had…. my life would be complete or perfect”. The blank in the sentence is not God, its some created thing and now our desire or source of delight is elsewhere. We are now in the mist of coveting and idolatry. When our desires are to much to the point that they lead you away from God, it becomes dangerous. I will add that even a little bit is to much. Sometimes we think it won’t hurt but all the devil needs is a foothold to lead you away from God.

Matthew 6 Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Romans 4 Our Faith’s Impact on God

16 That is why it depends on faith, kin order that the promise may rest on grace and lbe guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, mwho is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, n“I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, owho gives life to the dead and calls into existence pthe things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, q“So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was ras good as dead (ssince he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered tthe barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that uGod was able to do what he had promised.

Our faith and trust in God brings Him glory! When we can’t have faith in Him or be content in Him and not in our circumstances; we rob Him and dishonor Him. When we doubt a faithful LORD, who cannot fail or lie; we grieve the Great I AM. This is what covetousness does to God, it automatically breaks commandments 1 and 2.

Covetousness impacts our ability to have contentment in God. It kills the joy only God can give as well as give us false happiness. Christ is our bread of life and our source.

1 Timothy 6

6 Now there is great gain in bgodliness cwith contentment, 7 for dwe brought nothing into the world, and3 we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But eif we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But fthose who desire to be rich fall into temptation, ginto a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that hplunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of iall kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Paul tells Timothy that there is great gain in godly contentment as this contentment is a solid faith, trust, hope, and dependence on the LORD God.

In a previous posting “Stop! Thief!”:

Luke 3:13-14

¹³“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. ¹⁴Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

Philippians 4:10-13

¹⁰I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Now if we look at the scriptures above we see that we should be content. It is when we become dissatisfied that we began to seek more and if we have no earthly means to getting them; we result to stealing. As humans we have the tendency to rely on the things we can see. Money, then becomes our security blanket and it is the abundance of money and possession we start to trust in. This process actually leads us to the importance of the very first commandment God gave mankind. To further explain this I will include some Old testament scripture.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus said of the seed amongst the thorns: And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Coveting means desiring something too much. And too much is measured by how that desiring compares to desiring God. If desiring leads you away from God rather than closer to God, it is covetousness. It is sin.

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