Last Lessons #54 - COVETING

“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.”  Exodus 20:17

What does it mean to covet?  In the context of this last of the Ten Commandments, to covet means to strongly desire something that belongs to someone else.  Sometimes we confuse coveting with being jealous.  Usually being jealous is wanting to be like or being better than someone else.  Envying is more akin to coveting because to envy means to want what someone else has.  Whether we think of desiring to be better than someone, or having more than someone else, covetousness always leads to sin. 

Coveting a person’s spouse can lead to adultery. Coveting another’s employee (servant) can lead to bad business. Coveting someone’s possessions (ox or donkey) can lead to stealing. Wrong desire always precedes the wrong action. 

Covetousness will lead individuals to anger, hate, theft, slander, and even murder.  Covetousness will lead countries to riots, crime, genocide, and war.

It is not wrong to want things.  What is wrong is to want something that belongs to someone else.  James makes it clear that when we want something we should ask God for it, not take it from someone else. 

“You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.”  James 4:2

Christians are not to covet.  Instead, they are to ask God for what they want and then listen to if, when, or how he wants to give it to them.  

What I have learned during my lifetime is that when I want something, that I need to work for it.  The Bible says that those who are not willing to work, should not eat and Christians are commanded to do their work quietly and to earn their own living (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12).  Work is good.  It is a gift from God and we are to do all our work as unto the Lord.  What I have also learned is that when I can “pay my own way”, I am not so tempted to covet and take from someone else.

It is so sad when we do not teach our children to work for what they want to own.  That is why many adults today want to spread the wealth and take what someone else has worked for in the form of socialism. 

I want to finish my blog this week on a different note.  In light of the disaster in Afghanistan and the crisis it has caused, I am asking you to please read up on Islam.  Islam is a religion, not just a culture.  It is a false religion, and it wants to make all people Muslims.  We do not hate Muslims, we pray for their conversion to Christ.  But we do hate Islam because it is against Christ.  The new name for Afghanistan (The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) indicates a full-blown Muslim country that is based on Sharia law.  PLEASE learn what this means to women.  Pray for God to save the people of Afghanistan.