One of the tools I use in my IT Director job at a local school district is a web filter. That device “filters” every bit of information coming from the Internet. Its purpose is to protect the students and staff from the ugly side of the Internet. The device itself runs on a list of rules which blocks or allows based on who, what, when, and where. At the bottom of the list, the very last rule to be considered is a “catchall” rule. That rule basically says, “if you aren’t allowed above, then you can’t come in.” The Ten commandments also end with a kind of “catchall” rule.
The final commandment is “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 belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17, NASB95)
We all have those moments when we want something that we cannot have. The desire gnaws at us, and we can’t keep it out of our minds. That is coveting. What happens next is up to us. How far will we go to fulfill that want?
Coveting is the beginning of many events in the Bible. We see it in Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit. We see it in Cain before he killed Abel. We see it in David before he seduced Bathsheba. We see it in Judas before he betrayed Jesus. All sin, one way or another, begins with coveting. The other nine commandments deal with objective action; this one speaks to our hearts regardless of whether we act or not.
Looking at this commandment through “love your neighbor as yourself” completely turns the tables. Instead of taking something of our neighbors, we give to our neighbors. We don’t look through the eyes of jealousy but of compassion.
Everywhere we look, there are differences in situations and experiences. Some thrive while others barely survive. Some have while others lack. Things come naturally to some folks while others struggle to simply be mediocre. Those inequities are the soil in which coveting germinates. But, there will always be inequities in life. The largest question is how we handle them. Do we covet, leading to all manner of sin, or do we love one another for who they are?
There is one last bit of this commandment to consider. And it is perhaps the most dangerous and sinful of all. The last bit is coveting what we have already. If we have plenty of something, our coveting wants to hold on to it. The answer is not some kind of communal existence where everyone owns everything. Even in those situations, there are subtle inequities. A balanced attitude is stewarding what is ours while also being compassionately openhanded. It is the same attitude we see in God, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, NASB95)
As we close this series, my hope is that it helped you see the Ten Commandments in a different light. Not has a list of do’s and don’ts but has a way to show and express love to God and to one another.
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