Don’t Covet
This talk is the first in a series based on, and running in parallel to the Just 10 series, with J John in the North East of England. The mp3 of this talk can be downloaded here.
‘Don’t covet your neighbour’s house. Do not covet your neighbour’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbour owns.’ Ex 21:17
Our society is interwoven with the ten commandments. They are everywhere. Our legal system is based upon them, many of us unconsciously think in ways which fall in line with the them and even our populare culture enjoys playing with the ideas. Often we find we both agree with their value whilst also showing we don't approve by our actions. We don't really believe they are necessary or true. In the film Shrek 2, the fairy Godmother sings a song about the value of 'things' in which she includes the line - ‘your worries will vanish, your soul will be cleansed.' We laugh, and comment on how ridiculous that is, but we really believe it!
Being trained in a dental environment, I was surrounded by the pressure to find value in 'stuff and things'. On one dental course, we were asked why we have chosen to go into dentistry. The lecturer concluded the conversation by saying, 'of course we all know the real reason - becasue of the money.' The group just laughed knowingly!
Recently I read an article in 'Dentistry magazine' (a gripping read!) about how to go into Private Practice. apparently, the first question to answer is 'What sort of a lifestyle do you want to have?' Work out - how much money you would like to earn? How many holidays do you want a year? What car do you want to drive? Then work accordingly. That is planned coveting, and something we all find attractive!
Introduction to the Ten commandments
Right at the heart of the 10 commandments is the issue of allegiance.
On the first Tuesday of Just10 Northeast, Shola Ameobi was interviewed. Shola is a Newcastle United player, and has been for many years. As I write he is on loan to Stoke City but is still a Newcastle United player. It is as though he is loaned a Stoke City shirt to wear each week, but is not himself a Stoke City player.
Just imagine with me what would happen if Newcastle United played Stoke City. What would he do? As it happens, he would not be allowed to play, but if he was, he would find his loyalties stretched to the maximum. Often we can feel like that. We are people who know the things that we struggle with, but when we ind a relationship with Jesus Christ, we often feel as though we are on loan. Now we play for another team. We wear a stoke shirt rather than a Newcastle shirt. But, underneath it all we still feel the same with the same issues and struggles. We feel like we are on loan rather than belong to a new team, and we feel the tension. So when we see the 10 commandments, it scares us.
But now, imagine that Shola has formally signed for Stoke, his new team. Now the shirt he wears matches up to the reality of who he is. The tensions are gone.
In the New Testament, Paul says this
“Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused…Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed. But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Christ Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness – righteousness, holy, and true.’ Ephesians 4:17-24
Being a Christian means you are a new person, so God says put on a new nature! Throw off your old top, and wear the new one. You have been signed by a new team, not on loan. So wear your new nature with pride. And the 10 commandments are making exactly that point.
The ten commandments are found in Exodsu Ch20. But before we even get to the 'ten words', God lays down the ground work. In v2 we read -
‘I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt’.
God is saying - you are my people, therefore be like this. He is not saying – do these things and I will allow you to be my people. It isso important that we grasp this at the beginning of this new series. Lets repeat it -
‘I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt’.
And as a result, in Paul’s words
‘You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness – righteousness, holy and true.’
What does this new person look like – what shirt do they wear? Well, they are like God, created in his likeness. So here, in the ten commandments we see God's character expressed in words!
In summary, the ten commandments are God's character expressed in words to HIS people so that they can be like him. The problem is, nowadays, many people would not claim to be his people, to be Christians believing the truth in Jesus Christ. Being exposed to the 10 commandments if you don't see yourself as one of God's team can be an uncomfortable experience because it shows us where we don’t match up to what God is like.
But whether we are on his team or not, their is hope.We can all be one of God’s rescued people. But nothing is to stop you today!
Do not Covet
Exodus 20:17 says - ‘Don’t covet your neighbour’s house. Do not covet your neighbour’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbour owns.’ But what is coveting, and what does it look like?
The problem is coveting doesn’t look like anything. You can’t see coveting, and you can’t necessarily tell when people are being covetous because coveting is an attitude of the heart, the mind and the will.
Coveting is a wrong desire for something that is not ours, or belongs to someone else. I cannot covet something that is already mine, or rightly mine but I can covet something that is someone else’s like their house, their husband or wife, their employees, their income, their car or anything else they own. Moses list in v17 makes exactly that point - coveting any of these things - a house, a wife, male or female servant, an ox (the source of livelihood in Moses' day), donkey (The Ancient Near Eastern transport of choice!) or anything else, is wrong. But if coveting is just an attitude, why is it wrong?
Because it is shown to be wrong by what it produces.
You see, coveting may be an attitude and cannot be seen, but it produces fruit and leads to other sin and damage. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter by making plain the very real danger of the way we think and of what happens inside of us.
“It is the thought life that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable before God.” Mark 7:20-23
Your thought life matters and is important – it will dictate the quality of your life. So, sometimes it can be helpful for us to ask questions about what prompts our behaviour
- Why have I come shopping again?
- Why do I gravitate towards the new girl in my lunch hour?
- Why do I feel I should replace my car every year?
- Why do I have so many foreign holidays?
Now, the answers to all these questions can, and often are for good, real and legitimate reasons – but they may not be. The least we can do is ask ourselves the questions because coveting produces fruit which is harmful and damaging. Coveting affects our relationships with others, and our own well-being too.
Coveting affects our relationships
Coveting stops us from loving our neighbour. Covetousness, by definition always puts itself first. Therefore the covetous person always looks to other people to see what they can get from them rather than give to them. Coveting leads to seeing other people as resources to be used rather than people to love. This might be, and often can be financial – wealth and possessions. But it can also be time. What a difference there is between people who think of themselves and therefore use their time selfishly and those who think of others and are therefore selfless. And Jesus said it is better to give than to receive, not only for our relationships, but better for us!
Coveting affects our wellbeing
If it is better to give than to receive, then by receiving all the time I am cheating myself out of what is best. Jesus in the Bible is very clear that there are many things better than lots of possessions and wealth. When God put his commandments down in stone he was not setting up hoops that God sadistically expects us to jump through. God knows coveting is bad for us.
- Did you know, every week over 100 million pounds is spent on the Lottery. Some estimates say 30 million people try their luck.
- 90% of those who win the lottery jackpot keep playing.
- 90% of people who say that money does not lead to contentment and the life stories of many others lead to the conclusion. That is why advertising works and is a multi-billion pound business. Because people are never satisfied. It is like walking into the sea at Roker and swimming towards the horizon – you’ll never make it. It is madness. Covetous people can never get enough to fulfil them.
Paul wrote to Timothy about covetous people saying -
‘Their minds are corrupt, and they don’t tell the truth. To them religion is just a way to get rich. Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth.’ 1 Tim 6:6
Notice the play on words. There are those who want to get rich, but the only way to be truly rich is to not want to get rich – it is to live for God and to be content with what we have.
And this is perhaps the most pernicious and suicidal thing about coveting. It can stop people from investing in the only true investment that lasts – storing up treasure in heaven by trusting God with our present and our future. Covetousness can completely stop people from becoming Christians by blinding them to their need for God. The loss is appalling – they have traded an awesome future glory that can never perish for short-lived and unsatisfactory pleasures that they cannot keep or hold.
For those of us who are Christians, there is one thing worse than that. Covetousness can lead to the biggest disaster of all – it can blind us from our real duty here on earth – worshipping and serving God and his Kingdom. Because coveting it idolatry.
Coveting means I become my own god!
In Colossians, Paul mentions a list of covetous sin – Sexual sin, impurity, lust and shameful desires, and then says
“Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5
Coveting is wanting things for ourselves that are not ours and belong to others. It is effectively saying what I want is more important that what God wants. It is saying 3 things-
- I know best
- I am most important
- I am God
And there is nothing more shameful in the universe than seeking to displace the true God with any other god. But we do it when we let things, not God become the centre of our hearts, when we let things, not God become the centre of our minds and when we let things, not God become the centre of our wills. If we desire something more than we desire God and his will for us, that is idolatry. And we all do it!
If that is you – if you have felt God touching your heart as you have read these words, as I have in writing them then you need to fall on your knees in repentance, and in faith in the cross of Jesus. We are made new people because of the blood of Jesus on the cross. So let us put on the new nature.
So finally, how do we do that?
The antidote to idolatry and covetousness
Firstly, as we have already said, we never move from the cross of Christ. True contentment is only to be found in a right relationship with Christ. It is how we were made. Elsewhere in Colossians, Paul says
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done” Col 2:6-7
The life for the Christian is a life of constantly refocusing on the cross of Jesus which means a life of constant repentance, faith and thanksgiving. I find that I am constantly coming back to God in repentance – not in a morbid way but a honest re-evaluation of who I am which leads to repentance. This means I have to constantly take hold of the truths of the cross again. Faith is central to me not wearing myself down by guilt or failure. Growing faith means my covetousness and idolatry is not the end. It is a point of hope.
Which leads to thanksgiving.
I don't know if you have every thought of making a crop circle. I have - but I have never done it. I am told it is easy if you have a post and a rope. Fix the post in what you need to be the centre of the circles and then use it as a pivot around which you can flatten the crop that falls within the radius of your rope. It works when you have a strong central pole around which the rope pivots. Without it, you are all over the place. The cross of Jesus must be kept at the centre of the life of a Christian. The post around which everything else pivots. If this is the case we live a life of hope. If not, we will find we are in trouble.
Which brings us on to our last point. The antidote to idolatry and covetousness is right worship and desiring the right things. The only place lasting joy is to be found is in a right relationship with the God of the universe – the one who is truly, and eternally satisfying. Desiring anything else is pointless and ultimately selling yourself short and missing the mark.
In Matthew, Jesus says these famous words
“Don’t store up treasure here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store up treasure in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” Matt 6:19-21
Store up treasure in heaven, not on earth because it lasts. And how do we know if we are doing that?Your treasure will be where you heart is. So look after you heart.
1. See through covetousness. Keep reminding yourself how futile it is to set your heart on anything else other than Jesus. Resist the temptation to believe that ‘just one more thing’ can bring you happiness. Learn to see through the claims and promises of advertisements.
2. Practice being grateful. Be thankful for what God has given you. We often, in a rather trite way say ‘count your blessings’. Never-the-less, it is a helpful thing to list the ways in which you have been blessed.
3. Be a wise steward. Take care of what God has given you and use it wisely. It is often a temptation to look outwards to get more when you are unable to look after what you already have.
4. Focus on relationships, not things. God desires for us to have good relationships not only with him, but with others too. God tells us to love people and use things. So often we do the opposite!
5. Be a giver. The best antidote to coveting is to do the opposite. Give freely and generously with what we already have. Covetousness finds it hard to get a grip in a generous heart.
This talk is based on the Just10 series. I used the helpful book '10+ - Ten Service Outlines for church leaders based on the Ten Commandments' by J John in shaping this talk (Monarch Books, London: 2001).