Coveting

One of the things I have been hoping to do by going through the 10 commandments is To tell people they are sinners, and show them where they have transgressed the law. Fun topic I know. But the law shows us that we are all guilty, we are all sinners. Paul said in the book of Romans thatHe would not have known what sin was if it where not for the law telling Him about sin.

“the law of God chases us to the cross”

But the other side of this that we have been looking at shows us that there is a savior who paid the price for their transgressions. Jesus often took the law and showed people the spirit behind it. The amazing thing is God’s mercy and grace gave us something that we did not deserve, the gift of eternal life for all those who put their faith and lives in Jesus as their Lord and savior.

Which moves us to the last commandment. The is kind of a summary of sorts, it is something we all have trouble with at times. That is the idea of desiring what others have that is not ours and contentment in what God has given us.

The world has a problem with Greed and contentment.

About seven in ten respondents in a survey said they strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement: “Having more money would solve most of my problems.” Similar proportions of people in each income bracket felt that way, including those with salaries of $200,000 or more.

Exactly how much more money do we think we need to be happy? A survey from the financial-services company Empower put the question to about 2,000 people.

In the survey, most people said it would take a pretty significant pay bump to deliver contentment. The respondents, who had a median salary of $65,000 a year, said a median of $95,000 would make them happy and less stressed. The highest earners, with a median income of $250,000, gave a median response of $350,000.

Even very wealthy people think like this. A 2018 study asked millionaires to rate their happiness on a scale from one to ten and, if they didn’t say ten, predict how much money they would need to move one point higher. Slightly over half of those with a net worth of $10 million or more said their wealth would need to increase by at least 50%.

HBI - Coveting is an inward action that if dwelt on will lead to an action that goes against God. Therefore we need to learn what it means to be content in the Lord.

Do Not Covet

we start out by going right to the last commandment.

Exodus 20:17 CSB

17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Covet

Hebrew - Chamad

to desire earnestly. An inward desire that if fanned will lead to action.

What does it mean to covet? Lets look into the word. This type of stuff is easy to do at home if you ever want to get into word studies.

The Hebrew word Covet - Hebrew Chamad - to desire earnestly. An inward desire that if fanned will lead to action.

so what does that mean? to covet is a desire of the heart. it is to earnestly desire something that does not belong to you. God gave us a example by looking to our neighbor and what he has as an example.

Look at your neighbors house or anything else that belongs to him. His truck maybe. My truck is old and rusty, it has 359k on it. My neighbor has a nice Ford F-350 that looks like it has never seen mud. I may get jealous of that truck and maybe want to have it for myself. Or I may start getting a bad attitude and no longer be content with what I have and maybe put myself in debt to get what my neighbor has.

coveting someone else wife as we may may know leads to adultery, or it can.

You see coveting starts in the heart and if left unchecked leads to all sorts of sin. It leads to us not being content in what God has given us. But dwelling on coveting something long enough will eventually lead to action of some sort, so we must be careful.

But How does one judge what it is that they are coveting? This can be hard sometimes. I think that what we need to learn is first how to be content in what the Lord has given us.

But the first thing that we learn is what is it in our lives, what desires do we have in our hearts that if fanned into flame will lead to sin in our lives. Are we desiring things in in our lives that are going to lead us to drift away from the will of God for our lives? If coveting is an inward desire that if fanned will lead to the action of sin then how can we be fanning into flame rather a desire to follow after God.

Contentment in God

I have been going over this idea this past week. What does coveting mean, How do I struggle with it. What would the opposite of coveting be? I believe if we look to the opposite of what coveting is we learn we are to be at peace with where God has brought us. I want to go to the book of Hebrews to give us an idea of what this looks like.

Hebrews 13:5 CSB

5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

Be satisfied with what you have, For God will always be with us as His children. Be satisfied in God. Be content with what You have.

You guys have probably all heard my story, How I struggled with this, Being content with where God has led me. At some points in my life I would look around me and see what other people had and I got jealous. I worked with a guy who worked pipeline in Ab. At the time, everyone was going to the oilfield to work. He made good money until he started working at the same place I was out. He Had all the toys, I was jealous of Him and all he had, I wanted it. There are other times where instead of following God and being content. It left me depressed and in need of the discipline of God to get me back on track.

It is hard to be content where the Lord has Led us. there are many things we can covet. What about good health? That is a tough one. If we must learn to be content where God has led us does that also include our health?

This might be a bit of a controversial one, but I believe that Paul discusses this and it is a lesson we to must learn. It is in all things that we must learn to be content. We may envy others and what they have but we must learn to lean on God in whatever we face.

in the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul told of a thorn in the flesh that he was given. Something he likely would have prayed about to be released from but for some reason no healing this side of heaven seemed to come.

He also wrote down one of the most misquoted verses ever. Phil 4:11

Philippians 4:11 CSB

11 I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.

Philippians 4:12 CSB

12 I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.

Philippians 4:13 CSB

13 I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

To be content in all things. We went through this a while ago, but it fit so well we will go over a couple things again.

Since I like word studies so much here is another mini one. again, this is important to do sometimes so we know why interpreters use the words that they do sometimes.

Content

Greek “Autarkes”

Satisfied or showing satisfaction with things as they are

I have learned to be satisfied with things as they are, with what God has called me to in all things.

People take the verse about I can do all things and think that it is literally that they can do all things through the strength of God but they miss the point. We see athletes put this verse on there shoes, people tattoo it on their skin and so on. Unfortunately this is not saying you can go lift a car off someone, or win the lottery for the Lord, but rather it is learning to be satisfied in all things.

Paul mentions some of the things that we can learn to be content in. some of the things that put this into context as to what he gives us strength for. the “all things” he lets us know we can handle. It starts off with making sure that we are following the will of the Lord, that our life is lined up with Him, or at least we are striving to.

As we line ourselves up with the will of the Lord, we learn to Make due with a little or a lot. Financially if you are where the Lord wants you to be do you trust Him to provide. There are some people that God has given the gift of making money, but He expects them to use it for His glory, not keep it all for themselves. I have met people like this, who are extra generous with what they have because the Lord has blessed them with a lot. I am not like this. Can we learn to be content following the will of the Lord with the money and stuff He has given us or do we covet what our neighbor has,

How about with what we have to eat? this gets a little harder. I like the story of George Meuller when it comes to stuff like this. He started an orphanage with little to no money to start with. All He knew was that this is what God was calling Him to do and He was going to do it. The strength that comes from faith and the trust of contentment knowing you are following the will of God. There would be times where they prayed and thanked God for the food that He was going to provide for them while the plates where still empty.

God provided for them, but the point is they where following the will of God and they had nothing. They where given just enough food, just enough money, no more. Can we be at peace in this situation.

These are just an example of some of the things. where is God leading you and are you willing to be content, to be at peace with where God has led you.

It tells us in 1 Timothy

1 Timothy 6:6 CSB

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

There is great gain in learning to be content with what God has Given you and allowed you to go through.

I have a bad back and arthritis in my hip. I would love for that top be not the case, I have stopped praying for healing from that because I have learned to be content with my pains. There are many people like this. Not that we stop asking God for healing but rather the perspective changes.

It goes from being discontent with where God has allowed you to be to shifting our focus to how can I glorify God in spite of what I am going through.

I want us to focus on this, godliness with contentment is great gain. We tend to want things that are not ours. We look around and see what our neighbor has and sometimes we get jealous. But rather we are called to follow the will of the Lord God with our whole lives. Then learn to trust in Him as we walk through this life. Learn to be at peace and glorify the Lord God in spite of what we are going through.

So What?

Saint Augustine, a famous Christian, explained that sin is not just about breaking rules. It’s about loving things more than we should, like power or comfort, and making them the most important thing in our lives. When we do this, we sometimes break rules to protect these things. This shows that sin is about making good things more important than they should be. That’s why we need a new heart that loves things in the right order.

It all comes back to the heart and what our desires are. The ten commandments show us that our hearts are prone to wander, prone to sin. But the Lord God tells us to follow Him and He will set us free. When we line ourselves up under thew will of God, when we accept Him as Lord our our lives and seek His forgiveness then our lives start to change. That doesn't mean that we are perfect, but that we are striving to line ourselves up with the will of God.

desire earnestly

What is it that we are earnestly desiring? If to covet means An inward desire that if fanned will lead to action we must be careful that what we desire is of God. Covetosnous is the forerunner to all kinds of sin.

coveting is the result of envy or greed which once it takes root in the heart leads to worse things. Once dwelled upon, envy of the neighbor’s possessions can turn to feelings of resentment and hatred for the neighbor himself. That can turn into resentment against God and questioning Him: “Why can’t I have what he has, Lord? Don’t you love me enough to give me what I want?”

Envy is a love of self, a want to put self above anything else. Selfish people are discontent people. Then what is going to happen is that our own selfish desires will pull us away from God.

what desires do we have in our hearts that if fanned into flame will lead to sin in our lives. Are we desiring things in in our lives that are going to lead us to drift away from the will of God for our lives? If coveting is an inward desire that if fanned will lead to the action of sin then how can we be fanning into flame rather a desire to follow after God.

Content in God

The opposite of this is contentment. the only thing that will ever make us happy and content is the Lord God. rue happiness is not attained by things, but by a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. By this alone do we gain that which is worthy, true, solid, satisfying, and durable—the unsearchable riches of God’s grace.

I like to look to the book of Job as an example. He was allowed to be attacked by Satan and lose everything. He had it right at the beginning. When his wife told him to curse God and die already he reminded her that we need to accept good and adversity from the Lord.

The apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and found peace in following the will of God in spite of the malady He faced. Joni Erickson Tada was paralyzed from the neck down I believe and struggled with that until she found comfort in the will of God in spite of that.

To rest calmly in the grace of God is a hard lesson that we all need to learn. Follow the will of God, seek Him in all things. This is where it starts. And as we do this we will come into situations where we might envy what others have or stuff we do not have. But maybe we just need to start asking God to use us for His glory in every situation that we might face.

We will all fall to some sin or another throughout our lives. But the beauty of the mercy and grace of God is that we don't have to stay lost.