Ten Commandments - 10th

Exodus 20:17 ESV

“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.”

The first and last commandments specifically deal with the heart

Do not desire to server another God, Do not desire what others have.

James 4:1–2 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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.

What are other terms for Coveting?

Wanting

Desire

Longing

Genesis 3:6 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Q: Does that mean that I see my friend with a nice house, a nice car or anything else that he possess and I want the same thing and apply myself to achieve that goal is that the same thing?

Sinful Desire - Ungoverned and selfish desire that threatens the basic rights of others.

Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God. Or: losing your contentment in God so that you start to seek it elsewhere.

Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God.

Proverbs 6:23–26 ESV

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

Is all desire the same as sinful coveting?

Relating to Food

Relating to Intimacy in marriage

Relating to a good fortune

Relating to drawing closer to God

Desiring your neighbors property is wrong

Also desiring to be in the presence of evildoers

Proverbs 24:1 ESV

Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,

Why is coveting itself evil? It is just a feeling, not one is hurt by it.

What does desire produce? It can lead to taking things by force or in secret.

Taking belongings - Theft

Taking another wife - adultery

Taking glory from God - Idolatry

Resulting in ungratefulness - In the Wildreness

Numbers 11:4–6 ESV

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Colossians 3:5 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Luke 12:15 ESV

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”