The sin behind them all

Ephesians 5:1–9 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

Introduction

In the Name of Jesus, the Suffering Servant. Amen.

This week, during my Lenten retreat, I read the magnificent work, Wonderfully Made by Dr. John Kleinig— a Lutheran Pastor and Professor from Australia. It’s a book that combats gnostic heresies by making clear that God made our bodies to be reflections of Jesus. He makes a remarkable, yet simple observation of our bodies:

Since [the Lord] has made each of us and the whole of humanity in his image, the value of the body does not depend on its worth to the person who owns it; it does not come from its social status or usefulness, nor is it derived only from its place and function in the natural world. The worth of the body is conferred by its divine Creator. The triune God designed it for himself and for participation in His own eternal life.... As a result of human rebellion against God, people serve God poorly and badly. They are far from the glory of God… They are not as they should be, nor do they any longer function properly. They have lost their access to God and live corruptly apart from Him.

But through [Jesus] our bodies once again become what they were meant to be: Agents of God and instruments by which he shows himself and gives of himself to other people on earth.

For the Christian, it is Christ who is our desire, our hope, our reason for existence. Remove this truth and the body turns to lust. Human unregenerate desires overpower God’s change in our lives that come to us through Baptism, and the body becomes abused. The godly, created unity between an man and a woman, husband and wife, is overtaken with an insatiable desire to satisfy the desires of the flesh sexually. This is a war that has raged in the souls of men and women ever since the fall into sin. The goal becomes gratification and satisfaction, and that is sought by those outside of Christ in any way they can get it. Hence, Paul’s words which ring especially true in our day and age.

Purity is the way of God’s people. Not passion. “sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints”. As the Lord’s redeemed people we live by this. And when we don’t, we flee to the Cross for forgiveness and plead with the Holy Spirit in prayer to sanctify us against this misuse of what belongs to God in the first place, our bodies.

Enter Coveting

But then, twice in this passage, included with and equal to sinful sexual desires, Paul speaks about coveting. Being jealous of someone else. Not being satisfied with the gifts that the Lord has given us— all different and unique— and attempting to make them our own at the expense of someone else.

The Ninth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.

The Tenth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

In Protestant Churches, which we are not, these commandments are reduced to one. You shall not covet. But the issue is that the ninth and tenth commandments speak to different forms of coveting. One is being jealous of the “things” of our neighbor, the other is being jealous of the relationships of our neighbor. Understood in this way, coveting is the root sin of all of the commandments we break. Yet we barely understand these two important commands of the Lord.

A simple example of coveting can be seen in the sin of Eve, and then Adam. The devil asks her if God really said what He said. She tells the devil yes. The devil comes back with basically calling God a liar. He’s holding out on you. You can be just like Him. And then it happens:

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.

Delight. Desired. Dead.

Delight. Desired. Dead. There you have it. Eve coveted and brought down the world into death because of it. Adam joined her. And here we are. Instead of being in paradise, we are fighting the onslaughts of the devil both in our lives and in our congregation, living out our time in what theology calls “The Church Militant”.

Paul, in our text, equates coveting to idolatry. Idolatry is putting something or someone before God, breaking the First Commandment. Coveting does exactly the same thing. It puts us first. It celebrates our perceived needs. It justifies our angry words. It shuts our ears to God’s Word and only functions on our own mistaken beliefs and opinions that we embrace tenaciously. Then it leads to our death. Just as it did with Eve.

Coveting brought sin into this world, and coveting is our worst sin. It leads us to break fellowship with God. And it guarantees our grave.

Strange that when we recite the commandments, the ninth and tenth are simply tagged at the end of the list. Yet they are directly responsible for our sentence to hell. We are guilty of coveting.

Being jealous of those who have more money than us. Being jealous of those who have a big home. Being jealous of someone we hate being praised. Being jealous of another person’s spouse to whom we are attracted. Being jealous of those who are not sick because we are. Being jealous of those who can express beauty better than we can. Being jealous of those who are our supervisors. The list can go on forever.

It should be noted that we do not have to act on our coveting to sin. I sin just as much if I covet another person’s money as I would if I took it. Coveting, in and of itself, is sinful. Our Lutheran Confessions speak of the concept of Concupiscence, which is a desire to sin, and they point out that the Bible calls it such. Even our desires bring us death.

Discern

Our Sanctification— that is our living of the Christian life, takes discipline. While we do not cooperate with God in our Salvation — it is pure gift— we do cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our Christian walk

Because of Jesus’ death and sending us His Holy Spirit, we can learn to live a life without sin. We can choose life over death. We can say no to the carnal desires that attempt to captivate our heart. And we can be content with what we have. Paul sums this up well at the conclusion to this Epistle:

Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Paul further encourages us with these words:

Philippians 4:10–13 ESV

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

You shall not Covet your neighbors house. You shall not covet your neighbors wife, manservant, maidservant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Amen.