Coveting

"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

Commandment number ten is one that I don't think people fully understand. The command is not to covet your neighbor's house, wife, servants, animals, or any of his possessions. We define coveting as wanting something that someone else has, but that isn't what coveting is. Simply wanting something that someone else has is not what coveting is. Coveting is much deeper, much more extreme, and much more dangerous.

Coveting is wanting something so badly that you want someone who has it not to have it because you can't have it. Example, I used to drive a Ford F-150 pickup truck. I loved that thing and miss it. One day I hope to get another one. It's a popular vehicle, and typically I see several of them each day on my way to work. When I do my mind thinks, I'd really like another one of those some day. This isn't coveting. I don't want the guy driving the truck not to have his because I can't have one. I'm simply saying I like the vehicle, and some day I'd like my own. This is not coveting.

But I have to be honest, I used to have a problem with coveting. When I was single and freshly out of college, many of my friends began to get married. I hated going to the weddings, one because I was there by myself, and two because there was no wedding in my foreseeable future. I hated watching other people get married because I wasn't, and that is coveting.

Coveting keeps us from sharing in the joy of others. It keeps us from rejoicing about all of the blessings God has poured out on us. Simply saying "They have a nice house, I'd like these features in my own house some day" is not coveting. But when it consumes you, and you hate the fact that someone else has something and you don't then it becomes a sin.

Men, do you covet? Are you single and like I use to be? Maybe you're married and not having kids while others you know are. Do you covet that? Maybe you got passed over for the promotion. Do you covet the guy who got it? Maybe it's something else, a house, a car, a hobby, what is it for you? Do you covet anything?

Let us rejoice with others, and let us rejoice in the blessings that God has given us. As men we set the tone for our families, or those we mentor, do they see a joyful attitude or a covetous one? Do you admire something someone else has, are are you consumed with the desire for it that causes you to want no one to have it if you can't? I think that it isn't until we get over the coveting that God can truly bless us in those areas. It wasn't until I learned to rejoice with friends who were getting married that God allowed me to share in that joy.

What blessings is your covetous attitude keeping you from?

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor