  Foundations of the Faith
By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Volume 32, Number 5, Posted November 11, 1999 Foundations of the
Faith explores and
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“You shall not covet” looks back at that which God has already revealed to his people about their relationships with him and with the other members of the covenant community. It also looks ahead to the new covenant. Coveting “Covet” translates a Hebrew root meaning “to desire, yearn for, lust after.” Coveting, writes Ron Mehl, is not “just a casual ‘wouldn’t it be nice if …’; it is a strong, ‘I want what you have, because I feel that is what will satisfy me and make me happy.’” The commandment first prohibits coveting a neighbor’s “house,” a term used here (as in Gen. 7:1 and Deut. 11:6) to refer to the neighbor’s entire family and property. It then lists five of the neighbor’s most valuable possessions. Finally, to remove any possible ambiguity, the commandment forbids coveting “anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (The repetition of the phrase “You shall not covet” has led the Roman Catholic tradition to consider the second half of Ex. 20:17 a separate commandment, the first two being combined to keep the total at ten. And, yes, a wife was considered property at the time of Moses, a historical reality that does not diminish the present force of this injunction.) Notice that the tenth commandment does not forbid the desire to be married or to own a house. What it does forbid is an obsessive, compulsive lusting after someone else’s spouse or home. In addressing our mental and emotional process, it is unique among the commandments. While the first nine prohibit specific acts, they do not speak to motivation. I deserve more If coveting is an attitude rather than an action, is it then a “victimless crime,” an archaic “sin” that we, with our psychological sophistication, may safely ignore because it does no harm to anyone? Hardly. Adultery, for example, never “just happens.” It is the culmination of a process that begins when a person feeds on the lust that begins in the life of the mind. Similarly, thieves plan robberies and murderers nurture the anger within them long before they act. |
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| “Why shouldn’t I covet my neighbor’s
house or wife?” asks Mehl. “Because God knows that once we
begin to walk down that road, we will never, never get enough. No matter
how much it is, it won’t be sufficient.” Coveting in effect says to God, “I’ve been cheated. I deserve better. I deserve more. And if I can’t get it from you, I’ll go get it myself.” Desire and contentment But if acquiring material goods could end coveting, the tenth commandment would be unnecessary. Our desires, as Thomas Aquinas has noted, can never be satisfied by people or things because “the heart of man is made for God.” Thus, says St. Augustine, “our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” The desire to possess people and property is perhaps strongest within those who have not acknowledged God’s claim on their lives, for those who covet make a god of their possessions. Nevertheless, Christians are not immune to covetous discontent. Just as Israel, being led through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire, longed to return to the sensual satisfactions of Egypt (Ex. 16:3), so Christians feel pulled between an old life style led by the desires of the flesh and the new life that follows the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. Paul understood this tension: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Tim. 6:6-10). Similarly, the writer of Hebrews instructs God’s people, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5). Again it is important to note what is not being said. Money is not the root of evil: it is the love of money, the covetous desire to possess material wealth, that disrupts relationships between individuals and the relationship between God and the person who seeks peace of mind in creation rather than the Creator. The tenth commandment reminds us that the only one who can satisfy our deepest longing is God. As Jesus taught, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6:33, see also Psalm 119:33-40). A summary commandment The first four commandments concern our right relationship with God. The next five prohibit wrong acts against neighbors. The tenth is comprehensive, prohibiting even the state of mind that might lead to such acts. It is this dimension of the Decalog that Jesus emphasized in Matthew 5:21-48 where, as Peter Craigie comments, “Not only the act, but also the desire is condemned, partly because the desire is what leads to the act, and partly because whether or not the desire leads to the act, it betrays the same wrong attitude toward a neighbor.” By prohibiting the kind of thinking and feeling that might lead to violations of the other commandments, the tenth commandment concerns the intentions of the heart and summarizes all the precepts of the Law. A word of grace “There is this difference,” writes Aquinas, “between divine and human law: human law judges deeds and words but divine law also judges thoughts. … For with God the intention is taken for the deed.” Moving from action to attitude, the tenth commandment foreshadows a new revelation, a law that will concern itself less with the hands than with the heart (Jer. 31:31-33). The high expectation of this commandment shows us our inability to keep God’s law perfectly. It is this awareness of our own insufficiency that sends us into the arms of our faithful and loving God, who freely supplies us with grace and mercy, with all that we need, with more than we could possibly imagine, “according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). An expanded version of “The Ten Commandments” will be published by PLC Publications in 2000. The book will be suitable for Sunday school classes and small group studies. The Lord’s Prayer will be the next topic in Foundations of the Faith. |
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