YOU SHALL NOT COVET
You shall not desire your neighbor's
house. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife, nor his
man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is
your neighbor's.
Briefly stated, this
means that we should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our
neighbor's inheritance or house, nor obtain it by show of right, but help and
be of service to him in keeping it. Likewise, we should fear and love God that
we may not estrange, force, or entice away from our neighbor his wife,
servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and do their duty.
These two commandments are not specifically referring to immorality or
theft because those sins are forbidden by other commandments. The purpose of
these commandments is to condemn and forbid the desires, thoughts, and scheming
that leads to violation of the other commandments. If the act is evil, the
desire to commit it is likewise evil. God is not fooled by legal
technicalities! If it is a sin for you to take your neighbor's house, then it
is also a sin for you to devise some way to get title to it against his will.
Just because you can get your neighbor's property legally, does not make it
right. Far too often we hear of two people who both divorce their own spouse so
they can marry each other. Such behavior is an abomination in the sight of God,
and should never be tolerated by a Christian congregation. If it is a sin for
you to have another man's wife, then it is a sin for you to urge another man's
wife to divorce her husband and marry you. God has called Christians to a
higher standard -- one man, one woman, one lifetime.
We are not only forbidden to steal, we are forbidden to alienate anything
from our neighbor. It does not matter that you can do it legally. It does not
matter that the world sees nothing wrong with what you do. If you do injury to
your neighbor and gain that which is his against his will you have transgressed
the law of God. We should never attempt by some
subterfuge to get our neighbor's spouse, land, inheritance, or possessions.
Because we are by nature sinful, it is natural for us to seek to acquire
as much as we can while giving little thought to anyone else. As a result men
devise elaborate means and ingeniously contrive schemes for getting ahead at
someone else's expense. Yet, in spite of such dishonesty we pretend to be
godly, adorn ourselves finely, and conceal our rascality. Often these schemes
are derived from the laws. Lawyers and others assist in this legalized robbery
by stretching and twisting the law to make it say whatever suits their case,
irrespective of what is right. At the same time, those who are most cunning in
perverting the law are regarded as experts.
Therefore, this last commandment is not directed at those who are rogues,
but at those who are most pious in the eyes of the world. It is directed at
those who wish to be praised and regarded as honest and upright people. Because
such people have not openly transgressed the other commandments, they are often
blind to their sin and need of God's mercy. This commandment makes it clear
that outward civil obedience is not enough. The law of God requires a pure
heart.
In far too many court cases, the aim is to get something from one's
neighbor, or force him out of his own property. In some cases, people quarrel
about a large inheritance. In other cases, they quarrel over property lines.
Whatever the reason, they all carefully adorn their arguments in order to make
it look like the law is on their side. Likewise, those who use laws to advance
their own selfish interests are not open and honest about why they want new
laws passed. Instead they hide their true motives and seek to influence
legislation through gifts and campaign contributions. What is that other than
an underhanded attempt to subvert justice and the rule of law.
Yet such men walk around with their heads high, as though they were honest and
upright citizens, and no man dares to accuse them publicly of being dishonest.
People are continually trying to slip something over on someone else.
They knowingly sell defective merchandise without letting the other person know
that it is defective. They think nothing of buying an antique from a widow
without telling her that it is worth much more. They also think nothing of
taking advantage of those who are really hard up either because they cannot
find work, have been injured and cannot work, or for some other reason.
Gambling is far too common. Credit card companies are all too eager to offer
desperate people money at a high rate of interest, which only makes their
situation worse. To rationalize such ungodly behavior they fall back on such cliches as, "We all need to look out for number
one." Who could even begin to think of all the dishonesty one could
justify by such a pretext? Yet the world does not recognize such dealings as
evil, and there are no laws to punish them.
Because the Pharisees allowed divorce for almost any reason, a man who
was attracted to another man's wife could devise some way of turning the
woman's husband against her and causing him to divorce her. We see one example
of this in the fact that king Herod (who wanted to be thought of as an honest
and pious man) was married to his brother's wife while his brother was still
living. We can understand why such behavior was common before the time of Christ, however, it should never take place among
Christians, for Christ has forbidden divorce for any reason other than
fornication.
Although such things happen, it should be perfectly clear that God does
not want them to happen. We should never deprive our neighbor of anything that
belongs to him, nor should we want what is his. Even if you could get what is
his in a way that was perfectly legal and respectable in the eyes of the world
and go on your way as if you had done no wrong, you have nevertheless injured
your neighbor. If such injury is not called stealing and cheating by the world,
it is still called coveting. It is wrong because you are trying to get
possession of his property against his will, and are unwilling to see him enjoy
what God has given to him. If the judge, and everyone else, will not condemn
you or require that you return it, God will condemn you. God can see the deceit
and malice in your heart. Whenever that deceit is yielded to it leads in the
end to open wickedness, violence, and ultimately to hell.
Therefore, we accept what these commandments plainly say. We should
not desire anything that would damage our neighbor or allow and assist in his
damage, but gladly leave him what he has, wish him well, and help him to keep
it. In other words, treat him as you would like to be treated. Put out of your
heart all greed, envy, and any desire to profit at someone else's expense. God
wants to remove every cause and source of injury to our neighbor. Therefore He
expresses it in plain words, "Thou shalt not
covet," etc., for He wants your heart to be pure. Although we shall never
attain perfect purity in this world, this commandment, like the others, will
constantly accuse us and show us how greatly we need His mercy and forgiveness!
[The above is based upon, and
closely follows, Martin Luther's explanation of the Ninth and Tenth
Commandments.]
A
Final Note
Because the Ten
Commandments were originally given to Moses as the basis of civil law, the
standard of behavior that those Commandments set forth should be the basis of criminal
law. At the same time, we need to realize that the purpose of civil law is not to make men righteous, but to punish
evildoers (1Peter
That being said, the
Ten Commandments not only have a civil application, but a spiritual application
as well. God wants criminal behavior punished, but He also wants those who
outwardly keep the Commandments to know that their wicked desires and urges to
violate the Commandments are sin. As it is written, “All unrighteousness
is sin” (1John
While the words, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one
another… For this, You will not commit adultery, You will not kill, You
will not steal, You will not bear false witness, You will not covet; and if
there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, namely, You
will love your neighbor as yourself,” tell us that every Christian
should keep the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:8-9). The words, “The works of the flesh are obvious, which
are; Adultery, fornication, sexual filthiness, sensuality, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, discord, rivalry, rage, strife, divisions, heresies, envy,
murder, drunkenness, orgies, and such like: of which I forewarn you, as I have
in the past, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God,” should make it clear to all who think that they are keeping
the Ten Commandments, that mere outward compliance with those commandments is
not enough to make them righteous in the sight of God (Galatians 5:19-21). As
it is written, “All of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” in the
sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).