In the Name of Love: The Tenth Commandment (Linton Hall)

Exodus 20:17 CSB – Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Matthew 22:36-40 CSB – “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

1 John 4:7-8 CSB – let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 2:3-5 CSB – This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. ⁴ The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him…

1 John 5:3 CSB – For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,

What Does It Mean, “Do Not Covet”?

Proverbs 6:6-8 CBS – 

Go to the ant, you slacker!
Observe its ways and become wise.
⁷ Without leader, administrator, or ruler,
⁸ it prepares its provisions in summer;
it gathers its food during harvest.

Matthew 24:14 CSB – This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations…

Exodus 20:17 CSB – Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

One Reason We Struggle with Coveting – Identity

Ecclesiastes 5:10 CSB – The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income.

1 John 5:3 CSB – this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,

Why is Coveting Wrong?

Coveting Destroys Contentment

John 10:10b CSB – I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 CSB – The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income.

Coveting Destroys Friendships

1 Kings 21:3ff – The Message – But Naboth told Ahab, “Not on your life! So help me God, I’d never sell the family farm to you!” Ahab went home in a black mood, sulking over Naboth words….He went to bed, stuffed his face in his pillow, and refused to eat.

James 3:14-18 CSB –But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

“Put one crab in a pot and it will escape. Put two crabs in a pot and neither will escape.” – Charles Barkley

James 4:1-2 CSB –  What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you ² You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” – Booker T. Washington

Coveting Destroys Budgets, too

4. Coveting Blinds Us to Thing That Really Matters—the Upper Story

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 CSB –  Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. ¹⁸ So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Luke 12:16-20 CSB – Then he told them a parable: “A rich man’s land was very productive…17  He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? ¹⁸ I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there.¹⁹ Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’

Luke 12:15 CSB – [Jesus] then told them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”

1 Timothy 6:6-8 CSB – But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.⁸ If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

1 Timothy 6:9-10 CSB – But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

James 4:1-2 CSB – What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you ² You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

1 Timothy 6:10 CSB – For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:17 CSB – Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.

Action: The Flip Side of “Do Not Covet” is “Learn to Be Content”

Open Our Eyes—See the Good Things God has done

Two men looked through prison bars.

One saw mud, the other stars.

Open Your Eyes—Fix Your Eyes on the Eternal/Spiritual

2 Corinthians 4:18 CSB – So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen

1 Timothy 6:6 CSB – But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Philippians 4:11-13 CSB – I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.

¹² I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.

¹³ I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

Hebrews 13:5 CSB – Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

Open Your Hands—Hold Things Loosely

1 Timothy 6:18-19 CSB –  Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, ¹⁹ storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.

Matthew 6:19-21 CSB – Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.