The COMMANDMENTS (12)
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's..” — Exodus 20:17
“Thou shalt not covet…anything that is thy neighbor’s. A preacher acquaintance of mine many years ago developed a rather quaint phrase defining the word “covet,” calling it “the desire to acquire.” It has remained unforgettable for me, and serves as a broad general description of the term in its negative aspect in the King James Version of the scriptures. This in turn agrees well enough with the Oxford dictionary’s definition of “covetous”: “having or showing a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else.” Vine’s dictionary of New Testament words offers as parallels “desire, envy, jealous[y].”
We may consider here the reason for the commandment as it stands in the Old Testament, suggested by the Savior’s summary of the second table of the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Lust is the opposite of love, and wars against the character of God and His will for His children. To fulfill the spirit of this commandment is to prefer others before ourselves and to rejoice in their well-being rather than to desire their benefits as our own. Lust centers in self; love centers in others, “does not envy,” and “seeketh not her own.” (I Cor 13:4,5)
The price of passionately desiring that which is not legitimately ours (that is, whatever God withholds or forbids) is vividly illustrated in the case of Achan in the Old Testament. When Israel went up to conquer Jericho the people were expressly prohibited from taking spoils therefrom (Joshua 6:18), but Achan disobeyed and as a result the Israelites were defeated in their next campaign, all the people suffering because of the transgression of one. When the problem was rooted out Achan confessed, “Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it [Josh. 7:20-21].” The “desire to acquire”—against the revealed will of God—can be costly. It cost Achan and his family their lives.
We are led, then, to consider the New Testament implications of this commandment. Jesus warned, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (See Luke 12:13-31) Here the Savior lifts the commandment from merely desiring what our neighbors have to an inordinate desire for anything the world has to offer. It is a prohibition against making “stuff”—even “necessary” stuff our goal in life. This is further explained for the believer in Colossians 3:5 where we are admonished to “put to death [our] members which are on earth,” including “covetousness, which is idolatry.” It will thus become evident that covetousness is a violation not only of the tenth commandment, but also of the first! Covetousness moves God out of center and makes a god out of “stuff.”
In other words, one does not have to have an idol on the shelf to be guilty of idolatry. When earthly “treasure” consumes us, we have set up idols in our hearts, invisible, it may be, to others around us, but clearly evident to our omniscient Lord. The prohibition reaches its zenith when through the apostle John the Holy Spirit warns, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever [I John 2:15-17].” And we hear the echo of the Savior’s words, “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you [Luke 12:31].”
It is most interesting, in conclusion, that the apostle Paul offers this commandment as the one that tripped him up. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet [Rom. 7:7].
What really drives our lives, shapes our ambitions and determines our actions? Is it the “desire to acquire,” or simple, uncompromising faith that “[God] is, and that He is [the] rewarder of those that diligently seek Him?” With that question projected against the background of this commandment in its Old Testament roots and its New Testament revelation, any thoughtful and transparently honest person will be moved to cry out, “Thank God for Calvary!”
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” —Rom. 3:20
Saved by grace alone,
"Pastor" Frasier
No comments:
Post a Comment