Below are some notes and quotes I put together in preparation for the Call to Confession in our corporate worship service, I thought I would post it for your benefit and reflection:
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with noticing what other people have, but most of us don’t stop and notice so that we can give thanks to God for his blessings to others. We notice and then stop being thankful for all that God has given to us.
What Coveting is not…
It’s not the same as having desires. The tenth commandment does not prohibit every kind of longing, want, or thought of having something nice or better.
The Bible says our problem is not that we desire things but that we desire the wrong things or desire good things in the wrong way.
What Coveting is…
First, we covet when we want for ourselves what belongs to someone else. Coveting is more than thinking, “It’d be great to have a nice house,” or “I’d like to have a better job.” Coveting longs for someone else’s stuff to be your stuff. Coveting says, “I want their house. I want his job. If only I could have what they have, then I’d be happy.”
One way to better understand the tenth commandment is to see it’s relationship to the eighth commandment (“you shall not steal”). Theft of the heart is coveting. Before we steal with our hands, we covet with our hearts.
Second, we covet when our desire becomes discontentment. Discontentment is when our hearts stop being dominated by gratefulness for what God has given us and start being dominated by a grumbling about what God hasn’t given us.
How does Coveting break the greatest commandment?
When we covet, we don’t believe that God is big enough to help us or good enough to care. Our discontentment is an expression of how much more we think God owes us. Paul says that “coveting is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). Coveting says I can’t live without that person, place, or possession. It makes a god out of our desires.
How does Coveting break the second greatest commandment?
Coveting fails to love your neighbor as yourself. When we’re covetous, we think only (or, at least, supremely) of what is good for us: what we would like, what would make us happy, and what could make our lives better, regardless of how others are affected.
How to search our hearts for covetousness
What do you most frequently grumble and complain about in your life? On the other side of our grumbling about something we have (like your spouse, kids, job, house, car, life in general) is coveting what we do not have (like their spouse, kids, job, house, car, life in general).
What is the one thing you think you need in order to be truly happy? If only I had ________, then I would be happy? What fills in that blank shows what our heart has made a functional god of.
Is there something you think that God owes you?
*Much of this is quoted and adapted from The 10 Commandments, Kevin DeYoung.