Commandment 10 do not covet

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

This is the only commandment that deals directly with a person’s interior world. To covet is to desire to possess that which does not belong to you. It is a state of the heart. To covet is to express discontentment with what you have been given. It is a posture of ingratitude that begets misery and bitterness. Left unchecked, it can drive us to violent actions. Like all wickedness, it is easiest to deal with covetousness when it is still a matter of the heart. Do not let it get any bigger than that. Do not let it leave your heart and manifest itself in words and actions that cannot be taken back. Kill it in your heart so that it does not kill you.

The antidote to covetousness is twofold: gratitude and contentment. To battle with a desire of the heart we must raise up a new and godly posture of the heart. This battle will only be won in your interior world, where your thoughts and desires have their home. Fight against the desire to possess what does not belong to you by being grateful for, and content with, what you already have.

Continue reading