Number 10 of the Ten Commandments: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, or property.

Last week, I heard a message from a favored teaching pastor that answered some prayers about myself and others I knew. I never thought about the simple truth in such a breath-catching recognition.

In our world today, often in our churches, the Ten Commandments don’t appear to hold the significance they once did. The Bible is very clear about the consequences of breaking those ten commandments. But, my focus today is only on the last commandment. You shall not covet…

For believers, knowing about the ten commandments is a given. Even trying to live by them. That’s one reality that can be impactful. The focus is on trying to live by them, not living by them. Some may seem worse than others, but the reality is they are equal in importance, and maybe, the last one is of major importance in the impact it has on everyone and everything.

Here are two definitions in verb forms that caught my attention:

Covet: yearn to possess or have (something)

Envy: desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else)

Two English words with the same basic definition.

Are any of us at a place in our spiritual walk where these two definitions don’t apply? I’m not. I’ll confess that. But what I see in that reality is that our world has become more and more focused on possessing and desiring. Enough that anger, resentment, stealing, violence, lying, and…..how many other commandments are broken? Because of envy? That is the power for good in keeping the Tenth Commandments and the power for evil in breaking them.

How many sermons have you heard about envy? About how it impacts all of us and how, in today’s world, it seems to have taken on some insignificance. After all, it’s okay to want something and do whatever it takes to get it. Sometimes, without concern for consequences. It’s everywhere. In our personal lives. In the church. In politics. In schools.

Maybe it’s just me that has missed the mark. Maybe there is more teaching on envy I don’t see. I knew that to envy, to covet, was not good. But I did not see how completely it can destroy our lives by one thing leading to another, and that we often don’t see it happening. I know now I must take all the commandments more seriously than them merely being a list of things we must do and must not do. And I must prayerfully seek ways to battle even the smallest impact envy wants to have in my life.

I hope you’ve had more wisdom than me. – Vicki

***

Here’s some scripture that might help with understanding the seriousness I’ve seen.

Galatians 5:26

 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

James 3:16

 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil

Romans 1:29

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

1 Peter 2:1

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

Galatians 5:19-21

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factionsand envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.