Covetousness: Its Idolatry, Its Remedy

Musings on the Tenth Commandment

Exodus 20:17

 Saul of Tarsus was a self-confident man.  He was certain that regarding the most important matters of heaven and earth he was set.   His self-assessment was that he was a righteous man pleasing to God in all his ways.  He could say of himself that regarding the righteous requirements of the law of Moses he was blameless.  Yet, like most of his fellow Pharisees, Saul was blind to just how interior was the operation of his own sin and depravity.  For him complying to the demands of the law was basically a matter of external conformity: not dishonoring of parents, not committing adultery, not stealing etc.  He was able to comply with the law in these matters and he went along feeling just fine about himself. 

Then one day Saul gave a tad more attention to the final commandment and something new happened.  When he read and considered these words "You shall not covet what belongs to your neighbor" it was like a volcanic eruption occurred from deep within his heart.  Here are his words:  "What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."  But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.  I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died" (Romans  7:7-9).

"All kinds of covetousness" - it was like he could not put a lid on the covetous desires that came flowing out of his heart.  The tenth commandment clearly goes to the heart.  It begins where the other nine end.  All the commandments concern the heart yet the first nine address the behavior and then move into the heart, to the desires, affections and motives.  The tenth bypasses the behavior and penetrates immediately into our hearts.  The Lord God is not only concerned about our deeds but about our desires. 

Desire itself is not sinful.  God created you with the capacity to desire things.  In one way it is our desires that move us along in life and stimulate responsible productivity.  Yet desires can also malfunction and at that in a huge and destructive fashion.  A desire becomes a covetous desire when it is inordinate.  We desire something so much that we are consumed by the desire and hence we cease at that moment to trust God and we may take steps to realize what we desire in ways that are sinful, harmful to others and displease God.  We can become enslaved to our desires.   Our desires lead us into conflict with others and are often the reason we hurt others.  It should not surprise us that at the core of every sinful behavior and act there are accompanying sinful desires.  We can sinfully desire sinful things and we can also sinfully desire good things.  So covetousness occurs when our desires become all consuming and take over our lives. 

Here is what we desperately need to see about covetousness: it is idolatry.  It is this nature of covetousness that connects the tenth commandment with the first - you shall have no other God's before me.  To covet something (again this is to have an inordinate desire for something) is basically to fashion it into a god to which you are giving your heart.  In Colossians 3:5 the Apostle Paul defines covetousness to be idolatry. 

We were created in such a way that in order for us to live well we need to manage our desires and in order for that to happen we all need to pursue that one overarching superlative desire that will give us such contentment of heart and soul that we will be enabled to manage the other desires.  Now Christianity is not Buddhism.  Buddhism teaches that to make it through life and to reach heaven we need to kill all our desires. Buddhism teaches that you are truly free when you have no desires.  No, you are truly dead when you have no desires!  Because God created us with the capacity for desire it is impossible to thwart desire.  This is not the answer to the problem of covetousness.  The answer is the Gospel that frees us from idolatrous and misplaced desires and gives us that One Great Object of desire that when desired will enable us to manage all the other desires so they will not become covetousness.

There are only two realms toward which we can direct our desires.  They are both proper realms but we need to be sure that in our heart of hearts we have them in the right order.  Moderate desires fit the earthly realm, whereas an inordinate (superlative) desire is suitable only for the eternal realm. Yet here is a secret. When an inordinate desire docks in the eternal realm it no longer is inordinate but life-transforming.  For the eternal realm is the only realm that can bear the weight of such a strong desire.  In fact to have an inordinate desire for any earthly or temporal good or object is in a strange way to have too weak a desire.  It doesn't seem weak but rather all consuming.  It seems that way because the object you desire is too small for the desire.   So when you have an inordinate desire for an earthly object that desire doesn't fit the object.  It is more than the object can bear and in this sense the desire has become too weak on a certain level.  It is also out of order in your life and brings your life out of order with reality.  The energy of the desire not only becomes a kind of poison that eats away at your soul but it is a form of false worship that offends the true and living God.  Covetous desires turn the objects one desires into objects of worship - what is longed for and believed will make one's life worth living.  So with this you not only violate the tenth commandment but also the first for the object of your inordinate desire has become a functional god in your heart.

So here is the solution to covetousness.  It is to begin to worship the only object great enough, glorious enough and worthy enough for such an intense desire.  This is where the Gospel brings us.  The Gospel gives us the capacity by grace to turn from all forms of covetousness or idolatrous longings and desires and begin to worship the Triune God in Spirit and in Truth.   The Gospel is not demand or command to worship God.  The Gospel is God in love and grace not only pardoning us of our sins and justifying us before his presence but in doing this he is also giving Himself and His kingdom to us even though we are undeserving.  The good news is that the Creator offers himself to us in Christ and when we open our hearts to this offer we find that he promises never to leave us and never to forsake us. You cannot say that about any earthly good upon which you set your heart. He promises to use all his resources to provide for us in this life and in the one to come.  Worship rises out of a heart that believes and treasures the offer of the Gospel.  When you truly believe the offer of the Gospel and open your heart to God who makes that offer you cannot help but worship because you begin a love relationship with the Creator that is filled with desire for him above all things. 

There are four responses to the Gospel that we need to take in order to put covetousness to death within our hearts and experience the power of holy desires ruling there.  From Luke 12:22-34 we are taught by Jesus regarding combating covetous the following:

 

·         Be sure you know and embrace the Bible's teaching on God's sovereign power and care over creation.

·         Know what it is that you are to desire the most - that his the kingdom of God.

·         Believe the promise that as you seek God's kingdom first the Father will provide all that you need for your daily living.

·         Cultivate the practice of generosity with your material resources.

We obey the tenth commandment not simply by not allowing inordinate desires for evil or good things to rule our hearts but by cultivating contentment of heart with what we do have in terms of earthly possessions and positions.  Such contentment comes when we know and believe that no matter what we possess in this life we have the true and living God as the center piece of what it is that we possess.  Because he in Christ is our heart's portion in this life and the life to come we can truly learn to be content with what we have.  Covetousness and a whole host of the miseries it produces will have no place to set up shop in such a contented heart. 

Meditate on these three texts this week and ask the Lord to grant that you truly possess in your heart what they teach. 

• You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  Psalm 16:11
•  ^"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever"  Psalm 73:25-26
• Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  Hebrews 13:5

The only way to root out a sinful, unholy and covetous desire is by the expulsive power of  holy desires. How we need to seek Gods grace for such desires. John Piper speaks in this manner: "Delight in the glory of God includes, for example, hatred for sin, fear of displeasing God, hope in the promises of God, contentment in the fellowship of God, desire for the final revelation of the Son of God, exultation in the redemption he accomplished, grief and contrition for failures of love, gratitude for undeserved benefits, zeal for the purposes of God, and hunger for righteousness. Our duty toward God is that all our affections respond properly to His reality and so reflect His glory."  Amen