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

Stewards of Our Property, Respecter of Our Neighbor's

Some Musings on Eighth Commandment

By Scott Foster

Exodus 20:15

We need to be reminded that the Law of God really encompasses every command we read in the Bible.  Now to be sure there has been a change in the arrangement of how God's people live their lives in this world and gather to worship God between the Old and New covenants.  So there are certain commandments from the Old Covenant era that are no longer binding, like the prohibition against eating shellfish or the requirement to offer animal sacrifice in order to draw near to God in public worship.  The main reason for such changes has to do with how in the Old Covenant arrangement we find the shadow of Christ and in the New Covenant Christ has come and fulfilled the law.  He brings the temple and much of its worship to an end because he is its fulfillment. 

Nonetheless, when it comes to at least nine of these ten commandments we find them reiterated in the New Covenant Scriptures.  Here is the moral law of God that has a bearing on our conduct as followers of the Lamb.   The Law first instructs us regarding our sinfulness and sins and then points us to Christ as the Savior of sinners.  As we come to trust in Christ and are justified before God, we are then directed by Jesus back to the law as it is further amplified in his teachings and the rest of the New Testament.  Yet the power to keep these laws do not reside in them or in us but in Christ and by faith in him we can keep the law.  Granted we do not do it perfectly but we can experience change over old patterns of sin and disobedience.   The Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us in paths of obedience as we manifest his fruit in and through our lives.  The fruit of the Spirit is summed up in a life of love and it is by love that we in fact keep the law.

Now the eighth commandment concerns honesty in the use of ours and other people's property.  We are simply not to steal, not to take from others what is not ours or to withhold from others what is theirs.  We are not to take what belongs to our neighbor without his or her permission.  So the commandment affirms the right of owning property.  It is not wrong to own property.  This applies not only to objects one might personally possess but to our wages.  We own our wages.  It is our money.  With the proceeds of our wages we take out a loan to buy a house or a car.  We purchase furnishings, clothes and food.  Our neighbors do likewise.  So the commandment actually affirms the right of personal property.  However, the Scriptures also teach that we do not own such things in an ultimate sense.  They are gifts to us from the Father and as such they are entrusted to us to use as stewards of the kingdom.

Like the other commandments we find the meaning to entail not only what is forbidden but also what is required of us if we are to keep this commandment.   Again, there are no better sources of explanation than some of the confessional standards of the Protestant Reformation.

The Westminster Larger Catechism

Q. 141  What are the duties required in the eighth commandment?

A. The duties required in the eighth commandment are, truth, faithfulness, and justice in contracts and commerce between man and man, rendering to every one his due restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right owners thereof; giving and lending freely, according to our abilities, and the necessities of others; moderation of our judgments, wills and affections concerning worldly goods; a foresightful care and study to get, keep, use, and dispose these things which are necessary and convenient for the sustaining of our nature, and suitable to our condition; a lawful calling, and diligence in it; frugality, avoiding unnecessary law-suits, and suretyship, or other like engagements; and an endeavor, by all just and lawful means, to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own.

Q. 142  What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, manstealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing land-marks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust inclosures and depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us. 

The Heidelberg Catechism

Q. 110.What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?

Answer: God forbids not only those thefts,  and robberies,  which are punishable by the magistrate; but he comprehends under the name of theft all wicked tricks and devices, whereby we design to appropriate to ourselves the goods which belong to our neighbor: whether it be by force, or under the appearance of right, as by unjust weights, ells, measures, fraudulent merchandise, false coins, usury, or by any other way forbidden by God; as also all covetousness, all abuse and waste of his gifts.

Again we see how all encompassing this commandment truly is.  What the commandment underscores is that we are to be stewards of the wages, resources, property and possessions the Lord has given to us.  Our attitude toward our possessions must be shaped by the Gospel and the grace God has given to us in the forgiveness of sins we have in Christ.  While all these earthly gifts come to us from him, his greatest gift is his Son and only when we embrace Christ will we be able to exercise stewardship over them in a way that glorifies the Giver. 

Three aspects of Gospel or Kingdom Stewardship rise from the foundation of this commandment.

•     As stewards we are to manage our personal possessions in such a way that the Lord receives the first of our income. 

•     As stewards we manage our personal resources, property and possessions by making sure we support ourselves and our families. 

•     As stewards we are to cultivate contentment with what God has given us.

It is not enough simply to avoid stealing.  We certainly need to do this.  However, the eighth commandment endorses a stewardship frame of reference over all our possessions along with respecting the property of our neighbor.  Flowing out of this commandment we find the call to be industrious, frugal yet sacrificial and generous.  We may certainly enjoy our possessions for they are given to us by God to enjoy but we are to guard our hearts from having them possess us.  So we need on the one hand to shun all forms of asceticism that would disparage God's gifts of property etc, while at the same time avoid all idolatrous attachments to such gifts.  These along with a frugal and generous spirit form the perimeters of Christ-centered stewardship and will enable us to indeed keep the eighth commandment to the glory of God.

J. C. Ryle wrote the following on the nature of stewardship.  “Anything whereby we may glorify God is a talent. Our gifts, our influence, our money, our knowledge, our health, our strength, our time, our senses, our reason, our intellect, our memory, our affections, our privileges as members of Christ’s Church, our advantages as possessors of the Bible – all, all are talents. Whence came these things? What hand bestowed them? Why are we what we are? Why are we not the worms that crawl on the earth? There is only one answer to these questions. All that we have is a loan from God. We are God’s stewards. We are God’s debtors. Let this thought sink deeply into our hearts.”  Indeed let it sink very deeply!

The Sanctity of the Truth

by Marian Trinidad

One of the underlying ideologies of our age is that of relativism.  It is fashionable in many circles to tout the notion that there are no ultimate certainties, no absolutes, no fixed rights or wrongs.  Truth is not that which exists in an objective place outside of the individual.  Truth is relative to the individual.  We each may have our own truth.  “That may be true for you but I don't see it that way.  I have my own view on the matter.  You have your truth and I have mine.” In reality no one can really live like this.  This is especially the case when a person who holds these notions becomes a victim of a crime. They will not sit around in some relativistic state wondering if they were really mugged or vandalized or had their car stolen out of their drive way.  When things like this happen we all know that a wrong has been perpetrated and where there is a wrong there must be a right. 

Truth in terms of the existence of absolute values and truth in terms of our complying with those values and having them as standards that we either follow or violate can not be so easily done away with.  This is also the case with telling the truth over against telling a lie.  Why is lying a problem?  It is a problem because it undermines the truth and truth is vital to human relationships.  This is indeed what the ninth commandment is all about.  It concerns covering over the truth so as to bring harm to my neighbor.  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  

This commandment's particular focus is that of not bearing false witness in court against someone – committing perjury that will bring harm to an accused person.  You are not to bear false witness in court by either lying or withholding the truth.   Yet this commandment also has a broader focus that forbids lying in any of our speech or actions. We are to hold to the sanctity of the truth. 

When we lie we lie in three arenas: We lie to ourselves, we lie to others and we lie to God.  Sin by its very nature is filled with darkness.  The sin that remains in us easily deceives us.  From this place deception and lies flow out of our hearts, blinding our minds and muddying the waters of all our relationships.  All of us have lied (dare I say all of us are liars!).  We do it so easily, yet we can not tolerate when people lie to us.   It is so important that we consider this problem of self-deceit in each of our hearts and lives.  As soon as you think it is not a problem in your own heart it is loose and operating.  What the Scriptures teach is that sin is deceitful and since we still have the remnants of sin within our hearts we still face the prospect of self-deceit.  Its work in our hearts not only blinds us to its presence there but it prevents us from seeing the truth that is outside of us.  In other words sin's deceitfulness blinds us to truth itself – or to what is true or real.   So we find ourselves lying – that is we find ourselves lying to ourselves, to others and to God. 

John Calvin expressed it this way: “The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.”

We can also lie for a variety of reasons but here are three: lying in order to harm another, lying to promote yourself, lying out of fear so as to protect yourself.  Whatever the motive lying or not speaking the truth is a violation of the ninth commandment.  

We need to remember that God is light and in him there is no darkness whatsoever.  If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another.  This light covers all of the virtues that God is, including the truth.   Since we have been reconciled to the God of truth his grace will indeed be working a love for the truth within our hearts.  Of this element of a believer's progressive sanctification Charles Spurgeon said, “Saints not only desire to love and speak truth with their lips, but they seek to be true within; they will not lie even in the closet of their hearts, for God is there to listen; they scorn double meanings, evasions, equivocations, white lies, flatteries, and deceptions.”  May this be increasingly true of us.

The good news is that Christ has secured forgiveness for the lies we have told and also provides grace to create within us a heart that is filled with light and loves the truth.  By God's grace to us in Christ we are able to put off the old garments of lying and deceit and put on garments of honesty and speaking the truth as we are admonished to do in Ephesians – the first garment of the transformed life is that of speaking the truth.  But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,  and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (Eph 4:20-25 ESV)