10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.covet: to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another. if you type the word 'covet' into a google search, you will get over 2.6 million matches: covet/consumerism, covet online casino games, covet luxury brands, even covet sarah jessica parker. we have so many things around us to 'covet'...so how do we not?
your friend gets a new flat screen plasma tv, you want one... your brother buys a new house, you're ready to add on to yours and install hardwood flooring... your colleague finds out she's pregnant, you think it's time to try also. we covet things all the time.
what happens when you finally let go of those things you think you need, those things you 'must have', and put something else in its place? what do you discover you really need? what are you missing? how do you gain it? what do you covet?
2 comments:
One thing I like about this commandment is that it addresses the thoughts of the mind directly, thus proving that obedience to God's law involves more that just our physical actions. It can involve even our very thoughts. This may be a kind of precedent to the teaching of Christ that if we even look at a woman for the purpose of lusting for her we have committed adultery in our hearts (Matthew 5:27-29).
So if someone were to say that the Ten Commandments only prohibit the physical act of adultery because the law of God only rules over our physical actions, but not our thoughts, the tenth commandment shows that this is not correct.
We are to love God with our thoughts as well as our actions.
this is the commandment I think of most often. maybe it is just stuck in my head. i fully God meant that "donkey" is what you are coveting. Dont covet your neighbors donkey, means dont covet their car, house, spouse, job, income, kids, posessions. Substitute your word for donkey and bingo, you have a commandment tailored to your covet.
this week mine happens to be a job income. steady and faithful paycheck. donkey equals money to live on. and yes, i have to trust God will meet my needs.
love your take on commandments, though. keep rocking it.
:) Sara
Post a Comment