17 "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." (Even his rubber ducky!!)
Chamad
to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in
(Qal) to desire
(Niphal) to be desirable
(Piel) to delight greatly, desire greatly n f
desirableness, preciousness
The 10th commandment forbids all wrong desire of having what will gratify ourselves or lead to selfish behavior. Anything that will lead us away from God’s provision. I find it interesting that God in the first commandment establishes his provision as the one and only God, in the 10th he gives us the understanding of what leads us away from his provision.
Not all desire is bad. Desire causes: capitalism, work, eat, drink, social etiquette. Desire to be with your friends, family, and wife. Desire causes us to work hard and dream.
1 Corinthians 9:10
10Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.
It is the desire that leads us outside of God’s provision that is wrong.
Every culture has a proverb of sort about covetousness:
ENGLISH: Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
AESOPE : Man killed the goose that laid the golden egg - "MUCH WANTS MORE AND LOSSES ALL"
SCOTTISH: "Covetous man never has enough until his mouth is filled with mold"
HINDU : "Mention money, even a corpse opens it mouth"
BUSINESS: "Follow the money trail"
What are some things we can covet other than material stuff and why do we Covet?
Time, Relationships, Knowledge, Power…
M.G. Blankenship http://www.apostolic.edu/
COVETING IS
Ephesians 2:2-3
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
There are 5 things I came to understand about Coveting...Which I will post in parts later.
No comments:
Post a Comment