What Does It Mean to Covet?

Well, we have found our way to the tenth Commandment.  One that is actually quite common in the American culture.

21 Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

In order not to yield to the temptation of expounding on my own sense of the word covet.  I went straight to the Greek!  I would usually try to put all this in paragraph form; however as I wrote the various words and concept down; It lead to an interesting pattern.  See if you don’t follow it.

To covet is to want more.

More in reference to power, as well as property.

By outdoing others,

by trying to be superior.

Forging ahead

at the expense of others!

          Taking advantage!

Greedily desiring things!

Which often leads to conflict.

Seeking material advantage,

often through dishonest gain.

Asserting one’s self,

by grasping for more, 

more than we are meant to have.

Which leads to destruction of yourself and others!

         The End!

To Covet is to live opposite of Jesus’ call to servanthood.  Because it manifests itself in total disregard for other's rights and needs.

I was thinking, as I read the tenth shall-not, that Jesus didn’t include it in his teaching list in Matthew five and six.  But then I reminded myself that He talked about greed more than he talked about love.  So I am sharing with you His parable of the rich fool. Where He is fairly clear about coveting.

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." 14 But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" 15 And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 16 Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, "What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' 18 Then he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”(Luke 12:13-21)