You shall not covet
This is the tenth post in a series of ten dealing with The Ten Commandments. The content comes from “Basic Christianity”written by John Stott.
The tenth commandment is in some ways the most revealing of all. It turns the decalogue from an outward legal code into an inward moral standard. The civil law cannot touch us for covetousness but only for theft. For covetousness belongs to the inner life. It lurks in the heart and the mind. What lust is to adultery and temper is to murder, that covetousness is to theft.
The particular things which we are not to covet and which are mentioned in the commandment are surprisingly modern. In the housing shortage there is much coveting of our neighbor’s house, and the divorce courts would not be so full if men did not covet their neighbor’s wife. “Covetousness……..is idolatry” wrote Paul, and by contrast, “ There is great gain in godliness with contentment” 1 Timothy 6:6.
Listing these commandments has brought to light an ugly catalog of sins. So much takes place beneath the surface of our lives, in the secret places of our minds, which other people do not see and which manage even to conceal from ourselves. But God sees these things. His eye penetrates into the deep recesses of our hearts: “Before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him “ Hebrews 4:13. He sees us as we really are, and his law shows up our sins for what they really are. Indeed, it was the purpose of the law to expose sin, for “through the law comes knowledge of sin” Romans 3:20.
When C.H. Spurgeon, the famous nineteenth – century preacher, was only fourteen, he experienced a tremendous sense of his own sinfulness. Two truths came home to him as never before: “God’s majesty and my sinfulness.” He had a crushing sense of his unworthiness.
I do not hesitate to say that those who examined my life would not have seen any extraordinary sin, yet as I looked upon myself I saw outrageous sin against God. I was not like other boys, untruthful, dishonest, swearing and so on. But of a sudden, I met Moses carrying the law……….God’s ten Words…… and as I read them, they all seemed to join in condemning me in the sight of the thrice holy Jehovah.
In our case, too, nothing can convince us of our sinfulness like the lofty, righteous law of God.
