Being content

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20: 17 NASB

Of all the other commandments, the tenth one talks about an internal state of the heart.

“This commandment differs from the others in that it goes beyond our outward behavior and probes at the level of our internal attitudes where sin begins. It reveals that God looks at our hearts, and He desires integrity, honesty, and sincerity (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 51:6).” (West, 2010)

I am sure that you desire many things, but we should examine those desires to see whether they are pleasing to God.

“The Bible says our problem is not that we desire things but that we desire the wrong things or desire good things in the wrong way.” (DeYoung, 2018)

The desires we have need to have a proper place. When one looks at other people and wants what belongs to that person, it’s a problem.

When sinful desires are sinful, they can lead us to actions that are not of God and tarnish His name.

“We covet when we want for ourselves what belongs to someone else. Coveting is more than thinking, “It’d be great to have a nice house,” or “I’d like to have a better job.” Coveting longs for someone else’s stuff to be your stuff. Coveting says, “I want their house. I want his job. If only I could have what they have, then I’d be happy.” (DeYoung, 2018)

If you look at the commandment in Exodus, you see how Moses elaborates on what it means to covet your neighbor’s possessions.

DeYoung points out another aspect of coveting, “we covet when our desire leads to or is an expression of discontentment.” (2018)

When we covet, we hint that God has not been good to us. Along the way, He messed up in handing out His blessings. This discontentment causes us to be unhappy with the provisions and grace that has been given to us.

Coveting is another form of idolatry. The desires we feel make us think we can’t live without the person, place, or thing we want. So we make what we want an idol.

The opposite of covetousness is contentment. This can be hard, but only through Christ can we learn to be content. Paul talks about contentment in a number of His letters. In Philippians 4, he expresses how he has learned to be content in his circumstances. Also, he talks about how we should look at our desires for the things of this world.

“But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it, either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:6-10 NASB

Ultimately, we need to look to God to fulfill our needs and pray that our desires match His desires for us. God has always been faithful to His children so that we can rest in that fact alone.


Bibliography
DeYoung, K. (2018). THE 10 COMMANDMENTS What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them
West, R.M. (2010) “The 10 Commandments—Then and Now”