New Reminders: Covetousness

The 10th Commandment is recorded in Exodus 20:17: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”  “You shall not covet” means that we should banish all desires for whatever doesn't belong to us. Obedience to the tenth commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart.  Envy includes sadness at the sight of another's more desirable possessions.

Envy often arises when we lack another’s superior quality, achievement, and either desire it or wish that the other person lacked it.  It’s a two-person situation.  It is fundamentally about desire and feelings of one’s own inadequacy.  At its core, envy is rooted in comparison—measuring our own success, happiness, or attributes against someone else’s.  People often say, “I’m jealous” when they actually mean, “I’m envious.”  Jealousy arises when a person perceives a threat to a valued relationship from a real or imagined rival.

Envy is an emotion that most often shows up in competitive environments, such as the workplace, social circles, and among peers, where achievements, possessions, and statuses are visible and compared.  The rise of social media has only amplified opportunities for envy, as individuals are constantly presented with highlights of others’ lives, achievements, and possessions.

The New Testament stresses thanksgiving and contentment as proper heart attitudes that contrast with covetousness.  John the Baptist exhorted soldiers to be content with their pay rather than extorting money by threats and false accusations.  The book of Hebrews encourages us to keep our lives free from the love of money and “be content with what you have” and depend on the promises and help of God rather than trusting in wealth.  

The book of 1 Timothy contains a classic warning against the love of money and stresses that it's great gain to be content with food and clothing. “Now there's great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can't take anything out of the world.  But if we have food and clothing, with these we'll be content.  Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” 1 Timothy 6:6-10.

Envy and lust go hand in hand, and both are natural human responses, but can be controlled by setting our sights on higher ethical and moral standards.  Colossians 3:2-5 states: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Earthy things and pleasures might give us temporary gratification, but not true happiness.  It is only our faith in Jesus and the promise of eternal life and love that can fill our hearts with joy.