Question 85 What is the
tenth commandment?*
Answer: The tenth
commandment is, "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."
Question 86: What is
required in the tenth commandment?
Answer: The tenth
commandment requires contentment with our own condition, with a right and
charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbor, and all that is his.
DAY 1:
We will conclude the lessons on the Ten Commandments next week. However, this week we begin our look at the 10th commandment. Here we find a command not to covet. The Hebrew word here for covet is chamad (khaw-mad’). The word means, “to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in.” It is in a negative form and speaks to not desiring, coveting, taking pleasure in or delight in. The idea behind taking pleasure or delight is that a person would find something that belonged to someone else so desirable that they would be coveting that thing. This seems to be the only commandment that is directed at the heart without any pretense of speaking to actions. This is significant, because while we have seen that all the previous commandment dealt with the heart, we can also see the implications of actions very explicitly.
This commandment it seems then is placed here at the end for a purpose. It seems it’s purpose was to make clear to man that he cannot keep the law. A spiritually blind man may assume that he can keep the law of God in the other areas. For instance, we see that a young man comes to Jesus in Mark 10:17-22 and requests of Christ what he must do in order to receive eternal life. Notice Jesus’ response in verse 19. He mentions that if the man wants eternal life he must keep the law and he mentions all of the commandments that deal with human relationships. He mentions adultery (7th commandment), murder (6th commandment), stealing (8th commandment), bearing false witness (9th commandment), and honoring one’s father and mother (5th commandment). However, He leaves out the tenth commandment of coveting. There is a reason it seems for leaving this one out. This young man thinks he has kept these commandments (vs. 20). However, when Jesus looks at him in verse 21, He loves him and tells him the thing that will reveal the true nature of his heart. He deals in the area of coveting. How do we know this? It seems that when Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, take up his cross and follow him that the man was immediately turned off. He came seeking self justification and left in despair. The phrase “he had” is two words in Greek. One is in the present tense and the other is in the imperfect tense. The present tense we understand clearly. The Online Bible puts it this way, “The present tense represents a simple statement of fact or reality viewed as occurring in actual time. In most cases this corresponds directly with the English present tense.” However the second word is in the imperfect tense which, the Online Bible defines as, “The imperfect tense generally represents continual or repeated action. Where the present tense might indicate "they are asking, " the imperfect would indicate "they kept on asking." Therefore, we see that this man not only had great possessions, but he was continuing to acquire them. It seems obvious that his heart was trained in covetousness because he is unwilling to part with things and the prestige that those possessions may bring him and follow after Christ and bear the reproach of His cross.
What really stands out to me in the story is this: Jesus held up the “lower” end of the law, if you will, to the man. By lower end, I do not mean to diminish the holiness or goodness of the law. I mean that the first and greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor. Therefore, when Jesus brings these things to bear on the man and the man does not measure up in the area of his relationship with other men, how can he expect to measure up in the area of the commandments that deal directly with God?
The Apostle Paul also ran into
the brick wall of the 10th commandment. Again, we can clearly see the mindset of the
unregenerate when we hear what Paul says that he boasted in before he knew
Christ. In Philippians 3:4-5 Paul tells
us of what his trust was in concerning his justification before God. “If
anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law,
a Pharisee;
concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Notice that he says, “concerning the law, a Pharisee” and “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” What Paul meant by that was that in the sight of men he could not be accused of breaking any laws, whether moral or ceremonial. But we know in the sight of God that he was not blameless.
Let’s hear his testimony in
Romans 7:5-7. Verse 5 sums up the
context of what Paul has been saying. In
that verse he is saying that the law aroused sin within him. Why?
It is not because the law is actually doing anything to us. Rather the term “aroused” here is the word energeo
(en-erg-eh’-o). It means, “to be
operative, be at work, put forth power; to work for one, aid one; to effect; to
display one’s activity, show one’s self operative.” In other words there is an effect that the
law has on us. Because we are at enmity
with God we rebel against Him. The
Scriptures are subjective and they tell us that all fall short of the glory of
God and that all men are enemies of God.
This includes everyone: babies,
children, young people, old people, etc.
Do we get the idea?
Everyone. I wanted to stress this
lest we get the idea that maybe because we are not “as bad as someone else”
that we are not considered the enemies of God, when we are in the state of
being spiritually dead. The effect I was
speaking of was that the law takes what we were doing and from within us we
want to rebel more against the law of God.
These are the “sinful passions” Paul refers to in verse 5. Eventually these passions bear the fruit of
death (see also James
In verse six Paul says that believers have been delivered from the state of verse 5. Under the law man could try to govern his outward actions, but the raging passions and lusts within him were a roaring fire. Now, in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to quench the fires of sinful lusts so that we might be those who are free from the bondage of law and are those who become submissive unto God.
Then Paul answers a question that might come up in verse seven, “If the law seems to arouse these sinful passions within us, is the law sin?” Paul answers “No, God forbid.” Then He points out that the law revealed the one area that he could not begin to deal with coveting. It is not that he could deal with the other laws either internally. Yet he might be able to find some satisfaction with himself in his external adherence to the commands. But coveting had no external keeping. It was all internal. Now, it my be combined with other sins and produce external activity, but this command is one of the heart. Paul says that the law revealed this to him.
First he says that he would not have known sin but by the law. The term known here is the Greek word ginosko (ghin-oce’-ko). It simply means, “to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel.” Paul is saying that the law defined sin for him. Just as with our own children, they may do things and it really be sinful, but they don’t know that it’s sinful. We must teach them. We in effect become a type of law, in the fact that the law is a school master. We are schoolmaster’s who teach our children what is right and wrong. The law teaches us what is right and wrong. Therefore, it teaches us what sin is. Paul goes on to say that he would not have known lust except for the command to not covet. The word he uses here is ouk eido (oo i’-do). This word eido is in the pluperfect which refers to an event that has happened once and for all in the past. It carries the meaning, “to see; to perceive with the eyes; to perceive by any of the senses; to perceive, notice, discern, discover; to experience any state or condition.” In other words, it seems that Paul is speaking of the moment that regeneration took place in his life. This is where the blinders seem to be lifted from his eyes and he can clearly see how sinful he really is. It is one thing to know facts about your sin, it is another thing to perceive and know the reality of the sin within you. So, Paul had nothing else to trust in once this was revealed but the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness covers all our sin.
Are you covetous? Is your heart filled with lusts? I’m not just referring to sexual lusts, but desires for possessions and things that belong to someone else. Do our lusts cause us to deal with others in a manner that is sinful? Can we restrain the lusts of our hearts? If not dealt with, what will be the eventual outcome of unrestrained lusts and covetousness? May the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to quench the fires of covetousness and may we be people who are content in Christ alone.
DAY 2:
Is Coveting to be the part of a Christian’s character? Question 86 answers what the tenth
commandment requires. It says, “The
tenth commandment requires contentment with our own condition, with a right and
charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbor, and all that is his.” The Scriptures give us the command to be
content with what we have. For instance,
Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content
with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave
you nor forsake you." The
writer speaks of our conduct, or as the NASV best renders it “our character”,
is not to contain covetousness. The word
here for covetousness is aphilarguros (af-il-ar’-goo-ros). It means, “not loving money, not
avaricious”. We are not to be those
whose lives are characterized by greed.
There was a movie that came out some years ago entitled Wall Street. In it Michael Douglas portrayed a big time
stock trader and he had one of the most famous lines in movie history. He said, “Greed is good”. Now he meant that greed moved people to
achieve things and by achieving and attaining they were able to enrich the
lives of other people. However, while
helping to enrich other peoples lives is a noble thing and even a biblical
principle (see Eph.
Regarding the love of
money, Jesus spoke very clearly. In Luke
16:13, He said, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Notice he did not say God or Satan.
Rather, He clearly defines that we serve God or money. This comes in the context of the parable of
the talents and how the one man held onto his money and didn’t gain anything
for his master, yet the others all produced an increase for their master from
what He had given them. Then the
Scripture speaks of those who were in the crowd who heard these things who did
not serve God, though they thought they did.
Verse 14 tells us that the Pharisees were lovers of money. The word here is philarguros
(fil-ar’-goo-ros). It is not the
negative term found in Hebrews, but rather the positive affirmation of
coveting. They were those who were
covetous.
The writer of Hebrews
then goes on to say, “be content with such things as you have.” The word content here is arkeo
(ar-keh’-o). It means, “to be possessed
of unfailing strength; to be strong, to suffice, to be enough; to defend, ward
off; to be satisfied, to be contented.”
We are to have attitudes that are satisfied with what we have been
given. If we have a little, then let us
thank God for the little and gain even more gratitude for those things wen we
realize that some around us have less.
If we have much, then let us thank God for the blessings He has bestowed
upon us, remembering that it is God who makes men to differ (1 Cor. 4:7).
The writer of Hebrews
goes on to tell us that the reason for contentment is the Lord Himself. He says, “I will never leave you nor
forsake you.” This promise is found
over and over again in the Old Testament (Gen. 28:15; Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5;
1 Chr. 28:20). The Lord Jesus told His
disciples this very thing in Matthew 28:20 where He said that He would be with
them always, even to the end of the age.
When we read the stories of those who are persecuted today throughout
the world for their faith and when we read the stories of long ago, we find
that many believers lost all earthly possessions and even families. Yet, it was the Lord that they had to cling
to. It seems strange to us that God
sometimes brings the most good to us by ordaining the “worst” things. Getting rid of the things which we tend to
covet many times leads us to cling to the one thing that we should truly
desire: the Lord Himself.
Therefore, let us not do
as false teachers of today tell us and seek after riches. Rather let us follow the counsel of the
apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:6. Here he
tells young Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain. In contrast to those who thought that their
gain was equivalent to godliness, Paul rejects that and speaks of contentment
as a virtue, not gain. As a matter of
fact, he points out in verse nine that riches tend to lead men into temptations
and snares and into many foolish and harmful lusts. Let us be on guard against serving money and
seek after contentment with that which God has graciously provided us.
Today let each member of
the family name some things they are thankful for. Ask them if they are content with the clothes
they have, the food they eat, the friends they have, or anything else they
might have or possess. Ask them to
answer honestly. Then, let us examine
ourselves before God and see if there needs to be repentance from coveting
something or someone in our hearts.
DAY 3:
As believers we often hear about the love of God, although quite often the love of God is perverted by the one speaking of it. However, the love of God is wonderful and glorious. We also hear people say that they love God. Many times this speaks to some type of surface level sentiments that they may feel towards God. This is not true love, for we are commanded not to offer Him sentimental affections, but rather all of our being (Deut. 6:5).
As we come to the conclusion of the Ten Commandments,
let us remember that these ten really break down to two: to love God and to love our neighbor. It’s that simple. In Leviticus 19 we see that Moses wrote down
the commands of God referring to how we deal with one another. We have looked at many verses from this
chapter in the past including verse 17 which speaks to rebuking our neighbor,
yet not having anger in our hearts towards him.
That speaks to the sixth commandment.
The flip side of that is in verse 18 where we see that we are not to
take vengeance or hold a grudge. The
idea behind the command is that we are not to take matters into our own
hands. God had prescribed a means of
administering justice (SEE lessons on the sixth commandment). Yet he tells us not to exercise judgment from
our own hands. That would become
murder. The word used here for vengeance
is naqam (naw-kam’). It means,
“to avenge, take vengeance; to entertain revengeful feelings”. The command speaks to our desires for
revenge. We should rest in the fact that
the Lord is our avenger (Rom.
Also we are not to even hold a grudge toward our neighbor. The word here is natar (naw-tar’). It means “to keep, maintain; to keep, guard.” In other words we are not to harbor feelings of resentment towards our neighbor that would keep us from interacting with them, not providing for them when they need our help. This could come from real things that they have done or said that were perceived correctly or it could come from those things which were done or said which were perceived by us incorrectly. This can also stem from cultural environment. For instance, the color of a person’s skin may cause some to hold a grudge toward them. Prejudice is sinful and is not obedience to the tenth commandment.
Rather than these things we are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. Again, it is assumed that we already love ourselves. We don’t have a problem with self esteem. We have a problem with God esteem and with neighbor esteem. Our failure to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves shows the corruption of our own hearts. God even affirms His command by stating that “I am the LORD.” He is the Creator of all men, whether they are tall, short, fat, skinny, light or dark hair, black or white or any other particularity. Therefore, since we come from the same lineage, should we not show love for one another. Jesus addressed loving one’s neighbor when He was asked in Luke 10, “Who is my neighbor?” There He spoke of a Samaritan who helped his fellow man and loved him even though he was a Jew, while the man’s fellow Jews passed him by, leaving him for dead. Do our eyes look compassionately on those of different cultures and races or do we look at them with disgust and will only “be nice” to them if it gains us some advantage. May it not be so with us as the people of God.
Paul stresses to us what true love is in 1 Corinthians
13:4-7. He tells us that love suffers
long and is kind. True love is able to
bear with accusations and wrongdoings from others and tolerate those things
with patience and kindness. Paul says
that true love also does not envy. The
word here (zeloo dzay-lo’-o)is translated in a couple of passages as
covet. This is not the usual word for
covet epithumeo (ep-ee-thoo-meh’-o). Rather this word speaks to not desiring the
status of a person or the temporary pleasures of another person. It can also speak of being desirous of
someone being envious of us. Also, true
love does not parade itself (perpereuomai per-per-yoo’-om-ahee), nor is
it puffed up (phusioo foo-see-o’-o).
The first word means, “to boast one’s self; a self display, employing
rhetorical embellishments in extolling one’s self excessively.” This speaks to bragging and prideful speech
and actions. The way one literally walks
could speak to this. A person’s “strut”
says much about his love for himself as well as the way he speaks about
himself. I remember a long time ago
there was a famous baseball player from the Kansas City Royals who wore a shirt
that said, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” That is exactly the kind of thing true love
is not about. Not only that, but that
very phrase comes from a deceitful heart.
The believers path is not exaltation, but rather humiliation, which
leads to exaltation. A friend of mine
has said that the fight is not to get to the top, but to try and get to the
bottom (Mark
The second word here
means, “to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up; to puff up, make proud; to
be puffed up, to bear one’s self loftily, be proud.” One who is puffed up is “full of hot air”. He is one that sees himself greater than he
is. This has to do with an arrogant and
prideful heart. While perpereuomai
speaks to the action, phusioo speaks to the attitude behind the
action. God is very clear that he hates
pride (Prov.
Paul goes on to say that
true love does not behave rudely. The word
here is aschemoneo (as-kay-mon-eh’-o) and means “to act
unbecomingly.” This speaks to a persons
words and actions being those which he is careful about. He seeks after edifying language and steers
away from that which might be offensive to others. This does not speak about the offensiveness
of the gospel, but rather in things which might fall under the actions and
speech of the old man found in Ephesians 5:4.
True love does not seek
its own. The word here seems to indicate
a craving or a demanding for oneself. It
is the “I have a right to” attitude.
Sadly this is prevalent in our culture.
However, true love does not look like this. Rather it is willing to be as the Apostle
Paul was in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. They
are willing to give up their rights for the sake of the gospel and the glory of
God.
True love is not easily
provoked. The word is paroxuno (par-ox-oo’-no) and means “to
make sharp, sharpen; to stimulate, spur on, urge; to irritate, provoke, arouse
to anger; to scorn, despise; provoke, make angry; to exasperate, to burn with
anger.” True love endures many things
that would cause one to explode with rage.
This might be an opportune time to ask if we have a short fuse. Can we accept things that are said and done
by others towards us that would provoke us to anger and do it in a loving
manner? Or, do we choose to fire back
and thus fail to love them as we have been commanded?
True love also thinks no
evil. At first glance we might assume
that this means that he thinks no evil thoughts. However, Scripture is clear that the heart of
man is full of evil thoughts. But it
seems that this does not speak about those things in particular. Rather, the New American Standard Version
gives a proper rendering, “does not take into account a wrong suffered.” The idea is that one does not dwell on and
meditate on things that have been done to him.
He does not seek how he may plan revenge for those actions. Rather, he is one that is humble enough to
understand that the things said or done to him is ultimately in the plan and
purpose of God and will work out for his good to conform him to the image of
Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-30).
Paul says that true love
does not rejoice in iniquity but in the truth.
The word for iniquity is adikia (ad-ee-kee’-ah) and means
“injustice, of a judge; unrighteousness of heart and life; a deed violating law
and justice, act of unrighteousness.”
Someone who truly loves others does not become happy at the hearing of
evil deeds of another, nor does he rejoice when a person is brought down by his
sins. He is not excited about a lack of
justice, nor of the unrighteous deeds of men.
Finally, Paul says that
true love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things”. Quickly, true love
bears all things. True love bears the
burdens of others and so fulfills the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; 1 Pet.
4:8). True love believes all things that
are to be believed. It does not seek to
believe lies, but the truth, especially in regard to the Scriptures. It hopes in all things that are hopeful. True love’s hope is not in this world, nor in
the things of this world. Rather its
hope is in God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Its hope is in the faithful words of
God. Lastly, true love endures all
things. It is patient and longsuffering
toward the trials, temptations, persecutions, and ungodly men of this
life. True love does this knowing that
these things are perfecting his faith (James 1:3-4). Therefore, let us petition God that if He
wills, we may be those who would love our neighbors with true God honoring love
and that the glory of Christ might be made manifest in this world through our
love.
Scripture: Exodus 20:17;
Hebrews 13:5; 1 Timothy 6:6; Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Leviticus
19:18.