Warning Against Worldliness
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The last two commandments we look at are 9 and 10. "You shall not covet...." in 9 is the house of a neighbor and 10 is people, things or possessions.
Much can be said of the word covet and it's meaning, as a recent Bible study at church noted. Covet is not a word we often use, Pastor said, and today I saw a Wall Street Journal article titled "Alaska's New Mining Rush Chases Something More Coveted Than Gold." Pastor is right. It's not a word we hear often, so when we do hear it, like in the article title, what does it mean?
To covet is to have a desire for something, an intense desire, that may cause you to waiver from your path. It's closely aligned to lust, which we mistakenly think of as being a sexual temptation only. I can lust anything. Wealth, power, fortune, fame. Cain envied Abel's faith and saw it more as a popularity with God, rather than humility and favor with God. His lust for God's favor was so great he rose up and struck down his brother. Saul was given the first title of king for Israel and squandered it when he lusted after possessions from a conquered country. He chose to keep some and lost God's favor shortly after that.
Christ warns against lust and notes it is actual adultery itself in his Sermon on the Mount. To covet, desire beyond reason, or to lust is to cause us to waiver from following God. In the opinion of a commentary Pastor noted as he taught, it is the beginning of every sin. I covet, therefore I alienate myself from God by sinning to obtain something, gain power over something, gain favor from someone ... You get the idea.
David coveted Bathsheba and lied, stole, killed dishonored his family name, made himself God, misused his God-given authority. How many commandments did the initial covet/lust cause David to violate?
What's the solution? Turn to God, ask for forgiveness and strength to turn away from the desire, lust, or covet. Ask for God to supply me with what's needed daily and rely on that alone. Be thankful for what I have and give to those in need. Pray daily for strength, forgiveness and mercy to not err and to be forgiven when I do.