THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."-Exodus 20:17.

 

This 10th and last word of the Decalogue is in some sense radically different from those that have preceded it. It is the last requirement of the second table, and most distinctly refers primarily to man's relation to man. All the former commandments have forbidden overt acts. To disobey any of these is sooner or later to be detected by one's fellow men. This final word utters its solemn warning against sin in the inner and hidden life. This commandment may be broken without the knowledge of any human being. Sooner or later this also will reveal itself in some overt act, and therein lies at once the importance of the commandment, and the consequent solemn responsibility resting upon those who are thus finally warned of danger in its distant places. In American as well as English law the overt act of treason is distinguished from design not carried into effect. Yet were there no design there would be no treasonable act. The peculiar nature of this command, therefore, is that it passes below the externals of conduct to the hidden activities of the mind and heart and will, setting up the kingship of God, in all that strange and mystic region of human life. Thus, while the 10th commandment distinctly deals with human inter-relation, it sets such inter-relation in its right relation to Divine supremacy. This truth will be more evident as the command is considered-first, in itself; second, in the light of New Testament teaching; and third, in its application to the conditions of today.

The Command

In examining the commandment itself it is best to notice carefully the word which is made use of to mark the sin. The actual word "covet," in its original meaning, implies delight in some object, and because delight in anything necessarily means a sense of desire to possess, the word was used to mark that desire to possess, more than the delight which prompted the desire. In the repetition of the commandment as chronicled in the Book of Deut. 5:21 two words are used. The first word translated "covet" in the Revised is the same as that already referred to in Exodus. The second word translated "desire" in the Revised is a word meaning simply to wish for. The Apostle Paul in quoting the commandment uses a Greek word, which in its different forms in the New Testament is most frequently translated "lust." It is often rendered "desire," and sometimes "covet," and occasionally "concupiscence." These translations will help to throw light upon the word. Its essential meaning is "to set the heart on," very literally, "to pant after."

The sin, therefore, suggested by the word is very evidently that of desire to possess something which belongs to another. Notice the sequence suggested by the very word itself. The eyes rest upon some object which commands the admiration of the beholder; something which is to that person delightful and to be desired. To desire to possess that object is to covet. There is, of course, an unnamed quantity in the circumstances addressed, something which is not wrong, but out of which the wrong may spring. That unnamed quantity is comparative poverty, inability to obtain a like object to the one admired by lawful means. That condition may give rise to a desire to possess the object when not lawfully obtainable. That desire is the sin of coveting. By way of illustration, a person may see a picture upon the walls of his friend's house, admire it, desire it and then purchase one like it. The desire in that case is not the sin of coveting, for it may be satisfied legitimately. Where the object admired is for any reason out of the reach of the one admiring, admiration merging into desire to possess breaks the commandment. Herein lies the searching and revealing power of this last word of the Decalogue. This desire for that which cannot lawfully be possessed is distinctly forbidden, and so this 10th word passes much deeper in its moral requirement than any that has preceded it. It sets up God's right over the realm of desire.

The whole force of the commandment lies in these words taken out of the commandment. "Thy neighbor's . . . thy neighbor’s . . . his . . . his . . . his . . . his . . . thy neighbor's." This is a sevenfold guarding of the interests of another. It is not wrong to desire a wife, nor a man servant, nor a maid servant, nor an ox, nor an ass, nor anything that in itself is right. It is wrong to desire any of these when through any circumstances they are out of the reach of the one desiring.

This examination of the commandment in itself is enough to arrest the conscience and to bring man to say it is impossible to prevent desire following upon admiration; and this is indeed true, but this truth is the revelation of the fallen condition of humanity, and this is what the apostle meant when, in his great argument on the relation of the law to sin, he said, "I had not known sin except through the law; for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting, for apart from the law sin is dead." (Rom. 7:7-8) That sin is present in every life is evidenced by this very desire to possess unreachable things. This sin is only discovered in the light of this commandment. Well will it be, if this searchlight of Divine requirement shall so astonish men as to drive them to Him Who alone is able to deal with the unexplored reaches of the nature, and then will they also be able to say, "The law hath been our tutor unto Christ." (Gal. 3:24)

The value and importance of the commandment will be gathered from a consideration of its far-reaching application. First, it conditions individual life. Covetousness disturbs all the highest possibilities of life, and finally makes them impossible. These highest possibilities are indicated in the apostle's arrangement of the fruit of the Spirit: "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22) Covetousness will destroy the bloom and mar the beauty of the entire fair cluster. Instead of love, there will be suspicion and hatred; instead of joy, sorrow, heart-ache; instead of peace, feverish unrest; instead of long-suffering, impatience; instead of kindness, cruelty; instead of goodness, miserliness; instead of faithfulness, infidelity; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of self-control, self-assurance. The apostle's phrase, "The goodness and severity of God," (Rom. 11:22) was no accidental combination of apparent opposites. The severity of the 10th word of the Decalogue is based upon His goodness. Though it search like fire, it is in order that beyond the fire cleansing of the soil, there may come the verdure and fruitage of Paradise, in order that "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." (Isa. 55:13)

Second, it includes in its scope all social life. Out of disobedience to this command will spring sins that break every law written upon the second Table of the Law. It is the sin of covetousness that makes it possible for a man to say, "It is Corban," (Mark 7:11) of possessions he should use in honoring his father and his mother. Criminal records will prove that in a great majority of cases, unholy desire was the inspiration of murder. No word need be written to demonstrate the fact that the look of lust ever precedes the act of adultery. Theft of every description is the offspring of desire to possess that which is unreachable by lawful means. The evil spirit that makes false witness possible is motived far more often than perhaps appears by covetous aspiration. Thus the whole realm of human inter-relation is disorganized and broken up by the dishonoring of the 10th commandment.

And yet again, it is a command that conditions thy Divine relationship. The sin of greed proves that the soul is out of harmony with God, and dissatisfied with Him. This sin issues, therefore, in the breaking of the four commandments of the first Table of the Decalogue. It is for the accommodation of distorted human life that man has created other gods, themselves covetous and selfish. Unsatisfied desire, moreover, issues in the attempt to make some representation of God, for the easing of conscience which perpetually cries out for the authority of Deity. Profanity and blasphemy of all kinds result from the pain of a hunger that finds no satisfaction in the false gods thus set up. All profanity is the wail of lust. The desecration of the day of rest is due to the restlessness born of unholy desire. It will thus be seen how far-reaching and searching this closing word of the Divine enunciation of morality is. The first commandment and the last are closely linked, and all that lie between are conditioned within them. If a man has no God but Jehovah Elohim, then will he covet nothing, except what his God supplies. If a man covet anything that he may not lawfully obtain, it is because of hunger deeper than that born in the coveting, his hunger, namely, for the one true God.

The Teaching of the New Testament

Turning now to the New Testament, nothing can be clearer or more emphatic than its repetition and enforcement of the great principles of this commandment. The words of Jesus Himself admit of no misunderstanding. They were spoken in answer to a man who asked the Master to satisfy his desire by compelling his brother to divide the inheritance with him. "Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." (Luke 12:15) This statement He enforced by the parable of the rich fool, who, notwithstanding all his getting, found no present rest, and yet with acumen and concentration attempted to feed his soul with "goods," imagining that the spirit-life could be satisfied with eating, drinking, and merriment.

So also Paul ranks "the covetous man" with the "fornicator," the "unclean person," the "idolater," and declares that he has no "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." (Eph. 5:4-5)

James, in his satire of the rich, that is, of men who have attempted to satisfy their life by possessing, and whose whole activity has been actuated by desire for gold, shows clearly the heinousness of the sin, and reveals how it issues in the breaking down of the social ideal. (James 5:1-6)

Peter tracks adultery to the same cause in his burning words, "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin: enticing unsteadfast souls: having the heart exercised in covetousness." (2 Peter 2:14.)

John declares in a comprehensive sentence the perishing nature and cause of sinful life, placing it in immediate antithesis to the permanence and cause of holy life. "The world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:17)

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews, in his concluding portion, warns those to whom he writes against the same sin, putting covetousness and content into opposition, and showing how the first is rendered impossible, and the second made simple, to those who rest in the faithfulness and fellowship of God. "Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have, for Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. So that with good courage we say: The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: What shall man do unto me?" (Heb. 13:5-6.)

To return to the teaching of Jesus, a striking and forceful statement of the principle is contained in the remarkable words, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. 6:25). He made this statement after warning His disciples against laying up treasures for themselves upon the earth. He followed it by declaring that they were not to be anxious concerning the things they should eat, or drink, or put on. They were rather "to seek first the kingdom of God." The sentence itself is most suggestive, as putting into contrast the two camps in which men serve-God and Mammon. The inspiration and force of service in the camp of God is that of rest and satisfaction. The stimulus and spur of service in the camp of Mammon is that of desire and covetousness. Man serves God in the quiet force of his rest in God. Man serves Mammon in the restless energy of his desire for Mammon. Herein lies the most terrible indictment of covetousness. It is the fever which makes the eye glisten with a false luster, the cheek flush with deceitful color, the muscles twitch with unnatural activity, the nerves throb with restless desire. It is the service whose final wage is death.

Wherever man desires anything, small or great, outside the possibility of righteousness, he is in that measure in the grip of a fever which must destroy him unless it is quenched.

The Application

Was there ever a day in which this great principle needed more forceful statement than today? Is it too much to say that covetousness lies at the root of all the evils that blight the world, especially its so-called civilized portion? The oppression of feeble races, the inability to cope with the outbreak of violence, the indifference to righteousness that alone exalts a nation, the toleration of giant evils that sap the virtue of the people-these all may be traced to the restless and unsatisfied heart of man in his covetousness for that which, possessed, does but breed new desire. Some great words are being dragged through the mire, because they are chained to the car of the unsatisfied god, covetousness. In Mr. Watts's famous picture of Mammon, a terrible indictment, he has portrayed the monster as of enormous proportions, bloated, and apparently comfortable in his swinish over-fullness. While I admit the force of the picture, had I the artist's brush I would not so paint him, but rather lean and gaunt, hungry and wild, with one arm clasping the nations, and the other out-reached, with fury on his face that there was no more to possess.

Not only in the national outlook is covetousness discovered, but at the base of all social problems lies the same worm of discontent. The greed of the capitalist and the madness of the anarchist, the brutality of great corporations and the superb cruelty of un-Christianized democracy, all arise from lust of possession. Your TV set has 5 to 6 ads for every few minutes of viewing the desired program. The lotteries are taking millions and now billions and giving to a person who did not labor for the prize. All the individual vices that are robbing the nations of their young men and maidens-drink, impurity, gambling-grow out of unsatisfied craving of the heart-covetousness. Humanity, away from God, covets, and no amount of getting proves to be gain.

Oh, that the words of Eliphaz the Temanite-true in principle, though wrong in their application to Job-might be sounded out in some such way as to-convince belief and produce obedience.

"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace:

Thereby good shall come unto thee.
Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth,
And lay up His words in thine heart.
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up; If thou put away righteousness far from thy tents.
And lay thou thy treasure in the (lust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks;
And the Almighty shall be thy treasure, and precious silver unto thee.
For then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty, And shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee; And thou shalt pay thy vows.
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee,
And light shall shine upon thy ways." (Job 22:21-28.)

Surely this last word of the Decalogue must bring every soul who honestly faces it into the place of conviction of sin, and to a sense of utter helplessness. It may be men have passed through the examination of all the foregoing commandments with some measure of self-respect still left, with some consciousness that they have not greatly sinned; but who at the last can stand in the light of this quick and powerful word, and claim to be guiltless? It was Paul who after thirty years of Christian experience, reviewing his old life as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, could say, "as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless," (Phil. 3:5) who yet had to say that when he faced this last word, "Thou shalt not covet," he became conscious that sin wrought in him "all manner of coveting;" (Rom. 7:8) and he found that the commandment which was unto life, was in him unto death. Very few dare look back upon the past and say even in the light of the earlier commandments conditioning the externals of life, that they have been "blameless," not one dare say they have not desired forbidden things.

The study of the Decalogue must therefore be closed with a confession of hopelessness. In it there is found the law of life, but not life. We are undone. It may be possible for men so to live as to escape the detection of their fellow men, but when God speaks to them in the secret stillness of the inner chamber of their being the arresting word, "Thou shalt not covet;" and when Jesus adds to that His word of exposition, "Everyone that looks... hath... already in his heart," (Matt. 5:28) they bow their heads in the dust, and say "We also have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) Thus the commandments bring men into the light of Divine requirement, and draw from them the confession of guilt, and leave them waiting for the Deliverer. The commandments without the Cross utter a sentence of death.