Jesus and the Ten Commandments

“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

Exodus 20:‬17

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I read a commentary on Exodus 20:17 that brought to the forefront my exact thoughts on this verse. This Commandment, unlike the others, involves only you. It involves our internal feelings. This commandment refers to your thoughts and attitude towards others. The first four are your interaction with God, the next 5 are all about your interactions with the people around you. The final one, is the only one that does not affect others should you not follow through and act on it. It originates in your heart and thoughts.

Where does sin start? Does it start with actions, or does it start with a feeling? It starts with a feeling that we can then decide to act on. This commandment brings it down to the very root of where sin starts. In your heart. 

Before we dive too far in, let’s define the word covet. 

Covet: to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others

Or

Covet: to wish, long, or crave for (something, esp the property of another person)

WORDS RELATED TO COVET

crave, envy, lust after, begrudge, choose, fancy, want, aspire to, desiderate, hanker for, spoil for, wish for.

Jesus touched on one aspect of this in Matthew 5:28 when he said that anyone who looks at someone with lust in their heart has already committed adultery with them in his heart. I don’t think I need to explain what that means because we all know what happens when you look on someone with lust, typically you start fantasizing about them and that, Jesus says, is adultery because they are not yours to fantasize about. Lust is desiring someone, and it is wrong to entertain those feelings unless they are yours to desire within marriage.

But lust starts with coveting someone in your heart. If we refer back to the definition of covet, you’ll see things like “wish for, crave, desire wrongfully” so essentially any thing that you desire wrongfully or wish for which does not belong to you, is coveting.

If we refer back to Matthew 5:28 So let’s replace the object of desire with literally anything else, let’s replace it with Sally’s car. “But I tell you that anyone who looks at Sally’s Car lustfully has already committed adultery with it in his heart.” The act of committing adultery is between at least one married individual and another. In this situation, Sally’s Car is “married” to Sally and lusting after her car, wishing it was yours, desiring it for yourself, is committing adultery with it in your heart.

So the 10th commandment expresses this clearly when it states “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” If you covet something that is not yours, you are stealing it for yourself in your heart.

So back to the idea that coveting is a heart issue, let’s look at what Jesus has to say about it; The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”” Romans 13:9 

What does that mean for us?

Really the commandments give us a guideline for how to treat those around us. The most important thing a Christian can do to demonstrate Christ, is to love those around us. The commandments are there to give us parameters on how to love others. 

But where does love start? 

It starts with a seed in your thoughts and in your heart. So how can we control ourselves from taking our thoughts too far? Paul helps give us a fantastic reminder in Philippians 4 on what we should be thinking about and how we can turn our thoughts around to what is proper. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:8‬ whenever those covetous thoughts creep in, remember to fix your thoughts on these things instead.