You Shall Not Covet
So it’s been 12 years ago now since Melissa and I moved to the Twin Cities, and it wasn’t long after we got here that we kept hearing about Duluth. I had never heard anything about Duluth before, but people were saying that it was a place we just had to see because it was beautiful in the summers and the Lake looked amazing, and we just needed to go. And because we were more spontaneous back then — this was seven children ago — we decided one day, “Hey, let’s drive to Duluth and check it out.” The problem was that it was August, and when we got there we couldn’t find any place to stay the night.
Everything in Duluth was booked up, and so we have do venture out a little bit and eventually we found this bargain hotel in Superior, Wisconsin. [Anybody here from Superior?]
I should also mention here that we were really cheap, and so this was not the greatest place to stay. In fact, it was so sketchy that we actually called our friends back in the Cities, and said: “Hey, we just want you to know. If you don’t hear from us tomorrow, we’re staying at the So-and-so Hotel in Superior, Wisconsin …”
The place was so old they didn’t even have electronic clocks in the room. When we checked-in they asked if we wanted a wake-up call.
And I was like, “If you recommend it.”
I think it ended up saying 6:30, and by the time we got settled in the room and laid down, I could hardly wait for that phone to ring.
When’s the last time you guys have had a wake-up call in a hotel room? Or how about: when’s the last time you heard an analog phone ring? I’m talking about those bulky phones with chords attached to a base. Those phones can make the most unpleasant sounds. It just screams at you, and the older and heavier the phone, the harsher the ring — but guess what?
It wakes you up.
Just like the tenth commandment.
Today, in our series on the Ten Commandments, we’re looking at the tenth and final commandment, “You shall not covet…” — which is actually in a different category than all the other commandments. And what makes this commandment different is not that it’s talking about different things — it’s talking about the same things we’ve already seen — but the tenth commandment talks about them in a different way. And this difference completely reconfigures the way we think about sin and obedience.
And that’s going to mean at least one of two things for us this morning:
The truth in this passage is going to either change the way you think about sin and obedience, OR
It’s going to remind us about the truth of sin and obedience.
And we’re going to see this in four steps. Each of the four steps are connected, and we’re going to walk through each one, but before we get started let’s pray again and ask for God’s help:
Father, we are desperate for your Holy Spirit. We cannot live as you have called us to live without your Spirit. We can’t even hear your words in this moment without your Spirit. So please, we ask, send the Helper to help us now. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Okay, so to understand the tenth commandment, Step 1 . . .
Step 1: The tenth commandment focuses on the heart.
This is fundamental to the tenth commandment. Listen again to Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
The keyword here is the verb “covet” but first notice the “objects” in the sentence: House, wife, servants, ox, donkey — “or anything that is your neighbor’s” — and that’s the summary of what’s intended here.
These are things that are not yours. We can think about these things in two categories: spouses and houses. Your neighbor’s spouse is not your spouse, and your neighbor’s house is not your house (and that includes the entire household, everything material and personal to do with your neighbor; if it’s your neighbor’s it is not yours).
And what’s interesting here is that the objects in this sentence are things we’ve already heard about. We’ve already talked about your neighbor’s spouse because the Seventh Commandment says “You shall not commit adultery.” We’ve already talked about your neighbor’s house (or property) because the Eighth Commandment says “You shall not steal.”
So these two things that we’ve already talked about are repeated here in the Tenth Commandment, but now there’s this word “covet.”
The word covet means to desire or long for something in a way that’s off. Other English words we have for this concept are words like “crave” and “lust” — and both of those are words that sound dirty on purpose. We have a concept in our language for desire that gets corrupted.
We know that desire itself is not bad. It’s a gift. There are all kinds of things we should desire, starting with God. But there is also a kind of distorted desire; there’s an unhealthy desire, especially for things that are not yours. Like your neighbor’s spouse. Or your neighbor’s house.
The tenth commandment is talking about things we’ve already seen, but it’s now talking about them in a different way. It’s not enough that you don’t commit adultery, you can’t want to commit adultery. It’s not enough that you don’t steal, you can’t want to steal.
The focus is now turned from external actions to internal desire. The focus is now not what we do out here in the open, but now it’s about what we think over and long for from inside our hearts. This is why historically, interpreters of this passage have understood the tenth commandment to be like a summary commandment that’s meant to deepen all the previous nine commandments. The tenth commandment has been understood less as a new commandment and more like a clarification on the level of obedience that God requires in all his commandments.
I love the way that the Heidelberg Catechism explains the Tenth Commandment. One of the things we’ve done throughout this series is refer back to these old Reformed Catechisms, either the Westminster Larger Catechism or the Heidelberg Catechism. The Heidelberg is a little bit older. It was written in 1563, and like the Westminster, it includes extended explanations of each of the Ten Commandments, but when it comes to the tenth commandment, it gives the shortest explanation of them all (the Westminster does the same thing). In the Heidelberg, it’s just one question, one answer.
Question 113: What is God’s will for you in the tenth commandment?
A: That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of God’s commandments should ever arise in my heart. Rather, with all my heart I should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.
And there you go. That’s the only thing the Heidelberg says about the tenth commandment. That’s what the tenth commandment is about. The tenth commandment focuses on your heart, which means that God demands our obedience even at the level of our “slightest thoughts and desires.”
Okay, so understanding this is the first step.
Step 2: Real obedience cannot be faked.
So we need to establish a category here: there are certain things that we can externally do or not do that look like obedience, but it’s not real obedience if our desires are sinful.
Here’s an example (and it’s a little silly on purpose). But say that your neighbor has a coffee mug that you really like. You admire this coffee mug, and when you hang out with your neighbor you like to drink from this coffee mug, and that’s all good and great; that’s okay — but then, over time, your admiration for the coffee mug means you start thinking about the coffee mug when you’re not hanging out with your neighbor. And you start imaging yourself drinking from this coffee mug at your own house. And then you start to wonder: would my neighbor really care if I snatched this mug the next time I’m over? What if I just took it with me for one drink? Because I don’t even think my neighbor appreciates this coffee mug as much I do anyway. I could really treat this coffee mug right. And my neighbor would probably never miss it. And what happens here is that you basically convince yourself that it should be your coffee mug, but the eighth commandment says not to steal, and therefore you decide not to take it. You do not steal the coffee mug. And the question is: is that obedience?
Absolutely not.
It might look like obedience externally because you didn’t actually steal the mug, but the tenth commandment condemns you because you have lusted after the mug. You coveted the mug, which makes you guilty of breaking the tenth commandment, and therefore you must repent of that sinful desire. Just because you don’t perform the external sin, you don’t get a pass on the sinful desire. You have to deal with that. You have broken the tenth commandment, which always means, in this case, you’ve broken the eighth commandment too.
That’s what happens when we understand that the tenth commandment is a clarification of the level of obedience God requires in Commandments 1–9. The tenth commandment is a thread that runs through all the other commandments and takes the demand for obedience to the deeper, unseen level of desire, which is exactly what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount because of the problem with the Pharisees.
See, in Jesus’s day, the scribes and Pharisees were a sect of Judaism that really valued the law. And they behaved in a way that looked like obedience, but it was really just shallow law-observance. They were doing certain things out here that looked good, but then Jesus takes the issue to the heart, and Jesus means it when he says that “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
It’s because their ‘righteousness’ was not righteousness at all. It might have looked like obedience on the outside, but it wasn’t real obedience because real obedience places a demand on our internal desires, and you can’t fake internal desires. So:
You might honor mom and dad by saying all the right things with your mouth, but in here you have resentment and selfishness. You break the Fifth commandment.
You might not murder someone, but in here you stew with anger toward them. You break the Sixth Commandment.
You might not commit adultery, but in here you lust after someone who is not your spouse. You break the Seventh Commandment.
You might not steal, but in here you envy your neighbor’s stuff. You break the Eighth Commandment.
You might not speak a lie, but in here you wish your neighbor doesn’t learn the truth. You break the Ninth Commandment.
See, God wants your heart, and if your heart’s not in it, you are doubly guilting for breaking both the tenth commandment and then whatever the other commandment is, which ends up meaning that you become accountable to all the commandments. The law has that kind of unity. You actually cannot obey certain parts and not others. If we break one commandment, it’s like we’re guilty for breaking all of them (see James 2:8–13), and in most cases, if we persist in covetousness — if we let ourselves go and do not repent at the level of desire — it will eventually manifest itself by external action.
So maybe you decide not to steal the coffee mug for now, but if you don’t repent of the desire, if you eventually steal the coffee mug.
In fact, desire is where every external action begins. Every sin done out here always starts with desire, and you’re guilty at the level of desire. In James Chapter 1 he describes the pathology of sin like this. This is James Chapter 1, verse 14:
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14–15).
So things don’t just go wrong at the birth of external sin; things went wrong when the desire was conceived. James is saying internal sinful desire leads to external sinful behavior leads to death. And the whole thing is wrong. You cannot fake real obedience.
But you know we try. We all have a little Pharisee in us, and I’m saying this as someone who once tried to make it in life as Pharisee.
I grew up in the church, grew up in a Christian family, and I figured out early on the things I needed to do or not do externally to look like a good kid. You just figure it out. And when it comes to wining trust and getting your parents off your back, it worked. I didn’t cause much trouble growing up, but inside, unseen, it was evil.
And I just want to take a minute for all the kids in our church. I’m talking here about pre-teens, teens, any of you kids who can track with what I’m saying. You kids listen up here: we have a lot of good kids in this church, and we’re glad you’re good kids, and we’re proud of you, but being a good kid is not good enough. You can act obedient, but God wants your heart. He cares about what you think and how you feel.
And what’s dangerous — and I’m saying this as someone who’s been there — is that we can start to justify the sin on the inside because we don’t do that sin on the outside. We can trick ourselves into thinking that we’re okay when we’re not okay. And I just want to exhort you kids in this church who are growing up in the church, don’t fall for that. Don’t trick yourself by shallow obedience. God wants your heart.
And church, this is something John Calvin understood well. In his commentary on the tenth commandment Calvin says that the tenth commandment is necessary for us because without it we would trick ourselves into thinking that God is pleased with only external observance. If not for the tenth commandment we would believe that we can obey the law merely on outside. So Calvin says that the tenth commandment especially eliminates faking obedience and any kind of self-righteousness.
Step 3: The hyper-sinfulness of sin is revealed.
When we understand that sin happens at the internal, unseen level of desire, it should do to us what it did for the Apostle Paul.
Calvin knew what Paul knew. In his commentary Calvin goes straight from the tenth commandment in Exodus 20:17 to what Paul says about it in Romans 7:7.
Now the context of Romans 7 is that Paul is having this larger discussion on the law and sin, and in verse 7 he directly quotes the tenth commandment. It’s one of those few places in Paul’s letters where he gets autobiographical.
At a macro level, Paul says that the presence of the law is what convicted him of sin. He was carrying on with his life, unaware of his sin, until he heard the law, and in particular until he heard the tenth commandment. Paul says, Romans 7:7, “I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.”
In other words, Paul is saying that the tenth commandment exposed in him all kinds of sinful desire (see also Romans 7:5). Maybe Paul thought he did a really good job at Commandments 1–9 because he was a Pharisee, after all! (see Philippians 3:5). So when it came to external law-observance, he had that down!
But he also had these internal desires that he did not know was a problem until he understood the tenth commandment. And the tenth commandment, because of its focus on desire, it nailed him. And he could not escape it. He knew that his failure to obey the tenth commandment ruined his obedience in all the other commandments.
That’s why I think Paul, in two different places, he says that covetousness is idolatry. There are two paces where he does. Listen to Ephesians 5:5. Paul says: “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
Now listen to Colossians 3:5. Paul says: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
First off, just notice that in both of these places Paul gives a list of sins, and in both of these lists, what is the last sin that he mentions? It’s covetousness. And where do you think he got that from? That’s exactly what the Ten Commandments do!
And Paul says in both places that covetousness is idolatry. Now why does he do that?
Well, there’s probably a couple reasons, but considering Romans 7, I think the reason Paul calls covetousness idolatry is because the sin of covetousness is what convicted Paul of his wholesale unfaithfulness to God.
The commandment “You shall not covet” is what led Paul to see that he also had broken the First and Second Commandments. At the root of his internal sinful desires was that he had other gods before Yahweh, namely himself. Through the tenth commandment, the hyper-sinfulness of sin is revealed.
In Romans 7:13 that’s what Paul says he learned from this commandment. His sinful desires existed because he had placed self-gratification at the center of his existence and although he had an external, superficial obedience, at heart he worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. The tenth commandment led Paul to see that a coveter is also an idolater, and that was true of himself. Just like it’s true of us.
And what effect should that have on someone?
RING! RING! RING!
This is the wake-up call. It takes us to Step 4.
Step 1: the tenth commandment focuses on the heart.
Step 2: real obedience cannot be faked.
Step 3: the hyper-sinfulness of sin is revealed.
And now, Step 4 …
Step 4: We need to be rescued.
Here’s the deal: when we come to understand the hyper-sinfulness of our sin, and that we can’t “obey” enough on the outside because God wants our hearts — when we understand that, it will ruin us. In the right way.
Because it means you can never do enough or be enough to save yourself. The tenth commandment burns your self-salvation project to the ground. The obedience that you thought you had been storing up instantly becomes a wasteland of guilt and shame.
Have you been to that wasteland yet? Have you come to grips the severity of your sin and the futility of your efforts?
Or, another way to say it: have you come to that place where you know you need to be rescued? Not improved or rehabbed, but rescued. Do you know you need rescue?
See, the main reason to see the wasteland of our sin is that the severity of our sin is only matched by the intensity of God’s mercy. If you think lightly of sin as mere external actions, then you must consider Jesus to be a puny Savior. Do you think Jesus was crucified and bore the wrath of God against sin just so you would behave?
Jesus came for your soul. Jesus demands the obedience for which he is worthy, and he is worthy of it all, at the deepest level. Jesus came to rescue the deepest parts of you because it’s the deepest parts of you need rescuing.
And what do you do with that? You surrender. You give him the keys.
You come to the end of yourself, which is the first work of grace, because the end of yourself is where salvation finally begins. And look, it’s a mess! It’s a struggle. When you get the wake-up call of your own wasteland, it’s like a crisis. You get thrown into a war-zone of brokenness, and you’re trapped, and you cannot save yourself, and so you say something like: “O wretched man that I am! Who can rescue me from this body of death?”
And then you say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
And there’s no better way to conclude the tenth commandment of the Ten Commandments.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
The Ten Commandments are a guide to life, but they do not save a life. They reveal to us God’s will, which then reveals to us our need for God’s grace. And the message of the gospel is that God gives grace. Jesus Christ is that grace! He lived for you a perfect life, and died to pay for all your sins, internal and external, and he was raised from the dead to set you free, and he ascended to heaven and sent his Spirit to create in you a new heart empowered to follow him. He has saved, is saving, will save all of you. If you trust him.
And that’s how this sermon and series ends. The call is for you to trust Jesus, be forgiven, be set free, be made new, and come be baptized on March 22.
The Table
And that’s what brings us to this Table. Each week we come to this Table to remember the death of Jesus and give him thanks for his salvation. Basically, every Sunday at this Table we’re saying what Paul says in Romans 7:25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
And if you trust in Jesus this morning, and you give him thanks, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
