The Heart of the Commandments

Q 113: What is the aim of the tenth commandment? A: That not even the slightest desire or thought contrary to any one of God’s commandments should ever arise in our hearts. Rather, with all our hearts we should always hate the sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.

This tenth commandment is a little different than the rest, isn’t it? At least it’s different than the rest of the “second table,” the last 6 commandments that focus on love of neighbor (compared to the first 4 that focus on love of God). Those others focus on external activities—adultery, stealing, killing, etc.—something that you do to someone. But this one, coveting, happens completely within your heart. It seems a little less dangerous, doesn’t it? But some interpreters have said that this tenth commandment is the key to all ten of them, that breaking it leads to the others. QA113 recognizes this too, describing it as “the slightest desire or thought contrary to any one of God’s commandments.” In this way, it is probably the most dangerous of the commandments. Maybe it is because coveting is always at the root of taking, and these other commandments are simply ways we take things from others. When we kill we take a life. When we steal we take a belonging. When we commit adultery we take intimacy.  When we covet, we look at something another person has, and we want it. Our concern is not for them, but for ourselves. We are putting ourselves and our own concerns at the center of our world. This is the root not only of those other sins like murder and adultery, but also of the concern of the first commandments—idolatry. Coveting is idolatry of ourselves. In trying to worship ourselves, we begin to worship an unrelenting and graceless god.  Do you find yourself coveting your neighbor’s wife, or ox? What about his truck or his boat or his home? Maybe you’ve conquered those desires. Praise God! But what about your neighbor’s reputation, his status in the community? What about his professional accomplishments, or maybe his family? Sometimes those softer, more ambiguous goods have a tighter grip on us. What is the answer? If this commandment is the key to all of the others, it should be no surprise that the answer, as it is for all of the others, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only thing that can replace our failed idols at the center of our lives. He tells us to “seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [things we need] will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:33). When we are redirected to Jesus at the center, we are given Jesus’ perfect righteousness and are freed from need—freed from our desire to better our own situation at the cost of our neighbor’s.    In proper relationship with Jesus, we begin to see, as Craig Barnes says, that “every person we envy is a living soul who needs mercy as much as we do.” “God’s great truth,” he continues, “frees us from both the possessions and judgments of our neighbors. And it frees us at last to love our neighbors.”  Thanks be to God! ~Pastor Matt