Your ShelfYour Projects

The Tenth Commandment

5%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 4, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 22.

Read the full edition

The Tenth Commandment

By MILTON C. WILCOX

The Law of God—No. 15

The Tenth Commandment

MILTON C. WILCOX
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” Ex. 20:17.
We need not take time to dwell on the things named,—wife, servant, house, and various kinds of property. Let it suffice that they belong to some one, and no other person should covet them.
What does it mean to covet? What is covetousness?
The word is used in a twofold sense. It means inordinate desire, unlawful desire, for that which is not one’s own. This is the covetousness forbidden by the commandment.
Covetousness means an earnest longing for that which is good—“covet earnestly the best gifts.” 1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1. The American Revised Version has properly rendered it, “Desire earnestly the greater gifts.”
With the first meaning, the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” deals. We should not earnestly desire that which belongs to another; it is unlawful. Yielding ourselves to such a desire brands us as sinners. Such a desire controls us. It becomes a molding influence in our character. It turns our thoughts and our affections away from him to whom we should belong, and whose fulness ought to satisfy us, to a thing which does not belong to us. It can only be satisfied with the possession of that which we covet, and to possess it unlawfully is stealing, the transgression of the eighth commandment. The beginning of stealing and robbery is covetousness.
But covetousness is more than this. It interposes between our souls and God, in whom we should seek our satisfaction. It puts an object upon his throne, and the covetous man becomes an idolater. See Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5. O how many there are whose hearts cling to that which God and conscience demand to be given up, choosing their own desire instead of God’s wishes! It may be a farm or a house or a horse or a person, or a mere bauble of a costly hat or a ring, or perhaps baser lust. O soul, if you are bound, yield all these things, and let God’s commandment show your sinfulness even as it did the sin of Paul. “Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7, A. R. V.
The last commandment, as the first, touches the whole law. No one can yield to coveting without putting other gods before the Lord. In his own heart he sets up an image and altar in the thing he covets. In such cases it does not become difficult to take God’s name in vain. The man controlled by covetousness may take God’s name in vain even when he prays.
The covetous man will desire God’s time, the Sabbath, for his own. Covetousness, therefore, leads to Sabbath breaking.
Any unholy life is dishonoring to godly parents, and covetousness in Jesus’ day made void the fifth commandment. See Matt. 15:3-6; Mark 7:9-13. Tradition had embodied in its code the unlawful desire to use for selfish purposes that which belonged to father and mother.
The criminal first desires the destruction of his victim before he kills; his victim’s property before he steals; satisfaction of lust before he commits adultery. The same unholy longing leads in various ways to the transgression of the ninth precept. The tenth commandment forbids the transgression of any other.
Men talk glibly sometimes of enacting into civil codes the ten commandments. How could serious, thoughtful men ever consider such a fallacy? “Thou shalt not” is a matter of heart and motive, which no human law can touch or determine. This tenth commandment, considered by itself, reveals the spirituality of God’s law. Such a view of God’s law brought Paul to his knees, an acknowledged sinner. He could say, “The law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:14.
And that conviction shut him up to the only hope, the only Saviour, the only Deliverer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 7:24, 25; Gal. 3:22-24. He takes away the sin, freely forgives us by his grace, counts us as though we had never sinned. Rom. 3:20-24. Then the law, which before had condemned us, becomes a perfect witness to the righteousness which God has given us by faith. The two are one. Sinful, we could not get righteousness by law. But Jesus fully kept the law, and freely gave to us his righteousness that our sins might be covered.
More than this, he writes the law in our hearts. He places it not over us to condemn us, nor under us to be trampled upon, but with us, a blessing, a protection, a help, a guide to service, a witness to the appropriated righteousness of Jesus all the way, so that the erstwhile sinner joyfully sings, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119:97.
“This is the love of God, that we keephis commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.
May the readers of these lines know the love of God which passeth knowledge, that love which delights in obedience to his every command, that they may be found at last among that twice-blessed band who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Mountain View, Cal.