p. 5 | The Tenth Commandment by J. O. Corliss

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 27, 1909

The Tenth Commandment

By J. O. Corliss

By J. O. Corliss

An “Exceeding Broad Commandment.”

The word “covet,” as used in the Bible, includes a wide field of operation. Its first appearance is in the last of the ten “words” of the Decalogue: “Thou shalt not covet” thy neighbor’s belongings. Its intent in this place is to control the mind against any desire for that which belongs to another. The reason for this uncompromising restraint may be readily and quite accurately conjectured. The mind being the seat of desire, and the latter the natural guide of outward actions, it became necessary for the commandment to touch the source of one’s conduct.

There is a feature of this subject that should be noticed at this stage, and that is the well-known fact that desires, like other living constituents, enlarge and strengthen with careful nursing. With certain encouragement these lead one to reach out after even dishonest gain, which must therefore be reckoned as an expanded form of covetousness. Indeed, when Jethro advised that Moses seek out men to assist him in the administration of Israel’s affairs, he designated that they should be men who “feared God,” and “hated covetousness.” Ex. 18:21.

The original word here used to express covetousness includes more than mere desire. It is a word which means greedily gotten gain by dishonest measures. The same word is used in later times to express the general character of the Jews,—a marked feature still very prominent with most of that people. Said the prophet: “From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.” Jer. 6:13.

Covetousness Not Limited.

Could this condition of things now be limited to the Jews, the religious aspect of the world would be far more cheering than it is. But it has come to pass that religious scruples are not in all cases a sufficient barrier to prevent unholy desires from bearing bitter fruit. In many cases, the love of money is not the all-consuming process by which men’s prospect of heaven becomes clouded; but wrong desire, with some, is nurtured to such proportions that, while loudly proclaiming religious rights for all, they seem strongly led to trample down the rights of others, in order to win fame and power for themselves. Such is but the legitimate fruit of covetousness. It is not strange that the God of truth, who loves men’s souls, should warn against such a mortal form of error.

Coming to the New Testament we find the meaning of covetousness extending through several lines of thought. For instance: The apostle gave instruction to the brethren at Corinth not to keep company with certain individuals, among whom he mentions those who are covetous. In explanation of this exaction, the apostle makes a significant statement. As tho he feared the brethren might think his demand too sweeping, he says he did not have in mind people of the world; for in that case, to carry out instruction such as they had received, they would be obliged to go “out of the world.” 1 Cor. 5:9, 10.

Evidently Paul had in mind the separation of the good members from the bad in the church itself, since he had just reproved them so sharply for maintaining these evils among them. The particular case complained of here was a member of the assembly living in adultery with his father’s wife. Verse 1. But while guilty of openly violating the seventh commandment, he had first, and constantly, done violence to the one which forbade covetousness. The overt act could not have occurred without the desire of passion first getting control. In fact this principle obtains with every one of the other nine commandments.

This fact was tersely stated by the Saviour when He said that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man.” Matt. 15:19, 20. In other words, while the issues of these evil thoughts, or reasonings, are the condemnation of the man, they are so only because these are but the plain index of what is graven on the heart, and so become the outgrowth of the natural “wish to have more,” as is indicated by the word rendered “covetous” in the text under consideration. 1 Cor. 5:10. So, then, it is emphatically true that out of the heart are “the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23.

But the mere passing “wish to have more,” is not the real object of censure. It is the cultivation of that wish, or desire. In his farewell address to the elders of the Ephesian church, the great apostle said: “I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.” Acts 20:33. He could not have meant by this, that he had not desired enough of these things, at least, to satisfy his common necessities; for in writing to the church at Corinth, he chided its members for not doing for him what he required in this direction. 2 Cor. 11:8, 9.

What, then, was the purpose of his statement to the Ephesian elders? The word employed on that occasion carries the sense of “fixing the mind” on their possessions, or lusting for them. This the apostle had not done, because he knew the sure result of such a line of thought, as expressed by him when writing to Timothy of his duties as a minister of the Gospel. In this connection he said: “The love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith.” 1 Tim. 6:10. The love of money is the root of all evil only because money is that which men covet, or, as the original of the word signifies, extend the arms for. When this is done, one “falls into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

It will be well to look at one other statement concerning this thing of covetousness. The apostle says it is idolatry, and that it is one of those things which bring upon men the wrath of God. Col. 3:5, 6. In this statement we have the last commandment of the ten identified with the first, and so binding the whole moral code solidly together, it is the fitting conclusion of a completely formed code of morals, because it is the underlying stratum upon which condemnation for violation of every other precept rests. Its provisions are ever the first ones to be violated in the downward path of evil. Its instruction properly heeded, no one can trample upon one of the commandments preceding it. It is the culminating point of all that was to be guarded by the other commandments,—the purity of the mind,—that God might be glorified.