The Ten Commandments: The Tenth Commandment

THE DECALOGUE:
A SUMMARY OF GOD'S PRECEPTS FOR GOD'S PEOPLE

The Tenth Commandment:
On Cupidity (Exod 20:17)
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2006

(There are different divisions of the Commandments in different traditions: In Protestantism (for the most part), v. 2 is the introduction and v. 3 is the first command. In Judaism, vv. 2-3 together are the first command. In Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism, vv. 2-6 are the first command, and v. 17 contains two commands. This study follows the primary Protestant division, recognizing that v. 2 is declarative and v. 3 contains the first imperative.)

What you hear is not always what you remember, and what you remember is not always accurate.

A children's SS class was studying the Ten Commandments. The students were proceeding down the list, quoting each command as best they could remember. There was a pause, though, when they came to the last one, and the teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Finally, Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and said, "Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor's wife."

That version may not be quite accurate, but it does capture what might lead to coveting.

In the final command of the Decalogue, God departs from His previous pattern by giving a precept that is not about an action but about an attitude.¹ Please turn to Exod 20:17 for the commandment On Cupidity.²

Exod 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Deut 5:21 You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

There are several other commands, important commands that continue the pattern God established of addressing actions, behavior that is obvious. Like...³

Lev 19:11a Do not steal.

Deut 7:3a Do not intermarry with [pagans].

Lev 18:22a Do not practice homosexuality. (Actually: Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman....)

Why does God not choose one of these or something similar and be consistent here?

By focusing the last command on what is internal, He wants to prevent the problems earlier commands address by correcting the attitudes that cause the actions. As Jesus says, sin starts on the inside:

Matt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

With this final command, God is advocating early intervention, stopping sin before it develops. By using coveting to make this point, He actually includes other unrighteous actions His people can interdict, as we will see later.

The term covet is sometimes confused with greed, but there is a difference between them. While all covetousness is greed, all greed is not covetousness.

• Greed is lusting for what does not belong to you.⁴
• Covetousness is lusting for what does not belong to you but does belong to another.

The prohibition against coveting is designed to deter potential predators, those who would take what someone else has. God wants to discourage any designs a person may have on what properly belongs to another. That is...

I. The purview of this precept against coveting

It includes three elements of an individual's life that others might find attractive, and several NT passages illustrate the problem of violating this law. For the first element of the commandment

A. It focuses on a neighbor's property 

• ...namely, his house (Mark 12:40).

Jesus scolds certain "teachers of the law" who demonstrate this attitude, saying in...

Mark 12:40a [= Luke 20:47a] They devour widows' houses...⁵

As one commentator explains, this is...

a vivid phrase for taking material advantage of them (like our 'eat someone out of house and home').... It could be through excessive legal fees, through mismanaging to their own advantage an estate of which they were made trustees, through taking their houses as pledges for unpayable debts... or more generally through exploiting their hospitality and trust. (France 2002:491)

However the desire manifests itself, coveting a neighbor's property is wrong.⁶ For the second element of the commandment...

B. It focuses on a neighbor's family

• ...specifically his wife (Matt 5:28-29)⁷

Not only does this command target those who would take what another person has, it complements other admonitions that protect what a person has. Jesus also speaks to the danger of this problem and advises a radical solution in....

Matt 5:28 ...I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

God judges a person's intention as if he had committed the deed (Davies and Allison 1988 1:523). Therefore, that person must be willing to take whatever measures are necessary to prevent succumbing to temptation. As another commentator explains...

Cutting off or gouging out the offending part is a way of saying that Jesus' disciples must deal radically with sin. Imagination is a God-given gift; but if it is fed dirt by the eye, it will be dirty. All sin, not least sexual sin, begins with the imagination. Therefore, what feeds the imagination is of maximum importance in the pursuit of kingdom righteousness.... [If] your eye is causing you to sin, gouge it out; or at very least, don't look...! The alternative is...hell, sin's reward. (Carson 1984 8:15 1)

However the desire manifests itself, coveting a neighbor's family is wrong. For the third element of the commandment...

C. It focuses on a neighbor's prosperity

• ...such as his servants and livestock (Jms 4:1-3).

Whatever a person has accumulated, be it great or small, there always seems to be someone who wants it and is ready to take it from him. James refers to the affect coveting can have on a church.

Jms 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Evidently, some people, envious of others' success, want what they have, their piece of the prosperity pie, and are willing go to great lengths to get it (so the hyperbolic reference to murder). When that fails, they ask God to help them get it, but only to spend on their own selfish pleasures. This, James says, is not what God expects from His people. However the desire manifests itself, coveting a neighbor's prosperity is wrong.

Can a person have a change of heart? Indeed he can, and Jesus encounters a man who has just such an attitude adjustment. Look at...

Luke 19:1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner." 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." 9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

Like many tax collectors, Zacchaeus wanted for himself what other people had, and he over-charged them to get it. Consequently, he became rich at their expense. After meeting Jesus, though, Zacchaeus has a change of heart and purposes to make things right. It is possible to reverse one's attitude from covetous to generous.

All the commandments to this point in the Decalogue entail an action of some sort, making a violation clear enough to result in prosecution and, if convicted, often execution. The tenth commandment entails an attitude, so no one knows if someone violates it, short of its implementation. Consequently, there can be no prosecution, no conviction, and certainly no execution. Why, then, does God bother issuing a command that is not enforceable? What difference does it make what goes through a person's mind, as long as it does not affect his behavior? A person's thoughts are private.⁸ They are also safe, because they hurt no one. Right?

Those last two statements, about the privacy and safety of coveting, are true only in part.

• First, concerning privacy: Other people may not know what someone is thinking, but "[t]he LORD knows the thoughts of man" (Ps 94:11a 1 Cor 3:20).⁹ Nothing about your life, including your thoughts, is hidden from God.

In 1934, J. Fred Coots and Henry Gillespie wrote a song for children as Christmas drew near entitled, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Verse three attributes some powerful qualities to St. Nicholas:

He sees you when you are sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good.
So be good for goodness sake!

This was meant to be comforting to well-behaved children and discomforting to unruly children. It is also impressive, for a fictional character, but not nearly as impressive as the truth about God.

He knows what you are thinking.
He hears what you might speak.
He sees wherever you may be.
So be good for Jesus' sake!

A paraphrase of Ps 139,¹⁰ this awareness of God's omniscience is comforting when you are in His will and discomforting when you are not. As far as the privacy of your thinking is concerned, nothing about your life, including your thoughts, is hidden from God.

• Second, concerning safety: No matter how private a covetous thought is, if you dwell on it long enough, that thought will have an adverse affect on your thinking about other things, degrading your values, your goals, your commitments. Nothing about your sin, including your covetous thoughts, is harmless to you (Eph 4:18).

Paul admonishes the Christians in Ephesus to change the way they think, warning them about where wrong thinking leads."

Eph 4:17b ...you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

When a person allows wrong thoughts to take root, they cloud his judgment—he is "impeded by a mental fog that blots out the divine light" (Wood 1978:61)—and those wrong thoughts can easily translate into wrong actions.

A married man noticed another woman. Although professing to be a Christian, that man allowed his awareness of her to become an attraction to her and, eventually, to develop into an ardor for her and to result in an affair with her, which led to an addition by her to his family. What began as an innocent thought had devastating consequences for him and others. It is a path many have followed and, as a result, many have fallen. As far as the safety of your thinking is concerned, nothing about your sin, including your thoughts, is harmless to you.

The commandment On Cupidity is not about thoughts that pass through your mind uninvited and pass out just as quickly. Everyone will have inappropriate thoughts, but you do not have to invite them or entertain them. This command is about the thoughts you savor and develop, fantasies about the advantage of your having what belongs to another. Entertaining such thoughts, whether or not you act on them, is itself a violation of the tenth commandment. It is also, though, something you can avoid, if you set your mind to it.

Part 2

Some temptations come upon us suddenly or urgently, requiring a quick decision. Will we do what seems good for us at the moment, or will we take a longer, more objective view?

Four men were flying together in a small plane: a corporate lawyer, a brilliant scientist, a country minister, and a college student. Suddenly, the pilot came bounding through the cockpit door and said, "Our engine is on fire and, beside the one I'm wearing, there are only three other parachutes." In shock, the four passengers watched him jump out the emergency exit and soon saw the mushroom of his open chute. As they looked frantically for the other parachutes, the lawyer found one and said, "I'm a corporate lawyer overseeing an important merger that won't happen without me." He then jumped. The scientist found one and said, "I'm a brilliant scientist presenting a very important paper tomorrow about my ground-breaking research." He then jumped. The country minister found one but offered it to the student, saying, "Son, I'm ready to meet my Maker. You can still have a long and productive life." The student thanked him while continuing to search. Soon he found another parachute and said to the minister, "We can both go now.... The brilliant scientist took my backpack."

It is often in the urgency of a crisis that we prove the integrity of our character. It is also in the way we respect what another rightfully has or should have.

The tenth commandment in the Decalogue prohibits lusting for what does not belong to you but does belong to another, and the precept is fairly specific about what that includes.

Exod 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

I. The purview of this precept against coveting...

• ...identifies three elements of an individual's life that others might find attractive, and several NT passages illustrate the problem of violating this law.

For the first element of the commandment

A. It focuses on a neighbor's property

• ...namely. his house (Mark 12:40).

Jesus scolds certain "teachers of the law" who ignore this prohibition, who "devour widows' houses" (Mark 12:40). It is an example of how unscrupulous men would exploit a vulnerable segment of society for personal gain. However the desire manifests itself, coveting a neighbor's property is wrong.

For the second element of the commandment

B. It focuses on a neighbor's family

• ...specifically his wife (Matt 5:28-29).

Jesus also speaks to the danger of this problem, that it violates another command on this list.

Matt 5:28 . . . anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

He then advises a radical solution....

Matt 5:29a If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.

Whether Jesus is speaking literally or figuratively, it is clear that coveting a neighbor's family is wrong.

For the third element of the commandment...

C. It focuses on a neighbor's prosperity

• ...such as his servants and livestock (Jms 4:1-3).

Whatever a person has accumulated, be it great or small, there always seems to be someone who wants it and is ready to take it from him. James refers to the affect coveting can have on a church.

Jms 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? .. .3 When you ask [God], you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Some people in the church, envious of others' success, want what they have and will go to great lengths to get it. They even have the audacity to ask for God's help. This, James says, is not what God expects from His people. However the desire manifests itself, coveting a neighbor's prosperity is wrong.

Can a person have a change of heart? Indeed he can, and when Jesus encounters Zacchaeus, the tax collector has just such an attitude adjustment, saying...

Luke 19:8b Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

It is possible to reverse one's attitude from covetous to generous.

Because the final commandment on this list of ten is about what a person thinks, we might assume that it is not as important as the other commands, which are all about what a person does. Your thoughts are private. They are also safe, because they hurt no one.

• About privacy: Other people may not know what someone is thinking, but "[t]he LORD knows the thoughts of man" (Ps 94:11a). Nothing about your life, including your thoughts, is hidden from God.
• About safety: No matter how private a covetous thought is, if you dwell on it long enough, that thought will have an adverse affect on your thinking about other things, degrading your values, your goals, your commitments. Nothing about your sin, including your covetous thoughts, is harmless to you.

Because the tenth commandment deals with attitudes rather than actions, with a person's thinking instead of his behavior, there are no temporal consequences for violating it. Consequently, it is not a prosecutable offense, at least, not in any earthly court.¹² One reason God may treat it here is that, without some mental restraint, transgressing this command can develop into an action that is a punishable offense. That is, ignoring this prohibition can lead to other, more serious sins. The Bible contains several illustrations of its development and of its dire consequences, as we see in...

II. The progression of this precept against coveting

The first illustration of coveting shows that...

A. It can lead to thievery and worse¹³

...as when Achan coveted Jericho's prosperity (Josh 6-7).

When Israel made its first foray into the Promised Land, the nation faced resistance from the Canaanites. These were not innocents the invaders simply dispossessed or destroyed. They were idolaters, who had rejected the true God in favor of false gods and who had adopted an immoral lifestyle that God deplored. In Abraham's day, there was a righteous element in the land led by Melchizedek, the king and priest of what would later become Israel's capital, Jerusalem.¹⁴ Even at that time, however, the broader moral trend was heading in the opposite direction,¹⁵ and God would eventually have to judge the unrighteous residents. So He said to Abraham,

Gen 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

Several hundred years later, there is no righteous element left in the land, and the sin of the residents has "reached its full measure.¹⁶

The initial bastion of resistance Israelite forces faced in their conquest of Canaan was Jericho. To impress upon His people that their goal was not to enrich themselves, God made all the spoil of that initial encounter off limits to them.¹⁷

Josh 6:17 [Joshua said to the Israelite soldiers:] The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD.... 18 [K]eep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury....

Josh 7: la But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan... took some of them.

No matter how clear God's instructions are, some people still ignore them. Evidently, Achan considered the reward worth the risk. Perhaps he thought that God would not care or know if a few things were missing. For whatever reason, he coveted what properly belonged to God, and that sin led to thievery. Contrary to Achan's expectation, God did notice, and He was not pleased.

Josh 7:1b ...the LORD's anger burned against Israel.

and the results were severe. The first consequence of Achan's coveting was at Ai, where...

a. It brought about the defeat of Israel's army, as well as causing several Israelite deaths.

Ai was the next Canaanite city the Israelites had to conquer, and it should have fallen easily after the spectacular victory at Jericho.

Josh 7:4 So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai 5a who killed about thirty-six of them.

Later, God revealed the reason for Israel's defeat and the remedy Joshua must seek to rectify the situation.

Josh 7:11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things.... 12a That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.... 15 He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!

After an investigation revealed the guilty party, the second consequence of Achan's coveting was that...

b. It brought about the destruction of Achan's house.

His flagrant violation of God's clear command demanded harsh but necessary measures to underscore the importance of obedience.

Josh 7:24 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, "Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today." Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them.

Whether or not others had any responsible part in Achan's sin, his misdeed tainted everything he had, his family and his fortune. Coveting can lead to thievery and worse.

The second illustration of coveting, which we noted in our treatment of the seventh commandment, shows that...

B. It can lead to adultery and worse¹⁸

...as when David coveted Uriah's family (2 Sam 11-12).

When David succeeded Saul as king, the primary goal of his administration was to secure the nation's borders, and Israel's military often battled persistently hostile forces. At one point, when the army was in the field, David was at home and faced
a temptation he did not attempt to resist. Turn to...

2 Sam 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful.... 4a-b Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.... Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

David probably intended this tryst as a one-night-stand and, were it not for that last bit of news, the brief affair might have remained a secret. In an attempt to cover-up his indiscretion, David recalled Uriah from the battlefield, but the soldier had more honor than the king and refused to spend time with his wife while his comrades were still fighting. David probably realized that if news of his sin became public, the resulting scandal could undermine his support from the military, So, the king devised another way to conceal what he had done. He ordered Joab, his general, to put Uriah in an exposed position that would ensure his death.

2 Sam 11:17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. ...26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27a-b After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

No matter how clear God's instructions are, some people still ignore them. Perhaps, David considered the reward of a night with Bathsheba worth the risk of a scandal to his administration.¹⁹ Perhaps he thought the death of her husband would prevent any damage to his position if news of his sin became public. Perhaps he thought God would not care about such palace intrigues. For whatever reason, David coveted what properly belonged to Uriah, and that sin led to adultery and hostility. Contrary to David's expectation, God did care, and He was not pleased.

2 Sam 11:27c But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

and the results were severe. The first consequences of David's coveting were the immediate expansions of his sin.

a. It brought about the defiling of Uriah's spouse, as well as causing his and other Israelite deaths.

Still, David's plan worked. By eliminating Uriah, the king was able to marry Bathsheba (his eighth wife)²⁰ and prevent a scandal...so he thought. Then Nathan the prophet brought God's evaluation.

2 Sam 12:9a-b Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.... 14 ...because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.

Evidently, David's sin, both his adultery with Bathsheba and his hostility toward Uriah, was not a state secret. Some pagan nations were aware of the king's wickedness, and his actions did no credit to his God.

Hence, the second consequence of David's coveting was that...

b. It brought about the death of David's son.

The king's flagrant violation of God's clear commands demanded harsh but necessary measures to underscore the importance of obedience.

2 Sam 12:15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.... 18a On the seventh day the child died.

Although the child had no responsible part in David's sins, the king's misdeeds affected his son.²¹ Coveting can lead to adultery and worse.

The third illustration of coveting shows that...

C. It can lead to perjury and worse

...as when Ahab coveted Naboth' s property (1 Kgs 21; 2 Kgs 10).

After the ten northern tribes seceded from the united kingdom to form the independent, Northern Kingdom, the new administration made its own alliances. King Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of Sidon's ruler. The character of their reign, however, was far from righteous.²²

1 Kgs 21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth." 3 But Naboth replied, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." 4a So Ahab went home, sullen and angry.... 8 So [Jezebel] wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him. 9 In those letters she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death."

No matter how clear God's instructions are, some people still ignore them. Apparently, Ahab did not think there was a risk. Perhaps he doubted that God was real or was powerful enough to overrule what the king wanted. For whatever reason, Ahab freely coveted what properly belonged to Naboth,²³ and that sin led to perjury and hostility. Contrary to Ahab's expectation, God did care, and He was not pleased.

1 Kgs 21:17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:

and the results were severe. The first consequences of Ahab's coveting were the immediate expansions of his sin....

a. It brought about the defaming of Naboth's dignity, as well as causing his death.

Jezebel's plan worked. By eliminating Naboth, the king was able to take over the property legally... so he thought. Then the prophet Elijah brought God's evaluation.

1 Kgs 21:21 I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free.... 23 And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: 'Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.'

Contrary to Ahab's assumptions, God was both concerned about the situation and intent upon redressing it.

Hence, the second consequence of Ahab's coveting was that...

b. It brought about the demise of Ahab's dynasty.

The king's flagrant violation of God's clear commands demanded harsh but necessary measures to underscore the importance of obedience.²⁴ Some years later, Jehu, an Israelite general, carried out the sentence. After executing Ahab's seventy sons, Jehu announced...

2 Kgs 10:10b "The LORD has done what he promised through his servant Elijah." 11a So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab....

While all these other members of the royal court probably had no responsible part in Ahab's sin, his misdeed implicated his entire dynasty. Coveting can lead to perjury and worse.

What makes coveting so dangerous is that the attitude of wanting what someone else has can easily translate into the action of taking what someone else has. When such thoughts linger in your mind, how can you expel them? Is there a solution?

...Indeed, there is, and it is one you may have already discovered. The cure for coveting is to find contentment in whatever you have, in whatever situation God has placed you.²⁵ Writing from prison, Paul mentions this key to satisfaction.

Phil 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. [What is the secret, the key to such contentment?] 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

This does not mean that you should lack ambition or that you should have no desire to make your situation better, only that you must not do so at another's expense. There may also come a point in your advancement when you can go no further and when you should be content where you are... at least for the moment. Still, do you merely bide your time, marching in place as you wait for your situation to change so you can continue your pursuit of the American dream?

...No, there is another aspect to your advancement you can still seek. The complement to contentment is to pursue godliness in whatever you do, in whatever task God has given you. Writing to a young minister, Paul offers this as a winning combination for getting ahead.

1 Tim 6:6 [G]odliness with contentment is great gain.... 10 [In contrast] the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

In other words, no matter what your situation, keep your eye on what is most important, on what you have because you serve God, and you will not be troubled by what others have, especially those who do not serve God.²⁶

The tenth commandment of the Decalogue is about what you think not what you do, but because what you think often motivates what you do, this precept has implications for your obedience to other commands, including other commands on this list. The precept On Cupidity warns you to make a distinction between what you see and what you seek, between what you may admire and what you would acquire.... Are you making that distinction?


Postscript: Some Christians think the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, is all God expects His people to keep, that the rest of the law is about animal sacrifices and the like, which no longer applies. There are other laws, though, in addition to those in the Decalogue, that reflect God's will for His people even in the absence of a temple. We know this is so because the list is incomplete, lacking in at least two ways.

• First, it is missing commands. The rabbis, including Jesus, identified other precepts from the larger corpus of God's law that are just as important as those on this list but that do not appear here (e.g., the Golden Rule).²⁷
• Second, it is missing consequences. Despite the importance of these rules, there are no specific penalties here for violating them, so there is little incentive to keep them—and we know how well people do on the honor system. We must look elsewhere in the law to find the penalties for disobeying these and other, equally serious precepts.

These ten are, rather, a representative summary of God's law, an easy-to-remember list of some important rules, suitable for enshrining on the walls of courthouses but not intended as the full or final expression of God's will. Nevertheless, Christians should consider them seriously. So, how are you doing? How well are you keeping the Ten Commandments?

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here