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Never covet anything that belongs to your neighbour
There are some people who covet things of others during hard times. Some covet during easy times. While some people, covet all the time. No matter what time anyone covets, it will only be a bad thing to do. Read on to know why.
What does it mean to covet?
Some of you reading this might not be aware of the meaning of the word ‘covet’. So let’s see that is the definition of this which I have taken reference from dictionary.com
- inordinately or wrongly desirous of wealth or possessions; greedy.
- eagerly desirous.
By the definition of what it is to be covetous, you’ll notice it’ about having a wrong desire towards having something that belongs to another.
The Bible condemns covetousness in all its forms.
Such wrong desires are already denounced by the Bible and here’s a verse about covetousness:
“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.” (Exodus 20:17)
So you must be vary of covetousness each time. Don’t give any excuses about this. Ever!
Is it wrong to desire anything?
Now it’s not wrong to want to eat good food, earn a good salary, and even have a good spouse. In fact, you can pray to God about these things and wait upon him to grace you with a miracle for all your needs. This is true when you are not stealing from anyone nor taking away things from anyone by trickery or deceit.
What are the consequences of wrong or covetous desires?
What is wrong is having a desire to want something that belongs to another. Because such evil desires can lead to even bigger sins. The following verses confirm this:
- So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)
- Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever. (1 John 2:15-17)
- Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death. (James: 13-15)
From this we can understand:
- Covetousness itself is a sin.
- Covetousness is not from God.
- Covetousness can lead to bigger sins.
- And all sin leads to death.
If you have lived a life of covetousness, please repent of it unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess this and each sin unto to the Lord God and ask for his forgiveness. The benefits are yours to accept when you choose to repent and believe in the Gospel; eternal life and friendship with God in Jesus Christ.
Christ be with you!
Further reading:
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- Pratice your faith (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Do not covet another one’s spouse (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
- Do you discern? (disciplesofhope.wordpress.com)
Fancy not your neighbours spouse
Fancy not your neighbours spouse,
And so be not a louse,
Desire not what is forbidden,
And stay from dangers hidden.
Honour God’s Law unto the end,
And never lustful thoughts attend.
Take into account your soul,
Lest you forget your heavenly goal.
Adulterers to their spouses have not done well,
And their unrepentant lot are all in hell.
The price of being found in fornication is shame,
Long lasting regret can follow your name.
Entice not your neighbour to such sins,
For the profane have no eternal wins.
Be always in the wisdom zone,
For the consequences are of your own.
Focus on things wise all of your life,
And always be faithful to your husband or wife.
Be true to yourself, your spouse and unto God,
Over each place you’ll ever have to trod.
Quick Reminder : Do not commit adultery
- You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
- If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)
- Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)
- [Jesus said:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Do not covet another one’s spouse
Praise be to the Lord Jesus who by the Holy Spirit leads us in all righteousness. We pray that we respect each other and be a blessing to each other in our walk with Christ. Remind us O Lord God, that we do not covet any person or things which is unlawful and will cause sorrow to others. Help us to abide by what is true love and not be deceived by the lust of the world. Amen and amen.
The Holy Scriptures do tell us not to covet. This includes not coveting another one’s spouse. And this is a warning about adultery as well.
And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. (Deuteronomy 5:21)
Read the following words of Jesus and you will notice that lustful covetousness is the same as adultery. The punishment for this is hell which is mentioned along with this.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:27-30)
So this should make it abundantly clear that you are not to covet a spouse that is married to another. Do not be a seducer of married one’s. It’s a sin against the Lord God who wants marriage to be holy. By trying to entice a married person to commit fornication or even marry you is to be a cause for trouble for that person’s spouse, family and children. Never be so evil.
If you are not married and you say you want to get married, then do get married to someone who is not married like yourself. If you are not happy with your current marriage, then don’t ruin others happiness by stealing their spouse, keep your selfishness to yourself and deal with it.
I won’t stop at only holding individuals responsible to avoiding coveting another one’s spouse. Even the people in general and the state should get their act together. No group nor organization has a right to make money by corruption of society. Everyone who is a corrupter of humanity is cursed! I feel very sorry to see innocent spouse who was forced to divorce her unfaithful spouse. Her tears and her children’s tears are sorrowful and the society stupidly blames her for everything. At times there’s an unfaithful wife too and her innocent husband is manipulated into divorcing her. He then ends up more poor and with kids who in sorrow to look after. Indeed we live in an evil and adulterous generation!
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
There are plenty of idiots who promote adultery in various forms. Novels glorify the hero who can kill enemies but seduce their wives and daughters. Movies show that it’s cool to flirt with a woman who is not your wife. Then we have songs and their accompanying videos in which a foolish woman singer, yes foolish but exquisite in looks, goes on to sing about her sexuality and makes a lot of direct or indirect appeals to men to lust for her and so buy her music. Obviously, there are some male singers who also do something like that though with even more cunning appeal to beguile women to buy more of their music works. They don’t care if any person who was influenced by their works gets sexually transmitted diseases or gets a humiliating divorce. So I’m not surprised that when their ‘fans’ die in their sins, these very writers, actors, singers etc will shrug of responsibility and won’t even care that these people are now forever tormented in the fires of Hell.
Don’t think of this as a generation gap issue or being old-fashioned. Even in the past centuries such things did happen but were more limited as technology had yet to catch up. These things were even exposed in the past times. Let’s read what an early Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo (born in 345AD) had to say about this:
[Y]ou are not ashamed of your sin [in committing adultery] because so many men commit it. Man’s wickedness is now such that men are more ashamed of chastity than of lechery. Murderers, thieves, perjurers, false witnesses, plunderers and fraudsters are detested and hated by people generally, but whoever will sleep with his servant girl in brazen lechery is liked and admired for it, and people make light of the damage to his soul. And if any man has the nerve to say that he is chaste and faithful to his wife and this gets known, he is ashamed to mix with other men, whose behaviour is not like his, for they will mock him and despise him and say he’s not a real man; for man’s wickedness is now of such proportions that no one is considered a man unless he is overcome by lechery, while one who overcomes lechery and stays chaste is considered unmanly.”― Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 1-19
All those who promote adultery by calling it good are clear fools! Just because you are faithful to your wife doesn’t mean that you encourage your friend to keep going in his sin of adultery. Any man who entices his friend to seduce others for fun is not a true friend at all. This applies for women who keeping giving wrong ideas to their female friends to become habitual seducers of men. I’d say that it’s better for a woman to be friendless, that to have a friend male or female who teaches her such wickedness.
To conclude, to avoiding feelings of covetousness towards the spouses of others I suggest that you reflect on the following:
- On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. (Proverbs 10:13)
- When adultery occurs, three of the Ten Commandments are broken: you shall not commit adultery, not lie, and not covet your neighbor’s spouse. – Dennis P. Hollinger, The Meaning of Sex
- He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. (Proverbs 6:32)
- Adultery is a disguised detour en route to your personal demise. – Paul Davis, Adultery: 101 Reasons Not to Cheat
Value wisdom like your family
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.(Proverbs 7:4-5)
Value wisdom like your family. Treat wisdom like your own sister. For good reason too. Because a good sister keeps her brother from all obscene women. Her dauntless desire to be bold in the truth is a big deterrent to any adulteress. She will openly mock the Jezebel woman or the shameless woman who tries to induce her brother to sin. Though a seducer speaks to beguile a man into sexual immorality, the man will be very fearful of acting loose in front of his sister who will retaliate strongly. This can apply even if you think of wisdom as a brother who will not let his sister fall prey to the licentious man who only wants to use the girl. A good brother will protect his sister from all perverted men no matter what they promise.
Walking with wisdom, is not like you get a wise brother or sister walking alongside with you in the flesh. Here Proverbs 7:4-5 is about realizing the presence of wisdom around you. God tells you some warning about stealing and you believe him and avoid stealing. That is walking with wisdom. Not following God’s advice is like trying to get away from your great sister wisdom.
Some man decides he can do without sister wisdom, so he listens to the seductive voice of evil spirits and then goes into the occult. He without wisdom accepts his damnation very easily from the lying spirits. Had he walked with sister wisdom he would have given respect to her and shooed away all profane thoughts that whisper to him. O if he just would respect sister wisdom and leave the occult.
A young lady tries to roam around without brother wisdom. Voices of the world tell her ‘You will look very beautiful if you starve a little, it won’t harm you. Just think of how many men will admire you when you are a bit more thinner’. In absence of brother wisdom, she bites into the lie.So then she eats little, very little and gets a bit of praise about her looks and decides to starve a little more. This damages her health.
One fine day her old blind grandma who cannot see at all, calls her out at her place. The grandma lives with brother wisdom and the brother is quite amused to see the anorexic girl walking towards grandma. Brother wisdom gets a plan and whispers into the old lady’s mind. So then grandma says ‘O child I can’t see you at this age when I’m blind but your act of visiting me in my weakness shows me how beautiful you are’. The girl accepts her grandmother’s wisdom and wonders why she felt only being thin is beauty. As she walks out the house, brother wisdom starts walking with this girl again. The girl now leads a healthy lifestyle.
You might feel you lost out on life because you despised wisdom at some time in your life. The good news is that God can give you wisdom again. James 1:5 says that; If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
I encourage you to be with God’s wisdom by your side. The Gospel is the greatest wisdom of God that a man can ever receive. Though it is so great, yet it is easy to grasp if a person is willing to just pay attention. Plus you have the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you into all truth. So take time and cherish the Word of God in your life.
Related articles
Keep you from the adulterous woman/man
The worlds most committed sin is by and large adultery. This sin is shamelessly portrayed in music videos, novels and movies. With the advent of medical breakthroughs people are now able to cover up this sin by aborting unwanted children that are to be born out of wed lock. I just wanted to mention this, though there are numerous other consequences of adulterous living.
You need to keep away from the adulterous woman/man. I’ve noticed that both men and women are susceptible to adultery so this warning goes out to both males and females. Let’s read Proverbs 7:1-5
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, the principle of the Bible remains the same, keep away from adultery for its evil. O how the human mind is very slow to realize the awful wickedness of adultery!
You need to hold on the teaching of the Bible to keep away from the adulterous person. Even people of other religions to use a principle to keep themselves pure against adultery, they learn to say a firm NO to all such instances of temptation. The Bible also tell us the same while giving you the reason for doing so.
Now lets read Proverbs 7:25-27 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low,and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol,going down to the chambers of death.
The reasons to keep away from adultery are very simple. To avoid defilement and death. To avoid going to hell. Remember a person who is adulterous is totally shameless (I’m not talking about people who do this sin just once and then back away). Such sinners are very skillful and move on to the next target without any remorse. If you notice that a brother or sister in Christ is in danger of falling into to trap of an adulterous person, inform them or their spouse to save themselves.
Many marriages have been broken due to adultery. Many a church ministers who were very great healers and preachers are now living their life in shame, hiding away from the general public for that one adulterous fling they had. Satan tries very hard to tempt those who are good examples of holy living, especially preachers or young and beautiful women/men to not just ruin their character but ultimately insult the Lord God who created them for good things only. So please, please, please stay pure and keep away from adultery because when Christ comes back as the Judge of the world he will tackle all those living in adultery with dangerous punishments. Beware and be safe!
Disciples of hope 