Bible Study on Exodus 20, verses 12 to 17, to want something that is not yours

 

Coveting something that belongs to someone else is the foundation of stealing. Coveting is also a type of idolatry.

Colossians 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

We have built a very successful culture in America based on coveting. We are never to be satisfied with what we have but to always want more. It is not surprising that the “more” that people of weak or bad character want belongs to someone else. Paul warns us of the dangers.

1Timothy 6:6 ¶  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

This links these commandments together in many ways. Coveting and stealing of the affections of another person’s spouse is theft. In this verse defraud is to rob in context when an employer doesn’t pay you that day for the work you did that day.

Leviticus 19:13  Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

And here, in the following passage, it refers to adultery and fornication in defrauding someone.

1Thessalonians 4:1 ¶  Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5  Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6  That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Ethics are the standards we ascribe to if we are civilized and morals are our real and everyday actions. If our ethics are no higher than our morals we are a pretty sad lot. These commandments are God’s ethical standard for the Hebrew society, the culture, to live by. They are as true or even more true than any so-called laws of physics. The violation of these commandments almost invariably causes awful consequences. As if you deny that gravity applies to you may result in your breaking a leg of worse if you jump off the roof so stealing, lying, and sexual immorality lead to certain dismal consequences almost all of the time. Someone not being hurt jumping out of a tree does not make gravity a lie any more than someone committing adultery and no one finding out except God makes the commandment false. The damage done sometimes takes years to bear fruit. But you can be certain it will. As preachers say, sin will take you further than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make you pay more than you want to pay. And, to violate one of these commandments is to violate all of them.

James 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

The Ten Commandments are vitally important to understanding the history of Christian nations and terribly important for you to regard in your life. Of course, our inability to keep God’s law is one of the reasons we need Christ so badly and to depend on His righteousness and not our own. If you depended on your righteousness to gain eternal life with God you would be sorely disappointed in your failure.