Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1754
November 1, 2026
Deuteronomy 5.21 Click here for recording of worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Tenth Commandment – What is Forbidden”
“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.”
The Tenth Commandment forbids:
- Discontentment
Last Sunday we explored what the Tenth Commandment requires and the first requirement was contentment. Needless to say, but I’m saying it anyway, the Tenth Commandment therefore forbids discontentment. The Larger Catechism describes it this way: forbids any dissatisfaction with what belongs to us. Count all things from the Lord as blessing, upon which we give thanks and are satisfied. We cannot have an attitude that claims the gospel and yet wants to add to the gospel. We cannot have an attitude that continues to say or think, “is this all?” The example given in Scripture is when the people grumbled against Moses and God for leading them into the wilderness after liberating them from bondage in Egypt. 1 Corinthians 10.9-10, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.”
Discontentment comes when we are focused more on the world (or self-interests) than on the Lord. Our thoughts are dominated by work, gathering wealth, or the accumulation of possessions. Contentment is possible when we are focused on the Lord, Psalm 139.17-18, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”
Jesus told the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12, Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (13-21). We are given over to discontentment when our effort is greater for earthly things than heavenly things, when our love is misplaced on getting more and more, and when all we seek is the wrong treasure. Matthew 6.19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Discontentment is a sign to where our hearts may truly be.
- Envy
The Tenth Commandment forbids envy. Galatians 5.25-26, 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Envy in the Bible means to have ill-will toward others for what they have that we do not. It is a feeling of resentment toward another person because of their possessions or status. Proverbs 14.30, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” To say that another way, contentment brings life while envy leads to death. Paul speaks to envy, among many other vices of the heart, and it is not a wise place to be!
Romans 1.28-32, 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Envy never finds a good ending in the Bible. Psalm 112 begins with those who fear the Lord, who have prospered, who have been generous and it ends with a picture of envy in the wicked. Psalm 112.10, The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish! Envy leads to covetousness which breaks the Commandment and leads to spiritual death.
- Resentment
To honor “you shall not covet”, one must not resent the good fortune of others. We cannot grieve the success of others. There is a story in Nehemiah when he was sent to rebuild the walls and the city of Jerusalem. Not everyone what pleased with that plan. The King of Persia had sent authorization for Nehemiah to rebuild. Nehemiah 2.9-10. 9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. Later those same guys cursed them. “…So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem” (Neh 2.18-20).
These governors were enemies of Israel. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were regional governors serving under the King of Persia. They apparently could not accept that the King of Persia had given permission for Nehemiah to rebuild. This is a story that exemplifies resentment over the welfare or good fortune of others. The Bible, by contrast, calls us to look out for the interests of others (Philippians 2.4). We keep the Tenth Commandment when we are looking out for the welfare of others and when we are pleased that God has provided for them. We do not covet what they have received but rejoice with them.
- Improper Desire
Our final thoughts on the Tenth Commandment are about desire. Covetousness comes from twisted and improper desires. Desire is fundamental to human beings. We desire because we are living souls, Genesis 2.7, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” As one author states, “Our souls move us to action, and souls move us by desire.” (Quoted from The Collected Christian Essentials: Catechism, pg. 117.) Our desire drives us to meet the longing of the soul. Ultimately, our desire is the presence of and communion with God. Psalm 42.1-2, As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Distorted desires seek other ways to quench our thirst. 1 John 2.15-17, 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Desire itself is not the problem. We are created with desire and it is good. Desire only becomes evil when fixated on the wrong object or in the wrong direction. Sin leads us to seek other means of fulfillment.
The apostle Paul connects covetousness with idolatry. Colossians 3.5, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Covetousness is a form of idolatry and therefore a breaking of the Second Commandment because we are desiring the wrong things, just as we may desire a false god, the wrong god. To covet is to make idols out of things we believe will satisfy our longing, but we are wrong when we desire anything outside of God and His perfect gifts from above. James 1.17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
But we are distorted in our desires. These desires are what causes strife among the community of faith. James 4.1-4, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
We seek to fulfill our lives outside of communion with God and turn to the things of the world to fulfill our desires. One of the Proverbs speaks of a particular desire that can apply to all disobedient desires. Proverbs 6.23-29, “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 25Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; 26for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. 27Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? 28Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? 29So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.”
Proverbs 6 is not just about the evil woman who flashes her eyelashes, but anything that promises satisfaction with flash and glamour, sparkle, and the appearance of gold. The world offers many things that promise to fulfill the soul: a bigger and better car, a larger house, a new digital gadget, the latest iPhone. When we covet such things, we only lead ourselves into an empty existence. It is not that we cannot have them, but that we cannot desire them apart from God, apart from relationship with Jesus. The deeper that relationship grows, the greater our desire for Him and not the things of the world.
Our work is to mortify our evil desires and turn toward God so that we may come to desire the things of God above all else. Colossians 3.1-4, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Seeking the things of God is a remedy for coveting. Our desires can be properly ordered for the Psalms speak of the desires of the heart that God will provide. Psalm 37.3-4, Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The Bible gives us many ways to correct our improper desires, faith – trusting in God, prayer – seeking God and the things of God. And the Second Greatest Commandment covers all the neighborly Commandments, Romans 13.8-10, 8Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
As we conclude the Ten Commandments, we can look back and see the brilliance of Jesus when he summed up the law and the prophets with love for God and love for neighbor. It was already embedded in the Sacred Word and Jesus helped us to see it more clearly. The truth is that in our yearning to keep God’s Commandments love fulfills the Law and God’s steadfast love fulfills our lives. Amen.
