The Ten Commandments: 9th & 10th Commandment: Don't Covet Other Person or Thing

9th Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbour's wife"
10th Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbour's goods"

What is coveting? Coveting is a desire or yearning to possess or have something or someone. If what we covet is obtained through legal, proper, justifiable means, then that is not an issue. The problem begins when we covet persons or things which belong to someone else, and that someone is unwilling or unable to part with the person or thing.

If we have:

• Unchaste or impure thoughts towards another person
• Desire of another person's wife or husband
• Desire to take or keep wrongfully
• Wilfully damage property that belongs to another

then we could be breaking this commandment.

Among the many passages from the bible concerning coveting, here are some for us to reflect on:

• "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 fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:14-15).
• "Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.” Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord..." (Micah 2:1-13).
• "For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD" (Psalm 10:3).

Passion and desire, when used and nurtured properly can be used to accomplish great things and give glory to God. When we misuse passion for personal gratification and gain, we may end up committing far heinous sins. Let us take care not to covet unhealthily only to ruin our lives and our relationship with God.

For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. - See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Coveting#sthash.1yAkFiY2.dpuf