The Ten Commandments: #10

Hey folks! As we begin our journey through Lent, our kids are transitioning into a series of lessons about the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments and the moral vision they espouse form the foundation of Christian moral teaching. With a little consideration one can see this everywhere, from the way we think about worship, to the way we think about the value of human life, humility, jealousy, and so on.

Read our introduction to the Ten Commandments (along with a bit about the first commandment) here.

We’ve been walking through these Ten Commandments with our kids as we attempt, with God’s help, to help them catch the Christian moral vision of God-and-neighbor love. 

This week we’ll be looking at the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex. 20:17).

The Tenth Commandment (along with the Ninth) are words directed at a person’s interior disposition toward their neighbor: commandment nine deals with one’s desire for their neighbor’s body; the Tenth with one’s desire for their neighbor’s things. 

While the Ninth Word prohibits the objectification of a human person—a kind of splitting apart of the nature of your neighbor—the tenth word prohibits the desire (and not just the act of) to take for yourself what your neighbor has. 

On the one hand, this disposition is expressive of the opposite of love: instead of desiring to give your self to your neighbor sacrificially, you desire to take from your neighbor possessively. And love is what the law requires. 

On the other hand, this disposition is descriptive of a rejection of God’s good gifts to you. It is tantamount to a refusal to receive from God what he, as your Good Father, has decided to give to you in this time and place, and is essentially the same impulse that drove our first parent’s sin in the Garden: “God is not to be trusted; if you want something in this life, you must take it for yourself.” 

This is way of life that Christians, as Christians, must renounce. 

Scripture to consider:

• Exodus 20:17

• Gen. 3

  
  

Question for your kids

• What does it mean to "covet"? Is it an action or a condition of your heart? (Hint: to "covet" in this context is a condition of your heart bent toward possessing something)

• Why doesn't God want us to "covet"? (Hint: Because it's the opposite of gratitude; it's not a receptive posture to God's good gifts, but a possessive attitude toward what we don't have)

Peace,

Danny+