This is the last of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbors”.  The word covet is one we don’t use much these days.  Basically it means to desire greatly enough to try to make the possession your own.  If Susie ‘covets’ Jenny’s sucker, she is willing to take it from her,by force if necessary.  It isn’t wrong for Susie to want a sucker, but not specifically Jenny’s sucker.

We may admire the neighbors new house or swimming pool, that doesn’t mean we ‘covet’ it.  We may dream of having a boat like the pastor has, but that isn’t ‘coveting’. We may even think our friend has a beautiful wife, but it doesn’t become ‘coveting’ until we try to get her for ourselves.

We all would like nice things.  Most of us like to have adult toys, like cars and motorcycles,new hair colors or shoes. We might even desire to have something just like our neighbor has; but all long as we are desiring to get our own and not take what belongs to someone else, we are not sinning.

My husband loves our neighbor’s 1972  red Mustang.  He would love to own one like it, but he isn’t going to steal it from Ray.  David coveted Bathsheba.  He had her husband killed so he could have her for himself.  The magicians  of bible times wanted the powerful gifts of miracles and healing that  Jesus’ disciples had, so they tried to buy it from them.

It is’t wrong to see things that others have and desire them.  It is wrong to covet them to the point of taking action to get them for yourself.  There is a right way and a wrong way to get the things we want from life.  The right way is to work and earn them for ourselves.  The wrong way is to lie, steal and manipulate to get them.