Mike Focht 4/24/2026
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Exodus 20:17
Here we have the last of the Ten Commandments. These words were spoken by the very mouth of God to the ears of the people of Israel. Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle echoed them again. They shine divine light on a sinful root in our hearts that constantly produces bad fruit—the root of covetousness.
God rebukes our insatiable desire to have what others possess. To always desire more. The habit of looking to desire and dream of what our life would be like with the blessings of others is dangerous. What begins with coveting the home, or animals, or friends, or servants, leads to coveting their spouse or their daughters, or worse.
By our unchecked impulse to reject contentment, we build in ourselves a habit of looking to covet. Then that habit of looking to covet remains covetous, constantly moving from homes, to cars, to the sexual, to food, to lifestyle, to reputation, and so on. Nothing is too big. Nothing is too small. Covetous desire knows no end. Covetousness makes us ripe for the picking. Is it any wonder that a culture that produces habitual coveters also produces millions of people unashamedly addicted to pornography, drugs, alcohol, sports, greed, food, and to our own comfort?
God’s rebuke needs to sting us. We are professional discontents. And God knows that all of our endless covetings will never produce the life that He desires. That is why Jesus says, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses (Lk. 12:15). The gratification of covetous desires will never lead us to the life Christ wants us to know and possess. He has something much greater for us!
To reach a place of true spiritual maturity, our covetousness must be rebuked. We must check each desire to look on another man’s blessings (relational or material) and imagine them for ourselves. We cannot cut the root of one type of covetousness, say, material covetousness, without cutting the whole root. We must reject covetousness in all its forms.
A missionary who walked through New York City was once overheard at the end of the day praying, God, thank you that I saw nothing that I wanted today. Truly, godliness with contentment is great gain. May God’s Holy Spirit rebuke our covetousness and strengthen us to learn to be content in all places of our lives. The final commandment is a good and healthy rebuke from our Heavenly Father, who loves us and wants to teach the inestimable value of godly contentment. If living a life of contentment seems unrealistic in our digital age, do not lose heart! Remember what Paul prayed, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
So can we.