“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house; thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”
The coveting which the tenth commandment forbids is the root from which
the crimes forbidden in the four preceding commandments spring.
Coveting is a desire to possess what we cannot get in an honest and
legal manner. An instance of such coveting is the desire of Ahab to
possess the vineyard of Naboth. It must have been more than an ordinary
desire, for it led him to most wicked acts (1 Kings xxi.).
It is not every desire that is prohibited. If we see a thing that
pleases us, we begin to feel a desire for its possession. Our reason
must then step in and tell us whether we can obtain it in an honest way
or not. In the latter case we must conquer our desire and suppress it,
lest it obtain the mastery over us.
We must work and try to make progress. We cannot be blamed if we are
not quite content with our present condition, and wish to improve it.
Without such a desire all industry and progress would disappear. But we
must consider that the improvement of our material condition, the
increase of our property, is not the whole mission of man. We must not
forget that we have a higher mission: to improve our heart and our
moral conduct, and to make ourselves worthy of being called “the
children of God.” The increase of our property must not impede the
progress of the purity and goodness of our heart.