Covet || I Want to Understand || Part 1

Matthew 5:27-30

27          “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’

28          But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

29          So if your eye – even your good eye – causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

30          And if your hand – even your stronger hand – causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If you read scripture from a very literal perspective, it isn’t very comforting. If you read it from an imagery-based perspective, it may feel intense. When I read this, I wonder, “What does it mean to lust?”

All my teenage and young adult life, I’ve been taught to associate lust with adultery, sexual immorality, impure thinking, and more. However, there’s more to it. Over this four-part series, I want to dig into what lust is. The four passages I’ve chosen that use the same Greek word that Jesus used all are used in different ways: covet, crave, desire, and want. We’ll look at the passages and connecting passages to grasp the most significant understanding of one of the most widely discussed topics in sermons and bible studies. Join me for this study that I’m calling: “I Want to Understand.”

First, let’s look at the etymology of the Greek word for lust. It’s the Greek verb epithumeó (ep-ee-thoo-meh’-o), which means to desire or lust after. It’s a compound word: epi, which means focused on, and thymós, which means passionate desire. This passionate desire refers to a passion-driven behavior. When combined, it describes being focused on a passionate desire. It’s a focused passion that builds upon what a person truly yearns for. This is what we’re going to use as our focus definition for the series:

Lust is a focused passion that properly builds on what a person truly wants.

Before entering our first passage, I want to share some thoughts on that definition. It’s not about sex. It’s not about adultery. It’s not about money. It’s about possessions. The core foundation of lust is a mindset. Sex, relationships, money, and all that comes into play when we’re stuck in this mindset, but the overall concept of lust is a mental framework that, I believe, doesn’t get focused on enough. I’ve been taught about how lusting after things is wrong, but the focus was on the things and not the mindset. This series will focus on mindset.

Romans 7:7-13

7            Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

8            But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

9            At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,

10          and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.

11          Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.

12          But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

13          But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terribly sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

I want to share different translations of our key verses. Verse 7 is where the term “covet” comes into play. It’ll be essential to look at other translations to see how they say it and refer to our keyword. It may just happen for this series and our next one on sexual immorality, but I’ll leave that for the Holy Spirit.

Romans 7:7

Amplified Bible – Literal What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, “You shall not covet.”

New Living Translation – Dynamic Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

The Message – Paraphrase But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

Literal:               closest English form of the Hebrew/Greek word.

Dynamic:          emphasis on summing up the biblical authors’ thoughts while respecting the text.

Paraphrase:     focus on getting the general idea across with clear language

Since all three translations maintain the same understanding, we can proceed to what Paul is talking about here.

God’s law shows us that sinners are doomed to die, yet it offers no long-term remedy. Let’s rephrase that God’s law shows us that sinners will have consequences but offers no long-term fix to stop sinning. Sin deceives us by misusing and misinterpreting the law. The law is holy (set apart) because it shows God’s nature and will for people and shows them how to love God and their neighbor. In Genesis 1-3, the serpent (Satan) deceives Eve, who deceives Adam by taking their focus off the freedom God provided them and focusing on the one restriction God had made. Since that point, we’ve been in a sinful world.

Some of us are stuck in similar mindsets. We focus on the one criticism instead of the ten praises. We focus on one evil headline instead of the 10 positive articles around us. We often take the good around us for granted because we are accustomed to it. We focus on the bad and the evil because they are abnormal. This will look different to different people because we’ve all had varying levels of good and bad things happen to us. The temptations will come from this, too. We’ve been having good things happen to us for so long that we want a change, and something sinful is a drastic enough change to entice us to jump ship.

Sin looks good because God says it’s wrong. We’re tempted to do things people tell us know because that’s the being we are. God told Adam and Eve not to go to the tree of knowing good and evil, and they still did it. We’re told no to various things, but we have this internal desire to say, “Frick you, I’m going to do it.” It’s the world we live in. When we’re tempted to rebel in this way, we need to look at a bigger perspective of what the law is about: God’s love and mercy. If we focus on God’s love for us, we will find that these laws are in place to keep us safe from harm.

Exodus 20:17

Amplified Bible – Literal “You shall not covet [that is, selfishly desire and attempt to acquire] your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

New Living Translation – Dynamic “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

The Message – Paraphrase No lusting after your neighbor’s house – or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.

A key thing to point out here is that the MSG translation defaults to lusting instead of the other translations using the word “covet.” They keep it broad instead of getting a more direct understanding. This is why it’s helpful to look at other translations.

To covet is the wish to have what others possess. It goes beyond admiring what others have or want. It’s being envious about it. It’s being jealous about it. It’s resenting the fact that others have what you don’t. God knows that possessions never make anyone happy for long. God supplies everything we need to live a happy and fruitful life. Therefore, the contentment in what we have can only be found through him. The world will tell us to get more things or get bigger things or think of grander ideas. While not inherently bad, they become our identity. We base who we are on how big of things we have or the number of things we have. In turn, we judge others for not having as much as we have and for having more than we have. When we start to have a judgmental mindset about this or when we start to have an identity crisis about our lustful thinking, it’s good to understand why this is leading me to a covetous mindset.

Why do I feel bad that they have stuff I want? Why am I putting others down for having more than them? These types of questions are what the reflection process will look like. Are you struggling with covetousness because you feel left out? Inadequate? Are your things making you feel important? Prideful? Arrogant? What is the source of your jealousy?

What is the response to your jealousy? Do you go out of your way to sabotage what others have so you can be on the same level as you? Do you go and manipulate others to get what you want? Do you commit a crime to get what you want? As we talked about:

Lust is a focused passion that properly builds on what a person truly wants.

Are you so focused on what you want that you forget who God is and what God can do for you? Are you so focused on what you want that you turn against the community God has given to you? Are we doing what we’re lusting after, what we’re jealous of, and how far that we are putting God second?

I know there are a lot of questions to close this message on. However, it’s important to reflect and let this information sink in with one of the most talked-about things in the Bible and in churches today. This is again just Part 1 of our four-part series regarding lust. In Part 2, we’ll look at lust from the perspective of craving. Until then, stay blessed!