RULES FOR THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
THOU SHALT NOT COVET
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
EXODUS 20: 17
JULY 14, 2002
On November 16, 1930, in the city of Philadelphia, a woman named Henrietta Garrett died. She had only a few friends and virtually no relatives. She left no will, and that was amazing because the estate of Henrietta Garrett was valued at $17 million, an incomprehensible sum of money in 1930. I know that it is perhaps hard to believe but in the days and the weeks and in the months and in the years that followed, because it took two decades for the courts to settle her estate. During that time, her estate grew from $17 million to $40 million. During that period of time, incredible as it may seem, approximately 26,000 people stepped forward from 47 states and from 29 countries of the world, all claiming special relationship with Henrietta Garrett. They came with thousands of attorneys. They came with forged documents. They came with altered records and family Bibles. They came with new names, bogus names. They came with concocted stories. They perjured themselves.
Over the passing years, many of these people were incarcerated because of their perjury. They committed murder. Three of them committed murder in conjunction with their pursuit of this estate. When finally, the courts decided the bulk of the estate was to go to a second cousin, a number of these people who had stepped forward committed suicide. They committed suicide because they no longer wanted to live. Everything they had longed for, everything they had pursued, everything they had lusted after for years and decades was now gone. They had no hope left, and they took their lives.
Today, we come to the tenth and the final commandment. “Thou shalt not covet.” There’s an outline that’s in your program for today on the second page where we have our notes. In that outline, you can see that we really have three teachings on this Communion Sunday. The first teaching concerns the most basic meaning of the word “covet.” The most basic meaning of the word covet is this: “to desire excessively.”
We see this in the three New Testament words, in the three Greek words for covet. The first Greek word is the word “pleonexia.” This word comes from the Greek “pleon” which means “more.” Pleonexia means “to have more” and it describes the person who always wants to have more, a person who can never get enough, a person whose desires are excessive. This word pleonexia is found in Luke’s Gospel, the 12th chapter.
We’re told that a man came up to Jesus Christ. He said, “Rabbi, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.” Now, Jesus saw that something was wrong in this man. There are some Bible scholars who believe that this man was simply demonstrating a lack of patience, that he was seeking his inheritance prematurely, kind of like the Prodigal Son in the Parable.
There are other Bible scholars who believe that this man was seeking an improper percentage of the family inheritance, that he was seeking half of it, that he was wanting his brother to divide it in half. As the younger brother, according to the Jewish law, he was only entitled to one-third. But we really don’t know. We don’t know what was wrong with this man. We only know that Jesus looked into his heart, and Jesus saw excessive desire there. Jesus saw coveting. Jesus said to him, “Beware of all covetousness, pleonexia. Beware of always wanting to have more. “For a man’s life,” Jesus said, “does not consist in the sum of his possessions.” That’s what Christ wants you to know today. Whether you’re a man or a woman, your life does not consist in the sum of your possessions.
There’s a second Greek word for covet in the New Testament and it’s the word “epithumia.” This word also means, “to desire excessively.” It can be rendered “epithymia” because the Greek letter can be transliterated as a “u” or a “y,” so it’s epithumia or epithymia. It comes from thymus, a word which means “desire,” a word which means “passion.” The word begins with the prefix of “epi” which means “upon” and it’s a prefix of intensification so that this Greek word literally means “passion upon passion” or “desire upon desire.” Excessive desire, and this is the word, “epithumia.” This is the word that is used in the Tenth Commandment, in the Septuagint.
In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, it’s epithumia that is used to render the Hebrew word “chamad” which is the Hebrew word for covet. This word refers to all types of coveting, as does pleonexia. It refers to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It refers to sexual lust. It refers to financial greed. It also refers to the quest for power and prominence and position. All kinds of coveting. Pleonexia, epithumia.
But there’s a third New Testament word for coveting, and this is the word “philarguros.” This word philarguros is only used of financial greed or coveting in financial things because arguros is the Greek word for money. Philarguros comes from “phileoinarguros,” “the love of money,” or, “to be in love with money.” But again, the concept is to desire money excessively, to desire excessively, to desire too much.
In 1 Timothy, chapter 6, the Bible says, “The love of money, philarguros, is the root of all evil. Coveting is the root of all evil. Through this craving, the Bible says that “many have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pains.” In that same passage, the Apostle Paul writes, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many sinful and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. So, we understand that covetousness is destructive.
In the Roman era, the Roman wealthy built resort cities along the Mediterranean Coast. The Roman rich would build second and third homes in these resort cities where they could go in the wintertime and experience the sunshine and see the water. One such resort city was the city of Pompeii. I think all of you know the story of Pompeii. It was destroyed by volcanic eruption in AD 79. The city was literally buried by a tidal wave of volcanic ash.
For 1,700 years that city was buried, but then it was discovered by archeologists, and today the excavation of Pompeii continues. Three-fourths of the city has now been excavated, and they’ve discovered the city had a wall around it, a fortress wall with seven entry gates. The city had a theater. It had an amphitheater. It had a gladiator arena, a circus. The city had a number of temples dedicated to a number of gods. The city had four public baths, but most of all, they discovered the city had homes built for the rich and famous, beautiful villas overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Now, they know that in the city of Pompeii there were 20,000 people. But when Vesuvius erupted, 18,000 of those people escaped. Two thousand remained and died in the city. Most of them, scientists tell us, died because of greed. Most of them died because they violated the Tenth Commandment. They just had to get a few more possessions. They couldn’t leave them behind. Perhaps they went back to retrieve them. Perhaps they decided to go to the homes of other people since they were gone and to steal their stuff. But these bodies of those who died were encased in volcanic ash. Scientists can see exactly what they were doing in their moment of death. They can see that many of them had placed multiple rings on every finger, and then they had filled their hands with all of the precious stones and jewelry they could get and they had filled their pockets. They were just trying to get more and more. Of course, devastation, destruction and death came upon them.
God wants you to know today that if your life is characterized by a violation of this Tenth Commandment, if it’s characterized by covetousness, whether it’s in the area of sex or whether it’s in the area of money or whether it’s in the area of power and prominence and position, whether it’s the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life, if your life is characterized by covetousness, it’s going to lead to death because you have violated the First and Second Commandments, and you’ve placed stuff above God. You’ve placed that which you covet above the Lord God Almighty and that leads to the death of a soul. This is a grave sin.
We see a broader meaning of this word covet when we look in the Hebrew and we see that covet means “to desire excessively that which belongs to somebody else.” It’s not just to desire excessively. Some of the biblical words for covet simply mean that, but the Hebrew word “chamad” used in this Tenth Commandment generally refers to “desiring excessively that which belongs to someone else.” That’s why, in the Tenth Commandment, we see the words, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor thy neighbor’s wife, nor thy neighbor’s manservant, maidservant or oxen or donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” Do not desire that which belongs to someone else.
If you know the story of Naboth whose story is told in 1 Kings, chapter 21, you know that Naboth was a man who owned a beautiful vineyard. It was beautiful and it was productive. It was just outside the city of Jezreel which was one of the royal cities of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In that royal city, King Ahab, King of Israel, had built his royal palace. There he lived with his wicked wife whose name was Jezebel. Ahab had vineyards of his own, and they were beautiful and they were productive but they were not as beautiful as the vineyards of Naboth and they were not as productive. Every time King Ahab took his royal carriage near the beautiful vineyards of Naboth, he became jealous. He became envious. He coveted. He wanted those vineyards for his own. He would come home to his royal palace in Jezreel, and he would say to Jezebel, “I wish I had those vineyards.”
She decided to do something about it. She decided to frame Naboth. She had people bear false witness against him. He was apprehended. He was convicted. He was incarcerated, and he was executed. She said to her husband, King Ahab, “He’s dead now. You can just take his vineyards” and so he did. Of course, you know, the Bible tells us, that ultimately King Ahab and Jezebel were judged by God. His eternal judgement came upon them because God hates covetousness.
We see the gravity of this when we see how covetousness almost inevitably invariably leads to other sins. King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyards, and that was a violation of the Tenth Commandment. But that led to a violation of the Ninth Commandment as false witness was born against Naboth, and it led to a violation of the Sixth Commandment as they executed and murdered him. It also led to a violation of the Eighth Commandment as they stole his vineyards. Ultimately it led to a violation of the First and Second Commandments as they placed their greed above God.
This is true throughout the Bible when we look at the sin and the violation of this commandment. That’s why the Bible tells us that coveting is the root of all evil. You see in 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, the whole story of David and Bathsheba and how David was on the roof of his royal palace, and he saw this beautiful woman. He coveted her. He lusted after her. He didn’t simply find her attractive. That would have simply been human, but he dwelt on it. He began to lust after her. He desired her excessively, and that led to other sins as he violated the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And then he violated the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” as he murdered Bathsheba’s husband Uriah.
That’s how it is with this sin of coveting. You see it right in the beginning in the Bible in Genesis, chapter 4, with the story of Cain and Abel. Cain was jealous of his younger brother Abel. He was envious. He coveted the status that Abel had with God. He grew angry. God said to him, “Why are you angry? If you do well, will you not be blessed? Beware! Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you. You must master it.” But he could not. He violated the Sixth Commandment, and he murdered his brother. He violated the Ninth Commandment and bore false witness to God.
We really see this at the dawn of time in the fall of Satan as he said in his heart, “I shall ascend above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will make myself like the most high God.” He coveted what God himself had. This led to every sin in the book. How do we overcome this sin in our lives? How do we overcome greed and lust, envy, and jealousy? How do we overcome covetousness?
I’ve given you six remedies for coveting. We really don’t have the time to deal with any of these in detail. I do want us to go through them very briefly. First of all, if I want to overcome coveting, the first thing is do not compare yourself with others. The Bible makes that clear. No comparisons. This was the mistake that Peter made with regard to John. He compared himself. Remember how Jesus appeared resurrected and alive to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee and they had breakfast together? Then Jesus and Peter took a walk. Jesus told Peter that Peter was going to die, .and he was going to die a martyr’s death and he was going to die by crucifixion. Peter turned around and saw John following them and he said, “Well, Lord, what about John? What’s going to happen to him? How long is he going to live? How is he going to die?”
What did Jesus say to Peter? “If it be My will that he live until I come again, what is that to you? You follow Me.” That’s what he says to each and every one of us in this room this morning. It doesn’t matter about other people. “What is that to you? YOU follow Me.” Do not compare.
Secondly, give thanks for all you have. Give thanks for everything that you have. The Bible says to give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Maybe it would be good if you took a trip from our church down to Juarez and you work in one of the three colonias down there some weekend and have a chance to see abject poverty so you’re aware of how much you have. Of course, that’s comparison but better to compare yourself with those who have less so you might be more grateful. We need that from time to time. It’s humbling and makes us appreciate how God has blessed us in this nation. Give thanks in all circumstances and learn to give thanks every day for the ways that God has blessed you.
Thirdly, rejoice in the blessings of others. The Bible says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice.” Romans, chapter 12. That’s hard isn’t it, sometimes, for some people? Do you notice how people who covet have a hard time rejoicing with other people’s blessings? In fact, sometimes it seems like people who are covetous kind of rejoice when things go wrong for other people. You can kind of sense that.
Have you ever played golf and played with somebody who has a better swing than you? Every time I play golf, I play with someone who has a better swing than I. Someone who has a better swing than I, somebody who can hit it further, somebody who can hit it straighter. If I want to have a swing like that, that’s not covetousness. It’s just dreaming. But, you see, if I really have a problem with covetousness, my tendency is going to be to not want that other person to be that good. Have you ever played golf with somebody who you just kind of sense that maybe they wanted you to make a mistake? Of course, I fulfill all their hopes. But have you ever played golf with somebody and you can just sense that they didn’t want you to do well?
Or in any other arena in life. Have you been with somebody and you just felt like they didn’t want you to do well? They don’t rejoice in your blessings. That’s the characteristic of a person who is violating the Tenth Commandment. Learn to rejoice in the blessings of others, and “pray even that your enemies would be blessed,” Jesus tells us.
Fourthly, find your worth in Christ rather than in your possessions. Find your worth in Christ. That’s why Jesus said to the man who wanted to have his share of the inheritance. Jesus said, “Beware of all covetousness for a man’s life does not exist in the sum of his possessions.” You cannot find value and worth and significance in possessions. They will never fulfill you. You’ll always want more if that’s what you’re using for your fulfillment. You’ll never be content. You must find your value, your worth, your significance in Christ.
In the Eastern world, people are taught that contentment comes from detachment from possessions and things. In the Western world, people are taught that contentment comes from the accumulation and the acquisition of possessions and things. Both are wrong. Contentment doesn’t come from possessions or things no matter what you do or don’t do with them. Of course, in Hollywood, people try to have it both ways. They try to possess as much as they can and then take a moment every day and detach themselves with a little Buddhism. But that doesn’t work either. You only can find contentment through Christ. We were made for Him, and contentment comes from relationship with Him and is found in fellowship with Him. Well, remember also it is more blessed to give than receive if you would overcome covetousness. People who covet want to get. Christ calls us to be givers.
Finally, and as we conclude, I want us to focus a little bit on this. Covet the right things. This is so important biblically. Covet the right things. What we see when we look at the Greek and Hebrew words for covet is that the primary Hebrew word, “chamad,” the primary Hebrew word for covet and the primary Greek word for covet, “epithumia,” both of these words are used in the Bible in positive ways.
The word chamad is used in the Old Testament again and again and again for proper longings, for proper desires. The word epithumia, passion upon passion, is actually used in a positive way thirteen times in the New Testament. I mean it’s used in Philippians, chapter 1 to describe the longing that the Apostle Paul has to see Christ face-to¬ face.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, in Luke 22, uses this word epithumia to describe His longing to share the Last Supper with the disciples. As He’s gathered with them, He said to the disciples, “I’ve passion upon passion. I’ve longed to do this with you because I won’t be able to do it again until we sit down together in the kingdom of heaven.” This word epithumia, the word chamad, these words can be used as a positive desire, a positive passion, a positive coveting.
If you want to overcome the sin of coveting, if you want to overcome greed and lust and the quest for power and position and prominence, then you need to refocus your passion. You need to refocus your passion. That’s the key to everything. You need to make a relationship with Christ your passion. You need to make the service of Christ and His people your passion. You need to make ministry your passion because these words, chamad and epithumia are used of passion for ministry. If you’d give yourself to ministry, you’d begin to find that worldly coveting would begin to dissipate in your life as you take time to refocus your passion and direct it toward service and ministry.
As we conclude the message this Communion Sunday, I want to make you aware of a ministry. I want to invite you to be passionate about this. I want you to covet this opportunity to serve and to redirect, perhaps, your life in this way. It has to do with the International Student Connection. I’m going to use a little power point here. First of all, there are a lot of international students in the United States of America. Each year, 700,000 students representing 188 countries study right here in the United States of America. These students are in the top 5% of scholars in their respective countries. Most of them will go on to become leaders in government, leaders in business education, leaders in the military. These are future leaders of foreign countries that come to the United States to study. Of course, traditional missions only really reaches out to the poorest of the poor and the uneducated in countries all over the world. We are involved in traditional missions. We’re very much involved in traditional missions. We care about the poorest of the poor, but we know that Christ also loves these future leaders of these countries and we need to care about them, and we have this opportunity.
Forty-five percent of all the current heads of state in the world studied right here in the United States of America. Is that amazing? Of all the countries of the world, 45% of their current heads of state studied right here in America. We’ve missed an opportunity perhaps to influence them and to impact their lives. Seventy-five percent of international students that represent countries that are closed, restricted or resistant to traditional missions… In other words, foreign missionaries cannot go as missionaries to those countries. Seventy¬ five percent of the international students come from such countries, and 60% of international students represent countries where Christians are persecuted. We could send them back to their country changed, transformed, providing civil liberties for Christians in those countries and a more benign and benevolent leadership.
China and India contain almost half of the world’s population and 90% of the world’s unreached people. Together, they send more students to the United States in general and to the University of Denver specifically than any other countries. Many international students are lonely when they come here to the United States. They’re looking to build relationships with Americans. They’re interested in learning about our culture, and they’re interested in learning about the Christian religion.
Many of these students are dealing with life’s big questions, and they’re open to answers provided by the Gospel. It’s an incredible window of opportunity in their life. When they return to their own countries, the opportunity will no longer be there because, once again, they’ll become insulated and isolated from the Gospel. Approximately a thousand international students representing more than a hundred countries are studying right here at the University of Denver. They’re enrolled right here. Altogether there are 4,000 international students in Denver and another thousand international students in Boulder. Five thousand international students right here, representing the top 5% of their countries, future leaders in their countries when they return. What an opportunity for ministry.
And so, we’ve established a ministry called the International Student Connection. We want you to be passionate about it. We’re passionate. This church has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into this ministry from designated mission gifts. We have a house contiguous with the University of Denver campus. In that house and through that house, we serve and we minister to international students. They can come there and they can just hang out. We have a staff headed up by Kent Scroggs, one of our elders, who left the corporate business world to devote his life to full-time Christian ministry. We have 150 volunteers and we thank God for all of you who are volunteering in this ministry. Every week, hundreds of students are served meals through our’ lunch program to international students. We are connecting people with international friendship partners who come alongside these international students. You could be an international friendship partner. We would love to take you and train you and you would come alongside one of these international students. You could help them feel good about America, and you could help them understand that they’re loved. Through you, they could see the love of Jesus Christ. What an incredible opportunity.
When they go back to their country, they’ll never be the same. They’ll have a heart for the poor. Some of them will become Christians, but even if they don’t become Christians, they will know that they were loved by a Christian, and they will view Christians differently and they’ll treat Christians differently in their countries. They’ll have a heart for the poor. Many of them come from countries where there is great economic polarity, socio-economic polarity, and they’ll suddenly have a heart for the poor. It will change government policies. What an incredible opportunity to impact the world of Jesus Christ.
Do you have any passion for something like this? We invite you. We’ve got a table in the lobby today. If you have a passion for this, you can go up to that table and you can find out all about it and maybe volunteer and offer your time and talent in the service of Christ in this way.
Of course, we need hundreds of Sunday School teachers. We need hundreds of small group leaders. We need hundreds of volunteers to go into the inner city here and minister to inner city youth in the tutoring programs through Whiz Kids and Save Our Youth and minister in friendship in Prison Fellowship and in some of our inner-city ministries that we have. We need people to volunteer and serve in the choir and serve in the parking lot. There’s no limit to the opportunities to develop a passion for ministry and service. It’s going to take something radical though because you’re going to need to redirect your life focus.
I promise you, as you develop passion for Christ and His service, your improper passions relating to covetousness will all begin to dissipate because you’re going to become passionate for the right things instead of the wrong things.
We’ve taken really more time than we had, but I hope you understand as we come to the end of The Ten Commandments and the end of The Decalogue, the importance of obeying God and following the rules for the “road less traveled, the road of righteousness, the road that leads to eternal life” and understand that “to covet” means “to desire excessively.” It means to desire excessively that which belongs to somebody else, but by the power of Christ, we can change. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.