"You shall not covet 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 is your neighbor's."
Exodus 20:17
The tenth commandment is the one on which our Lord based His devastating interpretation of the others in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). It points to the true understanding of them as being inward rather than outward, and it is all the more surprising that Israel in the old economy, and the Pharisees, including Saul of Tarsus, in the new, should have so consistently missed its significant emphasis on inwardness. It is, of course, a fundamental word, not only showing us where the real thrust of the commandments lies, in the hearts and thoughts of men, but also where obedience to them must be fulfilled, for safety's sake as well as for the glory of God. The New Testament counterpart of this word is 'Be content with such things as ye have' (Hebrews 13:5). This is important, for the essence of a wrong desire is not only that it will not be satisfied, but that it cannot be satisfied. The more it is fed, the more voracious and craving does its appetite become. Even if it were given the whole creation, it would still want more; it is all-consuming, and born of hell itself. This is why a covetous spirit, that hankers after what must ever in the nature of things remain out of its reach, is so soul-destroying and disintegrating. Some people eat their hearts out for what they can never hope to attain or possess, in an unavailing attempt to 'keep up with the Jones's' or for some other reason, coveting place or position, possessions or recognition, and making their own lives, and the lives of all around them, miserable in the atmosphere of discontentment they effectually create. This is the commandment of God to them: 'Thou shalt not covet!'