Covetousness
The Hellish Sin of Covetousness
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”- Exodus 20:17
Proceeding forth from the devouring flames of Mount Sinai, the voice of Almighty God thundered: “Thou shalt not covet…” (Ex. 20:17)! This is the 10th Commandment. Are you guilty? A man can covet anything: a house, a woman, possessions, money, power, popularity, and fame. To covet something is to desire it as your own. The deluded public of modern society cannot see anything morally wrong with it.
“Be not deceived: neither fornicators…nor covetous…shall inherit the Kingdom of God.” – 1 Cor. 6:9-10
Covetous people will go to hell for their refusal to repent of covetousness! They live in a culture that welcomes it. They contribute to an economy that thrives on it. Hardworking sinners are passionately driven to succeed through covetousness. They work for what they want, and when they get it, they boast about it, and then their peers call them blessed. Sound unusual to you? Maybe not. We live in an “evil world” (Gal. 1:4)! “For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.” (Ps. 10:3). Sinners would be shocked to discover that a God of love confessedly hates covetous people in Psalm 10:3.
This is the sin of desire! Paul said that he would have never known about the sin of desire or lust except that the law said, “Thou shalt not covet.” (Rom. 7:7). It is the desire to possess things that you do not have. The desire unsatisfied makes men discontent or unhappy. This is a tragic and unrelenting cycle of human depravity! Why? Because the eyes are never satisfied with seeing (Eccl. 1:8), the ears are never satisfied with hearing (Eccl. 1:8), and the mouth and belly are never satisfied with eating (Eccl. 6:7; Php. 3:18-19). Even so, for this reason, the labor and toil of work never ends (Eccl. 4:8)! Not even riches can satisfy sinners (Eccl. 4:8, 5:10-12).
“Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” – Prov. 27:20
“…the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” – Eccl. 9:3 (Gen. 6:9)
There is something hellishly wrong with mankind! No wonder the Messiah decried the wickedness of sinners, calling them, the Children of Hell (Matt. 23:15). Something is wrong with their eyes, ears, and mouth (Prov. 6:16-19; Ps. 10:3). God didn’t create people like this (Eccl. 7:29; Jer. 2:12-13). For, every sensory receptor of the human body of a sinner is inflamed with an uncontrollable desire to sin like the raging and unquenchable flames of Hell (Hab. 2:5, Rom. 8:7-8)! “Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known:” (Rom 3:16-17). There’s only one remedy: The Cross (Gal. 2:20).
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me.” – Matt. 16:24 (Gal. 2:20)
“For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” - 1Cor. 1:18
Apparently, God doesn’t want to satisfy the corrupt desires of covetous sinners! The selfish desires of sinners must be totally denied. Why? Because sinners will resort to religion as long as they are fed (John 6:26-27). They will even howl and cry to God in prayer for hours, and even pass a whole night as such, but in truth it’s just for the food and drink that they covet to possess (Hos. 7:14)! God wants to remove the sinner from the picture entirely. God wants to bring him to his utter end through death. This is the work of the Cross!
Sinners don’t need their desires to be satisfied, they need new desires (Rom. 8:6-8). No one has ever had a God-shaped hole in their heart that only God can fill. Sinners need new hearts (Ezek. 36:26-27)! You can’t get your life cleaned up to serve God. You need a new life altogether (2 Cor. 5:17)! Sinners must die to live (Gal. 2:20). Nothing short of death will solve this problem. The Cross, as an execution device, will put an end to all the miserable wretchedness of mankind! Nothing else will save sinners from the foolish and hurtful lusts that drown them in destruction and perdition (1 Tim. 6:7-10).
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” – 1 John 2:15-17
Naturally, in a fallen world, covetousness is what drives men and women to work hard and be successful, so that they can live with pride. This is a cursed condition of heart and mind, where the desire is uncontrollable and never ceases to wander into the discovery of new things of covetousness (Eccl. 6:9). Visit the so called “Church” down the street and you will see more of the same, only the covetousness is disguised in religious activity. When sinning is made religiously ceremonious its strikes the sinner as something honorable.
“But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness…” - Jer. 22:17
“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” – Jer. 6:13-14
Don’t let false Prophets take the stage and flatter you for another week of your vain lifetime (Eccl. 1:2, James 4:14). Don’t let your Pastors make you feel at ease and without worries as they fill their pockets with your tithe money and run the Church like a business (1 Thess. 2:5, 2 Pet. 2:3). Gain isn’t godliness (1 Tim. 6:3-5)! This isn’t Christianity. These aren’t true Christians. No covetous man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Cor. 5:11, 6:9-10, Eph. 5:5, Rom. 1:29). You cannot serve God and money (Lk. 16:13; Matt. 6:19-24).
Covetousness has dragged billions of people down the broad way to hell. Keep living the way that you are and you will end up being so preoccupied with your own earthly affairs that you will never make time to get right with God (Php. 3:18-19). You will die and go to hell! Even if you achieve success, your covetousness will deceive you to make you think life is good, and before you have time to enjoy all your goods an angry God will suddenly require your soul! “Take heed, and beware of covetousness…” (Luke 12:15).
“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” - Luke 12:15-21
