The Deadliest Sin — Coveting
The Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” – Exodus 20:15
What is the deadliest of sins?
This is a question that many of us ask every day. Is the deadliest sin murder, rape, stealing, adulatory or lying?
The deadliest sin is COVETING.
Why? Because Coveting leads to all of the other sins. Let’s look at the Ten Commandments to understand how the Tenth Commandment (coveting) allows each of us to defile the other Nine Commandments.
- First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before Me. Coveting oneself, our earthly desires, over God is in reality coveting your body, not the Holy Spirit.
- Second Commandment: You shall make no idols. When we worship idols then we begin to covet these idols over God and His Son. This leads to the death of the soul.
- Third Commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. When you hear someone curse, as in rap music or in films or videos, then you are hearing that person covet evil versus good.
- Fourth Commandment: Keep the Sabbath day holy. If you do not attend church then you are coveting your time over giving time to listen to the word of God delivered by a priest, pastor or rabbi.
- Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. This is a two way street. If your father and or your mother abandon you. Or you abandon and disrespect your father or mother then you have sinned against God. Honoring family is a sacred duty.
- Sixth Commandment: You shall not murder. Murder is truly a deadly sin. Taking another’s life, other than in self-defense, is coveting that person’s life.
- Seventh Commandment: You shall not commit adultery. Breaking one’s marriage vows is a deadly sin. It kills a relationship, a family and a person’s worth.
- Eight Commandment: You shall not steal. Stealing or robbery takes from another to enrich oneself. This destroys both the person who has had something of value taken and it creates a criminal.
- Ninth Commandment: Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Bearing false witness is coveting in that is takes away the truth and presents a lie to others as if it were the truth. This lying has become the new “woke” normal in the media, social media and within communities. Lying is lying. Truth is truth.
Conclusion
Coveting another God, coveting idols, cursing the name of God, not going to church with your family, not honoring your family, murdering another, stealing from someone and lying are all violations of the Tenth Commandment.
The bedrock of any culture is based upon a belief in one God (monotheism). A rejection of idols such as government or worshiping at the alter of the earth (environmentalism). Using curse words in our homes, communities, in films (like Pulp Fiction), on social media and in public is wrong and destroys our Republic. Church attendance is a necessary component of a faithful people. Our founding fathers understood that In God We Trust as a people.
Murder, adultery (and divorce), robbery and lying are all symptoms of both a soul-less person and a community, a city, a state and a nation without a soul.
Coveting is truly the deadliest of sins. It destroys individuals and nations.
©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.
I agree just have not looked at it this way, but, this does make good Sense. Thank you
Great lesson and reminder! We all have committed this sin. Come to the father for forgiveness and mercy. It’s the only way to unburden yourself.
I cannot agree as the Truth is….the Ten Commandments were for the people of the “Law Administration.” Meaning, God spoke to Moses to write the laws down in stone because the people were so sin filled. We are no longer under the “Law.” In fact, Jesus was the Christ Administration and currently, we are in the Grace Administration since Pentecost. We only have two more administrations …the return takes us into 6th and then gathering once Satan and all devil spirits are destroyed…Gods timetable
Amazingly revealing.
Not true Julie but this seems to what many Christians believe. Jesus clearly said near the beginning of His “sermon on the mount” that he didn’t come to abolish the Torah (Law) or the Prophets but to fulfill them. In NT Greek the word fulfill means to fill full or make abound. There was nothing about Jesus that was lawless. If there had been, He couldn’t have been the Messiah. And He never supported lawlessness. In fact He said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Paul says in Romans that “Christ is the end of the law.” Many believers misinterpret that too because they have been taught wrong and don’t understand that the word “end” means “goal” not “termination.” Near the end of the the “sermon on the mount” Jesus says something very scary for those who want to abolish God’s law: “Away from me you workers of anomia – lawlessness.” The “law” was never the enemy. Sin was. Our Messiah died to take away our sin, not to make us lawless. The problem is that in a simplistic way, many believers want to paint the whole Tanakh (“old testament”) in the same way – as nothing but archaic law. The only thing Jesus challenged was manmade laws that actually contradicted God’s law. He said, “For the sake of your traditions you fail to keep the commandments of God.” Everything God does for us and gives us is grace. Every one of the ten commandments protects a gift – life (thou shall not kill), marriage (thou shall not commit adultery), property (thou shall not steal), peace (thou shall not covet), our connection with God (thou shall not take the name in vain), etc. Even the law rightly understood and lived is without question the grace of God. Lawlessness, whether among believers or our nation, is never a good or godly thing.
Rich, this is a great article. I feel I must respond to Julie’s comment above.
What Julie said is not true but seems to be what many Christians believe. Jesus clearly said near the beginning of His “sermon on the mount” that he didn’t come to abolish the Torah (Law) or the Prophets but to fulfill them. In NT Greek the word fulfill means to fill full or make abound. There was nothing about Jesus that was lawless. If there had been, He couldn’t have been the Messiah. And He never supported lawlessness. In fact He said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Paul says in Romans that “Christ is the end of the law.” Many believers misinterpret that too because they have been taught wrong and don’t understand that the word “end” means “goal” not “termination.” Near the end of the the “sermon on the mount” Jesus says something very scary for those who want to abolish God’s law: “Away from me you workers of anomia – lawlessness.” The “law” was never the enemy. Sin was. Our Messiah died to take away our sin, not to make us lawless. The problem is that in a simplistic way, many believers want to paint the whole Tanakh (“old testament”) in the same way – as nothing but archaic law. The only thing Jesus challenged was manmade laws that actually contradicted God’s law. He said, “For the sake of your traditions you fail to keep the commandments of God.” Everything God does for us and gives us is grace. Every one of the ten commandments protects a gift – life (thou shall not kill), marriage (thou shall not commit adultery), property (thou shall not steal), peace (thou shall not covet), our connection with God (thou shall not take the name in vain), etc. Even the law rightly understood and lived is without question the grace of God. Lawlessness, whether among believers or our nation, is never a good or godly thing.