“Thou Shalt Not Covet”
We spent last week looking at the prohibition against coveting. We noted that coveting was to have inordinate (sinful) desires … desires that are not in keeping with God’s revelation. We made a point to teach that God has made us as humans, to be a people with passions, and so it is not the passion itself that is sinful but rather it is the twistedness of the passion that is sinful. We want things that are not ours to be had such as another man’s wife, property, life, position. We cited some examples of coveting in Scripture. We talked about the idea that coveting may very well be the sin behind all sin. We learned together that coveting goes from simple inordinate desire to the next level when the simple sinful inordinate desire becomes a plan to fulfill that sinful desire as engage our reason and will to follow our passion. We considered, in some detail, the relationship between the 1st and 10th commandment. Finally, we spent just a little time talking about cures for coveting, reminding ourselves that the greatest cure for sin is gratitude for the fact that Christ has put to our account His 10th commandment keeping righteousness.
The primary meaning of the tenth commandment is this: Anyone who sets his unwavering desire on his neighbor’s house wife, employees or animals will not be able to keep his hands off. Unwavering desire will give birth to planning premeditation with an intent to strike. Coveting, therefore, lies somewhere between the disposition of desiring something that is not ours to be had and the deed to procure that something. The deed is condemned by the commandments 1-9, but the tenth looks behind those deeds to the passionate heart and to the steps people take to implement the plans. As we have said, coveting is the sin behind the sin. It is the disposition behind the action. It is the root that produces the fruit.
This week we want to look at the “Thou Shalt,” that corresponds to this 10th commandment “Thou Shalt Not.” Remember, we have gone to great lengths to teach that the 10 commandments includes a “Thou Shalt” for every “Thou Shalt not.” And the Thou Shalt for “Thou Shalt Not Covet,” is “Thou Shalt be Content.”
If coveting is the presences of inordinate sinful desires that are followed through on and pursued then contentment is the absence of sinful desire and an ability to find satisfaction and sufficiency in where God has placed us at any given moment. Contentment does not mean that we do not seek to better our situation, or to improve upon our lot, but it does mean that in any given situation in which divine providence has brought us into at any given moment we are able to find a certain tranquility.
Before we get into this sermon much further, I must tell you, that I am not a master at this matter of contentment. When it comes to this matter I see my sin. I am too often anxious about the future. I saw that in myself again with all that happened with Ella’s birth. I too often covet, because of my pride and self-centeredness, a more prominent place and more influence and more possessions. So, if any of you come underneath the conviction of the word, you come underneath the conviction of the word this morning along with me.
Of course contentment, as we shall learn, is not something that one can merely switch on a button in order to achieve. Contentment is something that we learn throughout our Christian life and walk. We wee that in the passage in Philippians that we read this morning.
Phil. 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ[b] who strengthens me.
This then brings us to our first point in contentment. Like all Christian virtue, contentment is a learned trait.
Being Redeemed sinful beings we spend our lives, if we are honest with ourselves, seeking to master our lusts so that we control them and they do not control us. This ability to master our lusts is something that is learned over time by God’s grace.
Even the great Apostle, St. Paul, admitted that this contentment was something that he had to learn. And we are given a glimpse into his learning process in II Corinthians
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
We don’t know for sure what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Some have humorously quipped that it was his Mother-in-law. Others have more seriously suggested that it was something physical, perhaps vision problems. This could be consistent with his speaking about “his infirmities,” and with other hints that we get in Scripture about his vision problems. With the reference to a “messenger of Satan” some see it as some kind of spiritual turmoil. Whatever it was we know that the Apostle struggled with a lack of contentment concerning it. He coveted relief. And who wouldn’t covet relief? If it was eyesight problems who wouldn’t be discontent over creeping blindness.
And yet we see in this passage that Paul learns to be satisfied with God’s grace. St. Paul speaks that way again to the Philippians. He tells them that “he has learned in whatever state he is in to be content.”
And we remember that St. Paul is saying this, likely in prison, chained to a Roman guard on each side of him.
So, we see here that contentment is a state of mind, arrived at by confidence in the Lord Christ, in which one’s desires are confined to one’s lot whatever it may be at any given time. (1 Tim. 6:6; 2 Cor. 9:8). In this situation in which St. Paul is in we find a man who has found the sufficiency for the situation in Christ. Because of divine grace St. Paul is nonplussed about the his circumstance. He has learned, because of his confidence in God’s providence, to be the master of his situation and circumstances and has learned how to not let his circumstance and situation be his master.
Would that we all would pray God that we would be given this ability. Just imagine how God would be glorified and how our stress levels and anxiety would be reduced.
Scripture even marries the idea of God like character with this ability to be content,
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Many saints have made shipwreck of their faith because of their inability to be content.
We see other examples of this contentment in the Apostle’s life.
22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
St. Paul, along with Silas, had learned to not let their circumstances dictate their behavior. Because of God’s grace they were masters of their circumstances and so could sing and pray to God.
And yet having said all this, we are not teaching some kind of fatalistic resignation to what transpires in our lives. We are not teaching, and we do not find in Scripture that our Christian religion is to be some kind of opium that makes us pleased with injustice.
Christianity, is not, even in the doctrine of contentment, intended to make people resigned to being ill used or to work in them a “whatever will be, will be” attitude. Contentment does not say, “be satisfied with wickedness and so work not to advance the Kingdom of God in the face of opposition,” but rather it says that wherever we are in the immediate moment of working to advance God’s Kingdom, we have needs to be content with God’s providence.
God’s providence dictates the immediate moment, but obedience to God’s revealed word dictates our action for the next moment. So we can, at one and the same time, be content with what God has for us in the existential moment while still seeking to improve our situation by God honoring means.
It is a delicate balance but one that we find in Scripture.
For example, We read in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were unjustly beaten with rods and placed in a filthy prison. And yet they sang and praised God. We know the story of how God released them via a earthquake and their bringing the Gospel to the jailer.
So, early in the account we see their contentment, yet later in the account we see them demanding justice. Their sense of contentment did make them fatalistically resigned to what others had unjustly done to them.
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.”
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
So, being content, did not mean for St. Paul, not holding people accountable for their wicked actions. It did not mean not insisting on justice. Their Christian contentment was not a opium for the people. Christian contentment is not the same as pagan stoicism. The Christian at one and the same time can be content, thus putting off the vices of greed, avarice, envy, anxiety, and covetousness while at the same time pursuing the virtue of God’s justice, and contending for the overthrow of those Kingdoms that oppose God’s Kingdom. They can at the same time be content without being passive, mealy mouthed, and ineffective.
Contentment has the ability to navigate to a place where one can say that one is not mastered by a difficult circumstance that one might find oneself in. This is what St. Paul is saying in vs. 11-12,
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
The gift of contentment had him managing the highs and lows, the lack and surfeit of life. Whether in abundance or in lack the Apostle was content w/ God’s sufficiency.
Our instinct is to think that the virtue of contentment is only difficult in times of lack. Can we be content when we are set aside and even mocked, or will we become bitter and plot sinful vengeance? Can we be content when we our shoved aside and insulted while the wicked flex their influence and authority without building sinful resentment. Contentment is difficult during times of lack and during times of being set aside.
But St. Paul gives some indication that contentment is something that is needed also in times of abundance. Are we independent and satisfied with God and His providence when our circumstances are positive or abundant or do we suddenly find ourselves at that point forgetting God and thinking that “it is by our hand we have gained this position?”
St. Paul says it is the gift of contentment that gives him ballast against poverty and insult but also against being swept away by abundance and surfeit into abandoning a right estimation of God’s providence.
We should be content in all things and remember our Proverbs,
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.
Tips to Contentment
1.) Mindful of and confident in God’s providential ordering of all things (Ps. 96:1, 2; 145),
2.) Finding our satisfaction in Christ and the greatness of the divine promises (2 Pet. 1:4),
Whatever may come our way in terms of everyday life, nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ. If we keep our minds saturated in that truth, discontentment and covetousness will be far harder to get a grip on us.
3.) The ability to practice gratitude.
No matter how difficult matters are, we must remind ourselves of the many ways that God has blessed us.
4.) A knowledge and confidence that God will one day right all wrongs
II Thess. 1:6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5.) Reminding ourselves that we are not deserving of any that we think we are deserving of.
