“Lord, please forgive me for coveting.”
My guess is that very few people utter these words publicly. Seriously, have you ever heard anyone ask for forgiveness for coveting? Have you ever confessed the sin of coveting?
I have definitely committed this sin. But confess it openly? Umm, NO!! We confess adultery and alcoholism. We confess pride and pornography. We confess lying and larceny. So, why don’t we confess our covetousness? Could it be that it bares to much of our heart to confess coveting? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we really don’t understand the meaning of the word or how seriously God takes this business of coveting.
Today our goal in Bible study is to delve into this topic and see if we come out more informed and humble about our need to address this sin.Let’s begin with our focal verses in Hebrews 13: 5-6 and I’m giving them to you from the New King James version because it is one of only a few translations that uses the word ‘covetousness’.
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Approximately 30 times in the Scriptures, the word covet or a form of the word is used (i.e. covetous, covetousness, greed). Greed! Ah, now there’s a word we understand a bit better. Coveting is not fitting for the saints of God (that’s you and me, friend) and it is often associated with violence or oppression. Hold onto that. We will come back to it later.
I want us to stop for a moment and consider the definition of this word ‘covet’ because I believe it will give us insight into the verses we just read.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for covet is hamad and it means ‘to desire, covet, long for, to be desirable, be costly, be precious, to feel delight. It refers to an inordinate, ungoverned selfish desire.’
Let’s focus on the portion of this definition that says, ‘refers to an inordinate, ungoverned selfish desire.’ But first, take a look at the New Testament Greek word used for ‘covet’ which adds a new dimension to our thinking.
The Greek word epithymeo comes from two words, epi meaning in and thymos meaning passion. The definition goes on to tell us that this word means ‘to desire, long for, lust for. The word refers to the inclining of one’s affections toward or setting of one’s heart upon something.
If you will allow me to meld these two definitions for a moment, I think we will get a full picture of the bigness of this word covet. Coveting is the inordinate, ungoverned selfish desire or longing for an object, position, or person. I’m going one step further and add to the definition the following. Coveting will often lead to violence or oppression and is almost always associated with idolatry.
Violence? Oppression? Idolatry?
Sounds pretty serious, doesn’t it? That is because it is. Join me next week for the rest of the story on coveting.
MEDITATION MOMENT: What thoughts come to mind when you see or hear the word ‘covet? Let’s talk about it.
