God on the Net

Your best friend was just promoted to a high paying job, your neighbor purchased a Mercedes S 500 while you are still driving a 1995 Honda Accord and today's mail included an elegantly packaged advertisement for a cruise around the Mediterranean that you cannot afford. How does all of this affect you?

Most of us really do not struggle with murder or bowing before idols, but this commandment to refrain from coveting what belongs to another person is fairly relevant to most of us. Whether it is blaring at us on television or radio, advertising agencies everywhere want us to be dissatisfied with what we have. It sometimes appears that our entire culture is motivated by the unquenchable desire for more and more things and is plagued by feelings of never having enough.

Now this commandment is not condemning ambition. There is nothing wrong with wanting things or seeking to produce greater accomplishments. The question here would be why do you want these things? Is it because you want to appear as good or better than your neighbor does? Is it simply all about status? Is it because the possession of more and more things helps you believe that God loves you? If these fuel your ambition then there is a problem.

Being ambitious to care for our families, to leave an inheritance for our grandchildren, to care for others or to be all that we can be are honorable

ambitions. But if the underlying ambition is coveting praise or status then we will have trouble. In my involvement with charity work and relief agencies over the last 3 decades I can tell you that a high percentage of people are motivated by covetousness. They become involved in such endeavors coveting the praise of others, to be seen as "good people," to earn a particular status with their friends and peers.

Covetousness can grow like a cancer in the very heart of our work and relationships. It silently eats away at the core until the shell of appearances crumbles around us, exposing the emptiness of our claims to nobility and honor. Unlike murder, stealing or lying this particular commandment doesn't point to a forbidden action but a forbidden attitude.

The Bible teaches that covetousness brings serious trouble into our homes. (Proverbs 15:27) How could it not fail to do this? Covetous people are obsessed with things; their energies are entirely focused on material possessions. But covetousness not only brings trouble into our homes but into our churches, our places of work and into society as a whole.

Coveting praise, power and spiritual status will destroy the fabric of healthy relationships within a church community.
Coveting the wealth and success of our competitors will lead to our demonizing them and justifying our lies about their products or services.
Coveting power over our fellow citizens for our own selfish ends leads to class envy, a denial of personal responsibility and the justification for ignoring the rights of others to their own property and possessions.
Coveting our neighbor's wife, house, business or bank account says that we are not grateful for who or what God has gifted us with. This is why covetous people are so often drowning in debt. They will not patiently work for what they desire, trusting in God, but demand their covetous desires be satisfied immediately. But covetousness can never be satisfied.

Covetousness is accompanied with a belief that our neighbors do not deserve what they have.or at least not as much as we do. Covetousness is often laced with arrogance. Covetous people cannot help but posture themselves as being better than others are. Or, in some cases, they posture their neighbors so as to appear unworthy of what they possess.

Covetousness makes us ugly, distorting the image of God within us. Whereas the spirit of Christianity is imbued with a desire to serve others, to be "for" their health and welfare, covetousness places us against others. Rather than being willing to lay our lives down for others, we look for ways to lay our neighbor's life down for us.

Desiring more from life is not a wrong. Wanting what belongs to another is. Working to attain more is not evil. However, tying our self-image to our possessions is foolish. After all, how many "things" will it take to make you feel worthy or satisfied? For a covetous person, the desire for more is a black hole.

Covetous people are seeking to fill a void in their soul that only God alone can fill. Be satisfied with God alone and see everything else as icing on the cake and all will be well. Be content that God has accepted you and see anything and everything else that comes to you as a bonus and you will never be discontent again.

We've heard that we should treat others like we'd like to be treated ourselves; so many times it's become a trite cliché. We don't even know where the saying came from. We think perhaps that our Grandmother made it up. Or at least somebody's Grandmother.

In fact, Jesus stated it first, two thousand years ago, when he said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Like most of His teachings, He was explaining the intent of God's universal laws as expressed in the Hebrew Scripture (found in the Old Testament). Specifically, He was summing up the meaning of the Ten Commandments, the core of God's law given to Moses.

When you to think about it, most of the [Ten Commandments], are about how to treat people; honoring, obeying, and loving your parents and family, not violating someone else's spouse, not committing violent crimes against other people, not stealing from other people, not lusting after someone's partner or possessions.

In other words, God's commandments to us for treating others simply mirror the way that we would like to be treated. Do we want people stealing from us or committing violent crimes? Do we want people committing adultery with our spouse? Do we want disobedient or dishonoring children? The "Golden Rule" sums up the Ten Commandments, which in turn sums up the wisdom of the ages, by pointing out that when everybody treats everyone else the way they would like to be treated, we all get to be treated well - and that's why its called "golden". Amongst all life's rules for living - This one rule is held to be the most valuable in virtually every faith tradition. Jesus boldly declared the true essence of God's law was to "love others as oneself"!

The exciting thing is, we can begin to practice the essence of God's ground rules for successful living today. When you begin to treat people with love and affection, or respect, when you begin to encourage or show appreciation, most people begin to respond differently towards you.

Many spouses don't get the love or respect that they want because in fact, they don't give it. Many parents don't get the respect or the affection they want because in fact, they haven't given it either. Many of us wonder why we don't have many (or any) friends but, what do we do to make friends, to reach out to people? With a focus on their needs, hopes and interests rather than just our own? Many of us wonder why nobody bothers to hear "our story" or to understand us, without noticing that we are not truly interested in hearing other people's stories, or understanding their trials, tribulations, dreams or disappointments. Empathy and friendship is a two way street.

We may complain at work that our coworkers think of themselves first, or that our employers are not fair. This may or may not be true. But the real question is what your co-workers experience of you? How do your employees or employer perceive you? Do you treat them the way you would want to be treated? If you feel a lack of respect, have you checked to see how respectful you are, or whether your performance or attitude truly merits respect?

Try following Christ's golden rule, and see what happens. After a few weeks people may begin to treat you differently. But even if they don't, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that you continue to treat everyone the same way you would like to be treated. With a vast majority of people this will "pay off" and you will notice that you are getting treated the way you would like to be. For a few people it won't make a difference, and that's their loss, because what they give out in life is exactly what their are going to get back. The same applies for you. Begin practicing the golden rule, the essence of wisdom, today!