The Heidelberg Catechism is one of the classic Reformed Confessions in the continental tradition. And just like the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, it deals with the Ten Commandments, looking at each of the commandments individually. The thing is though, when it gets to the tenth, it takes a somewhat different approach.

The Commandment reads:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

When the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What is God’s will for us in the tenth commandment?”, it answers thus: “That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any of God’s commandments should ever arise in my heart. Rather, with all my heart I should always hate sin and take pleasure in what is right.”

What does this answer have to do with the question? It seems to deal with the law as a whole, rather than the tenth commandment specifically.

The authors of the catechism were actually quite perceptive here. They correctly saw the tenth command­ment as being significant for under­standing the law as a whole.

How is this? How can a command­ment specifically about coveting give us a key to the whole law of God? Well, the thing is, coveting is a matter of the heart. If you covet, your heart is in the wrong place, and you cannot keep God’s law.

The Inward Focus of the Tenth Commandment⤒🔗

When you look at the other nine commandments, on the surface, they seem to be dealing with matters that are external to the heart of the indi­vidual. Now of course, each of the commandments deals indirectly and implicitly with the inward heart of a person. But you might not realize this if you look only at what the com­mandments specifically say.

Don’t serve any other gods. Don’t make graven images. Don’t take God’s name in vain. Observe the Sabbath. Honor your father and your mother. Don’t kill, or commit adul­tery, or steal, or bear false witness. Each of these commandments as they are written might seem to be concerned about what we do, as op­posed to what is in our hearts. Of course, the principles behind each command have very much to say about the condition of our hearts, and so each and every one of them very much applies to our hearts. But look­ing only at the letter of the laws, you might think you can avoid this con­clusion.

But once you get to the tenth com­mandment, you are forced to see that the keeping of the law of God is not just a matter of outwardly doing the right thing, but a matter of in­wardly having a righteous heart.

Coveting is not something you do with your outward body, but with your inward heart. You steal with your hands. You commit adultery with your body. You speak the Lord’s name in vain and bear false witness with your mouth. And you rest from your labours with your whole body. But you covet that which is your neighbour’s with your heart.

Consider this: If you speak the Lord’s name in vain, then there will be words that might be heard. If you kill someone, there will be a dead body. If you steal something from your neighbour, he will not have it any more. But without acting upon it, you could covet that which is your neighbour’s without anyone possibly knowing about it. You could keep it so well hidden so as to be completely undetectable to anyone, except for God. God knows our hearts. He knows when we covet, even if no one else does.

Legitimate Desires versus Sinful Coveting←⤒🔗

Before elaborating on this further, it might be helpful to look specifically at what the tenth commandment requires of us.

The commandment itself deals with coveting. And what is coveting? To covet is simply to desire, to long for something.

Now, coveting is not wrong in and of itself. We can covet in a good way. For example, someone might tell you that they covet your prayers. There is nothing wrong with this. It simply means that we hope that others will pray for us.

Also, we might covet the knowl­edge of God. There is certainly nothing wrong with longing to know the Lord better, desiring to enter into his presence.

There are also earthly things we can legitimately desire: enough food to eat for ourselves and our family, a good spouse, good friends and fellowship, an adequate roof over our heads. There is noth­ing inherently wrong with desiring such things.

Even God can be said to covet. He covets our worship, he covets our service. He covets our whole lives. And of course, such coveting on His part can never be wrong, be­cause the desires of the Lord are perfect.

The thing is though, often our de­siring, our coveting, is not legiti­mate. When the Bible talks about the sin of covetousness, it is focus­sing on when our desires become corrupt. We begin to covet that which is off limits to us.

For instance, those things which God has allocated for our neighbour, which God has given to him and not to us, we must not covet them. God distributes as he sees fit. He is the one who has given you what you have and calls you to be content with it. When you covet that which is not supposed to be yours, you are not being content with what God has done for you, and that insults him.

What We Covet Shows Whom We Serve←⤒🔗

Here’s another problem: when we set our desires on that which does not belong to us, then our focus is not where it should be. When we focus on serving God, we praise and thank him for all he does for us and all he provides us with. But when we covet that which does not belong to us, we are saying that those things are more important to us than serving God. When we covet our neighbour’s house, we are saying that acquiring a nice house is more important to us than serving God. When we covet our neighbour’s fully loaded heavy duty SUV, then we are placing a value on that vehicle, a value which it should not have.

We are called to be content with what God gives us. We are called to use the gifts he gives to us to further his glory and worship his name. Everything we are and everything we have must be dedicated for the ser­vice of God. But when we covet something that is not ours, then that something takes on a value all of its own, for its own sake, and ultimately, we have made that coveted item an idol.

Our desires can either go one way or another. We can correctly desire to serve God, or we can sinfully desire to serve something else. We can’t have it both ways.

In 1 Timothy 6:10 we read: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith.” Coveting the things of this world, coveting wealth as this world understands it, this causes people to wander away from the faith. You either long for the things of this world, or you long for the presence of God. One or the other.

Jesus says in Luke 12:15, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” There are far more important things in life than material stuff, which is why coveting is so dangerous.

Heed the words of Ephesians 5:5: “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is ... covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” The covetous one is the one who wor­ships insignificant created matter rather than the ultimately significant Creator. Such a person, if he re­mains in his sin, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Set Your Heart on the Good←⤒🔗

It makes sense, then, to see the tenth commandment as significant with regard to the whole of the law. The tenth commandment has an im­portant principle behind it, the princi­ple that the desires of our heart must be set on the right things. Rather than setting our hearts on sin, we must set our hearts on that which is holy. Rather than desiring in a sin­fully covetous fashion, we must flee sin and desire the good.

Psalm 19:7-10 tells us,

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the pre­cepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honey­comb.

May we truly love the will of our God. May we truly desire to obey the Lord our God. May we set our hearts upon God, seeking his favour. To desire such a thing is far better than to desire the gold that the sinful world has to offer.

Sadly, the reality of our lives is that we do not always desire to do the will of our God. We break the tenth commandment, and in fact, we break all the commandments. Instead of desiring our neighbour’s good, we hate him. Instead of desiring to worship the holy name of God, we blaspheme, with our mouths and in fact with our very lives. We do not always set our hearts on obedience to God and to his Word. Our de­sires are not where they should be.

But then you might think, well, if we are unable to do the will of God perfectly, if we are unable to set our desires in the right direction, then why should we bother with the law of God? And why should we love it?

Well, even though there is no chance that we keep the will of God perfectly, this does not mean we should stop trying. In fact, we want to keep trying. We want to continue to be renewed by the Spirit of God. We want to continue striving after perfection, not be­cause we think we can be perfect in this life, but because we love God for all that he has done, and we wish to serve him as best we can.

The tenth commandment, along with the others, helps us in this. To be sure, it can be difficult to be made aware of how we fall so far short of the standard presented in the law. But being made aware of our sin should not lead us to hope­lessness. It should lead us to Christ.

The more we see our sin, the more we recognize our total dependence on God. And the more we realize how dependant we are on God, the more we turn to our Lord and Sav­iour for comfort and strength.

So, it’s good to be made aware of how the tenth commandment de­mands that we set our desires in the right direction. It’s good when­ever we are made aware of any of the demands of God’s law. Only in being made thus aware, can we continue the battle against sin in the strength our Saviour provides for us.