Take Heed, and Beware of Covetousness

Jesus did not begin His warning with the sins people expect. And before we get to the warning, look at what He had been saying all through that chapter, because the man walks in on the middle of it.

Fear him. He says it twice in the one verse.

And read what sits around it. He opened with beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and then said nothing covered stays covered. Fear the right One. Confess Me before men. Do not deny Me. Do not take thought what to answer, the Holy Ghost will teach you. Every bit of it is about who you answer to. And into the middle of that, a man says this.

And hear how it comes out of his mouth. Master, speak to my brother. It sounds like justice. And maybe it was, because Luke never tells us whether that man was wronged or not. But underneath it he may have been wanting what was not his to have, and nobody standing in that crowd could tell which it was. That is what makes it dangerous. Covetousness is secretive. And notice Jesus does not settle the case either way. He does not say the man was wrong and He does not say the brother was wrong. Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you. Then read the next words, and he said unto them. He turns from the man to the whole crowd, and He warns all of them. And that is why He opened the chapter with beware of hypocrisy, and now He says beware of covetousness. Both of them wear a face. And He had already said what happens to a thing wearing a face.

Jesus did not rebuke him for adultery, He did not rebuke him for murder, He did not rebuke him for theft, He warned him about covetousness. That alone should arrest our attention. And then read the reason He gives, because it is the second half of the verse and it is easy to run past. For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. A man’s life. Not his portion, not his inheritance, not his share of what somebody else is holding. Jesus is telling him that what he is reaching for is not where his life is kept, and that is why He would not go and get it for him. And He does not leave it there. He tells them a story about a man with too much harvest, and here is how it ends.

For himself. That is the word. Covetousness is self serving, and Jesus put those two things side by side, laying up for himself and not rich toward God. He is not saying a man cannot own anything. He is saying who the laying up is for.

So this study is about what is doing the reaching. Not the sins we can point at. The wanting underneath them, and who is sitting in the seat where the deciding happens.

Covetousness is dangerous precisely because it is quiet, it does not shout, it does not announce itself as rebellion, it persuades gently and sits comfortably in the seat of decision making. Covetousness decides before the act ever appears, it convinces the heart it is right before the body ever does wrong, and because it does not look violent or immoral at first, it is rarely confessed, yet often ruling.

That raises a serious question, what is it that quietly keeps God’s Word from being manifested in our lives?

The Heart Rules Before the Hand Moves

Jesus Himself answers that question when He shifts attention from behavior to the heart.

The act was not first, the decision was, the hand did not lead, the heart ruled.

Scripture consistently takes us behind the outward act to what is happening in the heart, and Paul tells us what covetousness becomes when it is there.

Covetousness quietly replaces God with self, and that is why it governs decisions before disobedience becomes visible.

Two Sides of One Coin

And let us name the thing plainly, because someone will ask whether this is covetousness at all, or simply rebellion. And I want to lay three things out, because they are not the same thing and they run in an order. Covetousness is the wanting. Wanting what is not mine to have. Self rule is the shift. Putting my own judgment over what God has said. Rebellion is the doing. The hand going out and taking it. Now that is the pattern I am tracing, and it is mine. I am not saying every disobedience in Scripture runs that road, because men rebel out of fear and unbelief and pride and plenty else. What I am saying is that when covetousness is the thing moving, this is how it moves.

Covetousness wants the seat, and rebellion takes it.

So here is what I hold, and Genesis does not say it in these words. The object of covetousness is not finally a thing at all, it is the One over our head. We do not covet the fruit, we covet the right to decide. And that is why the quiet wanting and the open disobedience are two sides of one coin. In every case I have laid out here, covetousness is the bedrock of the disobedience. And I will not stretch that over every sin ever committed, because James gives the wider word for it, that a man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, and covetousness is one shape that lust takes. But it is the shape I am after here. It is the thing crouching at the door, the silent plotter, and you never see it coming. You only see the sin.

Eden Was Never a Garden Problem

This same principle takes us back to the beginning.

So there was food, and plenty of it. And I will keep this about food, because God Himself says in that same chapter that something was not good, that the man should be alone. I have opened that in It’s Not Good. What Genesis gives me here is a garden full of trees good for food.

And when I read that command I do not hear a rule about fruit. I hear a question about authority, who decides what is good and what is evil. That is my reading of it, and Genesis states the command and not the reason.

Watch her steps, for they are our steps. And read them off the verse. She saw. She desired. She took. She did eat. And she gave. Five, and Genesis names every one of them. They were not short of food, and Genesis says so plainly. And here is how I read what followed. They reached for what God had forbidden, and in the doing of it they acted as though the right to decide belonged to them.

And Genesis does not tell me what was going on inside Adam. It says she gave, and he did eat. So when I say he was reaching for control and not for fruit, that is my reading of the act and not the account of his heart.

Eden was never a garden problem, it was an authority problem.

Who Are You to Tell Me

And this is not ancient history, it is our own conduct. Take the plain command against fornication, against sex before marriage. Whether we are thinking of it in these words or not, the act is saying, who are you to tell me how I should use my body. That is the same transfer Eve made, the creature taking the seat of the Creator, and it is why Paul answers it exactly there.

We are not our own, and we are representatives of Christ, therefore we are to be like Him. So the question is never only what we did with the body, it is who we allowed to sit in the seat that decides.

A Child Under Authority

And somebody will say the commandment is about a neighbour’s goods, and it is, so let me put it up.

Six things, and every one of them belongs to a man next door. So the plain meaning is wanting what is not yours. I am not taking that away. What I am saying is what Paul says about it, that it is idolatry, and idolatry is never finally about the thing. It is about who is being served. That same root appears in human relationships.

This command is not primarily about manners or tone, it is about authority. A child may have food, shelter, and love, but when a parent says no, the real issue surfaces, for the child is not lacking, the child wants to decide. That desire is not hatred. And Exodus does not call it covetousness, so when I say it is covetousness in seed form, that is my picture and not the commandment. What the commandment gives me is honour, and what I have watched is this. Reject authority early, and the heart is trained to resist authority later.

And this is the very picture God uses of Himself, for we are children of God, and He is over us, He tells us what to do, and we go and do our own thing. The child under the parent is only the first small picture of the creature under the Creator.

God Warns the Heart Before the Act

God consistently warns the heart before the act.

And read what came just before that warning.

Cain was not warned about murder, he was warned about what was forming. Genesis says he was wroth because of the respect he did not get. And when I call that wanting what Abel had, that is my word for it. Whatever we call it, it was there long before blood was shed.

And He does not spring things on people. Amos says it of the prophets, and Amos is not writing about Cain, so I am the one carrying it over.

He told Cain before the murder. Cain had already brought his offering and already been wroth by then, and God spoke to him before his hand went out. And that is the God I have come to know, that warning comes before judgment. I am not going to say He does it every time in every case, because that is more than I can show you.

Restraining the Hand Is Not Surrendering the Heart

Scripture also shows that restraining behavior without surrendering the heart never resolves sin.

Their father loved him more. That is what they saw, and that is what they could not have.

Reign over us. Have dominion over us. They were not after his coat. They were refusing a place, and they said it out loud.

The act was restrained. The desire was not.

Genesis gives me their hatred and their conspiring, and wanting his place gone is my wording for it. What the chapter shows plainly is this. The heart was never dealt with, sin found another route, and Joseph was sold anyway. The method changed, the heart did not.

Covetousness Always Leaves Evidence

David gives us the plainest case of all, and the verses run in that same order.

He saw. He sent. He took. And then he took the man’s life to cover it. He coveted first, and everything else followed, and even repentance did not erase the consequences.

And here is the forgiveness, said by the prophet to his face.

Thou didst it secretly. That is God’s own word for it, and He sent a man to say it to David’s face, because David was never going to see it on his own.

The LORD hath put away thy sin. And the sword still did not depart from his house. Forgiveness restored the relationship, and the choices still left their marks.

Where Victory Must Begin

Scripture forces us to confront a deeper issue than surface obedience. Before Joseph’s brothers sold him, they hated him and they envied him, and Genesis says both. And with Cain and with Adam, Genesis gives me the anger and it gives me the eating, and the rest of what I see in them is mine.

Disobedience is visible, covetousness is seated.

God is not only calling His people to stop doing wrong, He is calling them to deal with what rules the heart, to address what stands at the door before it walks in. For where covetousness is the thing deciding, it decides before the disobedience ever appears.

And you will not see it coming. You see the murder, and not the wanting. You see Bathsheba, and not the roof. You see the pit, and not the coat. You see the eating, and not a tree to be desired. The sin is the manifestation, and by the time you can see it, the deciding is already behind you.

That is why He said beware. You cannot watch for a thing you will not see, so the watching has to be of the wanting. And nobody can do that watching but you and God.

And whatever is doing the deciding in us, that is where the victory has to begin. In the heart.