A Return To Civility: 10 Don't Covet Series

A Sunday school teacher was asking her class if anyone knew what the Tenth Commandment was, to which a little boy responded, “You must not take the covers off your neighbour’s wife.”

Pretty close.

Well, here we are—the last week of our series, A Return to Civility. When we started the series in June, I commented on how I was struck by how uncivil our society has become. I can’t remember if it was a personal encounter with someone or something I saw on the news or read on social media. But I do remember thinking: Why can’t we just be civil to each other, what can’t we just be nice?

It seems that a lack of civility has permeated our culture. It is no longer enough to disagree with someone, today it seems we need to villainize them. If they have a different opinion than us, then they are a bad person.

And without wanting to sound old, I do remember a time when people seemed to respect one another, even if it was only surface-deep.

Children respected their parents; students respected their teachers and for the most part citizens respected their leaders. Maybe it was a fear of the consequences if we didn’t show that respect, but regardless of the why, we seemed to live in a more civil society.

Politicians could disagree with the policies of others without making personal attacks. Christians could disagree over doctrine or theology without questioning the other person’s salvation or love for Jesus.

We have lost the ability to agree to disagree.

I wondered when that had changed, and as I pondered that question, I wondered if it happened when we lost our common morality. As fewer people attended church, we began to lose touch with the basic tenets of the things that seemed to hold society together. We lost our common morality, and a good part of that was wrapped up in that short list called the Ten Commandments.

So, here we are at the last of the Ten Commandments, which is found in Exodus 20:17 “You must not covet your neighbour’s house. You must not covet your neighbour’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.”

And after we’ve talked about murder, adultery, theft and perjury this one seems a little ho-hum. And maybe you’re wondering why it made the list, not once but twice. And that’s because it’s at the root of most of the others. Because we covet being like God, we seek to reduce him through idols and blasphemy. Because we covet the good name of others, we lie about them. Because we covet someone other than our spouse we commit adultery. Because we covet what others have, we steal it. And ultimately, in most cases, it’s because of the consequences of covetousness that we steal someone’s life.

The Collins English Dictionary defines Covet this way: To wish, long, or crave for (something, esp the property of another person)

But we don’t hear that term a lot in 2024, instead, we often hear about people being greedy,

The Collins English Dictionary defines Greedy this way: excessively desirous of food or wealth, esp. in large amounts; voracious.

So, for simplicity, let’s go with “Greedy”.

If we were honest most of us would have to say that we struggle with greed in some form or another at some point or another. It could be called “The cult of the next best thing.”

As we look at what we have and what we want the question shouldn’t be who wants more stuff? Instead, it should be “How Bad Do You Want More Stuff?”

In 1992 James Patterson and Peter Kim wrote a book based on extensive surveys of the American Public, the book was called; “The Day That America Told The Truth.”

Questions were asked concerning a wide range of topics from morality to work to family life. The results are really quite surprising. And while it’s easy to write off the results as being American, I’m sure that many of the results would have been the same on this side of the 49th.

One of the questions asked was “What would you be willing to do for Ten Million Dollars?” A follow-up survey was done asking about 5, 4, 3 and 2 million dollars and the results remained fairly consistent. It was only under $2 million that they began to see a fall-off in what people would do. So it would appear the price for many Americans was $2 million.

In 1992, Two Million Dollars was real money; you could buy more than twenty homes in Bedford back then for two million dollars.

Out of the ten questions asked 2/3 of the respondents agreed they would be willing to do at least one, and some several of the deeds. What were they?