The Gateway Sin: Exodus 20:17 - 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Any guess as to the first Adam and Eve committed?
It wasn’t stealing; it wasn’t dishonoring God. It was coveting.
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Shopping in faux style by PeterThoeny on Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 |
[They] “saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6). Indeed, it was; God made it that way. It isn’t a sin to appreciate beauty. This was the Garden of Eden, after all. But the Tree wasn’t theirs to possess. Even though it was useful, beautiful, and desirable, they had no right to it. The right thing to do was to leave it be and be content with their closeness to God and their enjoyment of Eden.
Unfortunately, that’s not what they did. They coveted the fruit of the tree, and then ate it. You could argue that the first sin was the rejection of God’s authority. “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” They rejected God’s sovereignty by coveting a fruit which they thought would make them like God. They became consumed with desire for that which was not theirs, and consequently, lost paradise.
The first and last commandments are sins of the heart and mind, rather than the hands or the voice.
Think of coveting as the gateway sin: the failure to restrain your desire for that which is not yours to possess. Disobedience to the final commandment(s) yields disobedience to the rest.
In James 1, it is written “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (1:14-15).
So, how do you restrain desire?
You are exposed to 10,000 advertisements every day. Most of them you don’t even notice, because they are so ubiquitous. I’m not saying that advertising is bad. We advertise. Nobody is going to come to our church if they don’t know about it. But advertising creates desire. The best advertising makes you covet.
As long as your attention is affixed to a screen, the temptation to desire will be constant. Social media manufactures desire on an industrial scale. It constantly also reminds you that there are people who enjoy privileges you do not. The social media influencer enraptures thousands, if not millions, of people into envying what they have, what they know, what they do, and who they are. Some social media personalities are funny, entertaining, or even inspirational. But most are just showing off. That’s not right, either.
Everyone should be thankful for the good things God has given you to enjoy. But don’t rub it other people’s faces.
When you covet, you become oblivious to what you already have. No matter how much you have, there will always be some who has more. But there will be far more who have less. So why obsess over what your neighbor has if you’re not thankful for what you have?
If you enjoy food and clean water, know that there are people who envy you because they do not. If you are healthy and strong, there are people who envy you because they do not. If you have family and friends, there are people who envy you because they do not. If you are young, there are people who envy you because they are not. If you live in the United States, there are people who envy you because they do not. If you trust Jesus Christ, there are people who envy you because they do not. It is not a sin to covet the necessities of life. It begs the question: would the neighbor be in need if those who have stopped coveting more?
Everyone will experience temptation. Jesus certainly did. Just the same, there are many things that will come along that you will find desirable. If you give desire a place within your heart, it will consume you: your mind, your judgment, your character, your body, your spirit, and your peace.
It’s no accident that some of the most miserable people are those who have everything a person could ever want, but they’re consumed with desire for more and/or consumed with anxiety about losing it.
The heart that covets can never be at peace. Don’t ask for God to give you the things you covet. Ask God to save you from the things you covet!
Leave them be. Let them go. Be unbothered by what other people have that you don’t.
You cannot change your heart. But God can. God has given you everything need to defeat temptation: prayer, the Word, your siblings in Christ. When advertisements, social media, or boastful friends make you feel like you’re missing out, consider those who are truly missing out on food, on shelter, on health, on companionship.
When you do for others, you understand how truly blessed you are.
God didn’t give you life to enjoy stuff and show it off. God gave you life to be a blessing. Salvation isn’t a winning the PowerBall. Salvation is the promise that your sins are forgiven. That there is deliverance from the time of trial. That you are a child of God. That you are saved in life and in death.
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