Inside-Out

Inside-Out

Obedience to God’s Law must come from the heart.

Exodus 20:17

“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.”

Deuteronomy 5:21

“‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’”

Luke 12:13-21; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5; 1 Timothy 6:6-8

The Ten Commandments end in a rather strange way, by proscribing covetousness.

All the other commandments thus far can be envisioned in practice. We can see people worshiping other gods, profaning God’s Name, defiling the Sabbath, dishonoring others, committing murder, adultery, and theft, spreading false information and lies. These are outward practices which can be judged by righteous people and corrected by specific courses of action in order to restore justice (Rom. 12:21).

But who can observe covetousness? Who can look into the soul of another and see that covetousness is taking root and beginning to plant the seeds of other sins? Only God can do this. So the tenth commandment reminds us that, at the end of the day, the Law is rooted in a relationship with God, and must be conducted from the “inside-out,” as it were.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.