Covet vs Content
The word covet isn’t a word that is that common in our daily, American, vocabulary but it is something that we American’s are very familiar with. Just reading the definition of Covet, -To desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense, basically describes the majority of American’s life. A really good synonym for covet is LUST. Sadly, this goes for those in the church as well as those outside the church.
All we need do is look at James 4:1-3 and then look around us. Doesn’t it explain a lot of what is going on in our world? Even though James 4:1-3 doesn’t use the word covet we can see that its definition applies here. James 4:1-3 “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
If we are honest with ourselves coveting comes really natural and easy. Not something that we had to learn or work at, it is just there and grows. On the other hand, Paul, in Philippians 4:11-13, speaks about having learned to be content, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
It is easy to take from Philippians 4:11-13 that the learning to be content is something that we need to do in our own efforts and strength. That it is a long arduous process and that we need to go through some mountain tops and valleys to obtain this learning and that we just need to struggle along in Christ until we obtain in but never fear because we can do it because Christ will give us the strength to make it through. That is pretty much the way I have thought about it until this morning.
This morning, I read a verse that I have read hundreds of times before and today my eyes were open to what it was saying. Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.” I read this first part and it was good but nothing super special. Basically, don’t covet, be content BUT it is the second part of the verse that POPPED, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The key word was FOR. My conduct, my life, can be lived without covetousness, that desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess-lust, for or because Jesus will never leave me nor forsake me. To emphasis the meaning let me paraphrase Hebrews 13:5, “Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you and thus you can be content and have no need to covet anything else.” It isn’t about our struggling to learn how to be content it is about abiding in Jesus and Jesus in us to where we see that He is our contentment because He is the fullness of everything we could ever want or desire. Coveting/Lust is the lie that tells us that we can find what everyone really longs for, real love, is found in sex, money, fame, and things. Really that is what drives us. Everything that you or I have ever desired when you boil it down to its core, we will find that it is the desire for love, real love (real love defined by God, not by man).
Thing is that no matter how hard we work, or scheme, or lie, cheat, or how many wars we fight we CANNOT obtain it through our efforts. The GOOD NEWS is that we don’t have to because real love is the free gift of Jesus. Jesus is the love that fulfills every desire we have ever had or will ever had. When we are full of Jesus it doesn’t matter if we have billions in the bank or not a cent to our name, we are content. He is the One that fills every hole, heals every wound, gives us our value, our reason for being and living. When we know, I mean really know and that is easy to do, Jesus, we know what contentment really is which means that there is no longer a place for coveting.
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