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\u201cYou shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor\u2019s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.\u201d (Deuteronomy 5:21).

This tenth covenant word is different from the rest. The others concern things that we do which can be witnessed. The tenth is about our thoughts, our desires. It helpful to simplify this verse to: Do not desire your neighbours\u2019 stuff. Using the word \u2018stuff\u2019 helps us overcome the cultural differences between Israel and ourselves Further, to say \u2018stuff\u2019 helps us understand that when we covet someone\u2019s spouse, we dehumanize that person.

No person should be reduced to stuff, each of us bears the image of God. We desire a person's body without regard for the person. We desire the goods and resources of other people without any regard for the people themselves. We often desire God's world and even God's heaven without any regard for God himself. This desire is selfish and endlessly hungry, constantly craving to be filled again and again.

Desire is not wrong. God made us with desire. What is addressed here is the longing that says, \u201cI want that thing that belongs to you\u201d. And we begin to scheme within ourselves to get it; or we imagine what our life would be like with that stuff. We desire the success that our competition has. We desire the nicer car our friends have or their nicer family members.

Remember the first sin: Eve went from observation (she saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye), to desire (and also desirable for gaining wisdom) to the inevitable deed: "She took some and ate it" (Gen 3:4-7). The desire to have something which they did not have, led Eve and Adam to commit the first sin. Coveting is an extremely dangerous sin. Is it possible that coveting lies at the heart of most sin? Something to ponder.

What we need to hear again is what Martha heard from Jesus after she had complained to him that her sister was just sitting around listening, not helping her in the kitchen. Jesus\u2019 answer to her was, "Martha, Martha...you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed" (Luke 10:41-42). There is only one thing that we really need, that is, Jesus. When we focus our desire on him, life becomes quite simple, and much happier.

\u201cSeek first God\u2019s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [things we 'need'] will be given to you as well\u201d (Mt 6:33). If our lives are lived with this one desire, we will no need to desire the things others have.

This desire grows by the gardening of the Spirit of God. It includes a conscious refusal to be conformed "to the pattern of this world" and a deliberate effort to be "transformed by the renewing" of our minds (Romans 12:2). Even in our culture which constantly tickles our old nature back to life, it is possible "to work out our salvation with fear and trembling" precisely because "it is God who works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:12-13). Not only actions but also desires and thoughts are now under the Redeemer's control: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right...pure... lovely...admirable...excellent or praiseworthy"--we learn to "think about such things" (Phil 4:8). We take pleasure in whatever is right.

The law shows us our sin. It shows how imperfect we are. This knowledge keeps us humble before God, and dependent on Jesus. It constantly reminds us of how much we need Jesus and His redemption. But the law also wets our appetite for spiritual transformation. It gets us hungering and thirsting for righteous (Mt 5:6) and craving pure spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2). The law awakens in us a desire for doing what is right. It constantly reminds us to fight against the flesh and its evil desires that still clings to us.

Our goal is to become like Jesus. To be like Jesus is to have "true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24), a spirit of obedience to God to the service of humanity (Phil. 2:5-11), and mature knowledge of Christ (Eph. 4:4-15). It also means that we "are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). It is a process of getting more of God in us and less of us in us. For when Jesus appears we shall be like him (1 John 3:2).