Purify Your Mind Series (Part 3) by Joe KirbySample

Thou Shalt Not Covet!

"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 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." (James 4:1–2)

I think we’ve all coveted or lusted after something that doesn’t belong to us at some point in our lives. I’m not talking about a normal, healthy desire for a good thing, such as serving in the church in a particular role, or more money to provide for our family, or a larger ministry to reach more souls for Jesus.

But often desires can become impure lusts. We may covet our neighbor’s wife, their lifestyle, their popularity. The root of jealousy starts when we believe that what this person has should instead belong to us, and when this happens, we’ve already begun to sin. Love is patient; lust is impatient. Love wants to give; lust wants to get.

Here’s the crazy thing: as James points out, when we lust, becoming obsessed with something that isn’t ours, it makes us miserable. If I may use a silly example, I remember in my early twenties literally crying in front of the mirror because I was beginning to lose my hair. The more I stared at my receding hairline, the more I looked at my friends who had full heads of hair, the more I was in turmoil. The day I accepted my hairline had been “raptured” was the day I was free from this strife! So accept your lot in life; don’t grumble if you don’t have a six-figure salary or a beautiful spouse, but rejoice that your name is written in the Book of Life. After all, Teddy Roosevelt was right when he said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”*

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:5)

* William Gurnall, The Complete Gathered Gold: A Treasury of Quotations for Christians (Darlington, UK: Evangelical Press, 2007).