Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Ezekiel 18:1-19:14 Hebrews 9:1-10 Proverbs 27:10

“You Shall Not Covet”

“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.”
[Exodus 20:17]

In whatever way such things happen, we must know that God does not want you to deprive your neighbor of anything that belongs to him, so that they suffer the loss and you gratify your greed with it. This is true even if you could keep it honorably before the world … if it is not called stealing and cheating, it is still called coveting your neighbor’s property, that is, aiming at possessing it, luring it away from him without his consent, and being unwilling to see him enjoy what God has granted him. And now, we must gladly wish and leave him with what he has. Also, we must advance and preserve for him what may be for his profit and service, just as we wish to be treated [Matthew 7:21]. So these commandments are especially directed against envy, and miserable greed. God wants to remove all causes and sources from which arises everything by which we harm our neighbor. Therefore, He expressed it in plain words, “you shall not covet,” and so on. For he especially wants us to have a pure heart [Matthew 5:8].