3. The property of our neighbor should be sacred to us. Because we love him for God's sake, we should help him and be of service to him in keeping his property. We should urge our neighbor's wife or servants to remain with him and do their duty towards him whenever we see that they are seeking to leave him. God, our heavenly Father, tells us in His Word: "By love serve one another." Gal. 5,13. And furthermore He says: "Look not every man on his own things, but ever man also on the things of others." Phil. 2,4.
4. God forbids us to covet our neighbor's property, all that belongs to him. Covetousness is a sin of the heart. God teaches us a very important lesson in these last two commandments. He teaches us that not only our evil deeds nor only our evil words are sins against the holy God, but also our evil thoughts. In the sight of God every desire for anything that He has forbidden in His Word is evil, is a sin, even if this sinful thought does not break out in evil words or deeds. Every lust in itself is truly a sin which God has threatened to punish. "Thou shalt not covet," is His demand. Every sinful thought, every impure desire in our heart, proves that we do not fear and love our heavenly Father as we should, that we have broken not only these two commandments, but the first also, yea, all the commandments of our Lord.
5. God demands that our hearts be holy. There should be no evil lust, no desire for any sin in our hearts, but only a holy desire to serve our God and Father. "Ye shall be holy [without any sin], for I, the Lord, your God, am holy." Lev. 19,2. Our hearts should be so filled with fear and love of God and all that is good in His eyes that no evil thought, no sinful lust, can find room in them. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5,48.
6. These last two commandments, even as the First Commandment, especially teach us that we have not kept the commandments of our Lord, and that we cannot keep them perfectly. Our hearts are full of lust against the demands of God, full of evil thoughts. Our lust so often entices and tempts us to sin by word and deed. We must confess that we all are sinners in the sight of God. And "the wages of sin is death." We are poor and lost sinners. Therefore we daily pray for God's forgiveness, we beg our heavenly Father to be gracious unto us for Christ's sake, who has fulfilled the commandments of God in our stead and borne our sins.
REMEMBER:—
1. "Thou shalt not covet," is God's command. If you covet what belongs to your neighbor, you sin against God. Every desire in your heart to do what the Lord has forbidden is a sin in the sight of God.
2. God wants our hearts to be without sin, perfect and holy, as He Himself is holy.
3. My heart is sinful. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51,10.
MEMORIZE:—
By love serve one another. Gal. 5,13.