We should so fear and love God as not to desire by craftiness to gain possession of our neighbor's inheritance or home, or to obtain it under the pretext of a legal right; but be ready to assist and serve him in the preservation of his own.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
What is meant by this Commandment?
We should so fear and love God as not to alienate our neighbor's wife from him, entice away his servants, nor let loose his cattle, but use our endeavors that they may remain and discharge their duty to him.
Both these commandments forbid coveting; hence, we may consider them together. They deal with the root and source of all sin; namely, the evil lusts and desires of the heart. [Matt. 15:19+, Jas. 1:14, 15]
THE OBJECT of these two commandments is to emphasize the necessity of a right state of heart. [I Sam. 16:7+, Matt. 5:5] All the commandments must, indeed, be kept in thought as well as in word and deed. But by adding these two special commandments against coveting, God desires to impress upon us most strongly that wrong thoughts and desires make us guilty before Him. We are not keeping God's commandments unless we are free from the desire to transgress them. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." [Prov. 23:7]
THE HEART BY NATURE SINFUL. We are born with a sinful nature and a natural inclination to evil (Original sin), which we have inherited from our ancestors as a result of the fall into sin. [John 3:6+, Jer. 17:9] This natural inclination to evil manifests itself in wrong thoughts and desires which arise in the heart. [Rom. 7:18, 19+] These wrong desires or lusts are in themselves sinful: and if they are not subdued, they lead to sins of words and deeds. [Jas. 1:14, 15+]
These commandments forbid us to covet anything that is our neighbor's. They command us to assist and serve him in retaining his own.