Covetousness and Envy How many times have you heard preachers warn people regarding the sin of covetousness?  Have we forgotten that it is sin which separates us from God and can send us to hell?  A man came to Jesus in Luke 12:13-15 and wanted Jesus to get   involved in the materialistic concerns within his family.  Jesus responded by saying He was not authorized regarding such matters.  Jesus did warn the man by reminding him that there are things vastly more important than material things and that one should be attentive and keep their priorities in order.  Jesus says, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” In the first covenant we are told in the  ten  commandments  simply,  “You shall not covet,” and this is followed by a list of examples of things we are not to covet   (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21).  To covet something is to desire earnestly.  To covet is to set  the  heart  and  mind  upon  anything.  The  idea is to be considered in two senses. Firstly, it is to desire earnestly but  gitimately obtain.  Consider 1 Corinthians 12:31 where we are challenged to earnestly desire (covet) the best gifts from God.    Secondly and most often, the term is used in a bad or sinful sense as it describes priorities that are out of line.  The sin of covetousness is self consuming.  It causes the thief to steal, and it causes tensions between those who have and those who have less.  Covetousness is an attitudinal sin; and because of this, it is difficult to define and even more difficult to see in ourselves.  Covetousness caused Eve to think she could at least make herself equal with God when she and Adam sinned eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One is guilty of covetousness when one seeks in some way to gain dishonestly.  We learn from Exodus 18:21 that God’s men of truth hate covetousness.  The covetous are those who are possessed with the idea of having for self more and more.  Paul reminds the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 that in his conduct he as a  religious leader did not use a cloak of covetousness to gain personal advantage in any way.  Sadly, on TV today we have seen a multitude of religious leaders who have used the cloak of covetousness to not advance God and His word but rather  themselves.  Covetousness is not to be evidenced among God’s people ever (Eph. 5:3).  Christians are commanded to put to death the idea of covetousness in their lives.  If they do not, the wrath of God awaits them (Col. 3:5-6).  Christian conduct is to be absent of the sin of covetousness (Heb. 13:5).  Covetousness is defined as evil and defiles or makes one unclean before God (Mk. 7:22-23).  In the Mark 7 passage this sin is listed as being in the same category with adultery, fornication, murder, and theft.  This is no sin to be trifled with or minimized as if it did not matter.  For this reason I believe Jesus says it is “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt. 19:24).  It is we rich     Americans who are more tempted here than the people in poverty who are only    seeking to survive.  Maybe this is why the gospel seems to bring forth more fruit in          second-world and third-world nations than here in America.  As Americans, we seem to have less and less time for God.  Everybody has to work, work, work.  Are work and things the gods of America?  We have bills to pay and things; and, oh, the things we just have to have.  Sounds like covetousness to me.  Wonder what this sounds like to God?   Let us move to another sin, “envy,” and observe how this sin is related to  covetousness.  Envy is a never settled unrest, or uneasiness.  It is never settled  because it is never satisfied.  It is self- consuming and demands more and more.   Consider now three passages from Proverbs that help us to define envy.  “Do not envy the oppressor, And choose none of his ways” (Prov. 3:31).  “A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.” (Prov. 14:30).  “Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, But who is able to stand before envy (jealousy)?” (Prov. 27:4).  Have you ever considered envy as being the ultimate sin that caused Jesus to go to the cross?  If this is the case, then we need to clearly understand that this is no sin to be minimized.  Envy was then and is today a major problem.  Consider Matthew 27:18 how Pilate, a Gentile, could see through the motives of the Jewish mob who wanted Jesus crucified; “they had handed Him over because of envy.”  Mark 15:10 says, “… he (Pilate) knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.”  The word, envy, comes from two Latin words that are translated “the against look.”  It is something that can be seen by Pilate and you and me in what people do with their eyes.  Yes, by our God even evil body communication is defined as sin.  With God’s help we can discipline ourselves.  The question to ourselves is do we want to do this?  Do we want God this close and this involved in our lives in fighting sin? Our society has been for some time politically correct.  You see, even     Christians don’t often mention words like covetousness or envy in our vocabularies.  It is as if these are not talked about, they will become sins no more.  This world often treats Christians as psychological bad guys because we do speak about these things.  Consider yourself.  Who is the last person in your thinking who may have been guilty of one of these sins?  Satan is so subtle in deluding us.  Forget society.  God still calls covetousness and envy sins.