“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
When was the last time you compared yourself to someone else? Whatever stage of life we are in, it is easy to look at what other people have and desire it for ourselves. This sin is unique in the way it seems to begin innocently enough—desiring good things, wanting a better life—but it quickly gives way to a self-centered attitude of covetousness. Coveting is desiring someone else’s belongings as your own. This command to against coveting requires us not only to be careful in the way we desire someone else’s things but also how we desire the people in their life, their lifestyle, and their wealth for our own.
Comparison often starts with how we measure up to someone else and quickly turns to desiring what they have for ourselves. When we have this perspective, it is impossible to love our neighbors as we have been called to do. We are more consumed with what we can get instead of what we can give, and we are looking at what others have instead of what they might need. As followers of Christ, our interactions with our neighbors are not to be centered around what we get from them but rather extending the love Christ has given to us. Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important from yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests but look also for the interests of others.” This is how we are called to consider people—not in how we measure up, what we can gain from them, or even what they have that we don’t. We are called to live in humility, serving and loving our neighbors as Christ has done perfectly for us.
- How have you seen comparison lead to covetousness?
- What is something you have coveted? How did that affect the way you treated another person?
- Pray and ask God to equip you to love your neighbor instead of comparing yourself to them.
