Top X August 16, 2025 Devotional
August 16, 2025
EXODUS 20:17 | 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The tenth commandment is a prohibition with examples. These examples differ slightly in the two version of the final command we find in Exodus and Deuteronomy. But both commands include the categories of possessions and relationships.
Exodus starts with coveting a neighbor’s house and then their wife, before mentioning their slaves and animals. Clearly one category of envy has to do with material success, lifestyle, and status. When it comes to things we own, bigger, better, and rarer tend to be more highly valued. Many factors go into material success, including luck, birth, effort, and ability. Wealth can be generated by inheritance, opportunity, connections, innovation, industry, or theft.
Do your material ambitions or desire for success ever lend to jealously of those “higher up” the scale?
Gracious God,
Help us reconcile our ambitions with our faith. May we seek a holy success that matches Your goals for our lives.
Amen.
