Jesus’ told a parable that goes like this. Picture it. It’s 6AM, and a landowner goes down to the place to gather laborers. He finds some workers and makes a deal: a denarius for the day. That was a fair wage, the going rate. They shake on it and head to the vineyard. The landowner goes back at 9AM and hires more. Then does it again at noon, and 3PM, he does it again. Then at 5PM, with one hour of daylight left, he goes and hires more men one last time saying, “Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?”
Evening comes, and it’s time to settle up. The master tells the foreman to start with the last ones hired. Those who worked one hour get a denarius. The ones who’ve been working there since dawn are looking on curiously. They see it, start doing the math, and think ‘If they got a full day’s pay for an hour, imagine what we’re getting.’
Then it’s their turn, and they’re stunned that they also get a denarius. “These last men worked one hour, and you’ve made them equal to us.” They don’t say, ‘You cheated us.’, because they got exactly what was promised to them. Earlier that day, before all the others got hired, the promise of getting a denarius sounded great. It meant dinner for that day, and they agreed to it gladly.
So why are they disappointed now? What changed?
The wage didn’t change. The master didn’t change. The only thing that changed was them. They went from being grateful for what they’d been given to being offended by what others had been given.
Church, this is what comparison does. It takes the master’s goodness and makes it feel empty.
Jesus’ parable about the laborers in the vineyard highlights the sin beneath all other sins, covetousness.
After 11 weeks so far in the Ten Commandments, we come at last to the tenth and final commandment. Two headings to work through today: the negative command, and the positive command. See first…
The Negative Command
Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
As much as it is right to handle the tenth commandment on its own, it is good to see how this commandment functions as a fitting summary of the whole.[1] When the tenth commandment says, “You shall not covet” it exposes more of our sin. The fifth commandment tells us to honor authorities, the tenth commandment goes deeper exposing our desire to be honored over our authorities. The sixth commandment tells us to not murder, the tenth commandment goes deeper exposing our desire to count our own life more valuable than others. The seventh commandment tells us to not commit adultery, the tenth commandment goes deeper exposing our desire to find sexual satisfaction outside God’s established order. The eighth commandment tells us to not steal, the tenth commandment goes deeper exposing our desire to count our gain as more important than our neighbor’s loss. The ninth commandment tells us to not lie, the tenth commandment goes deeper exposing our desire to twist and deceive others. You see, all the sins forbidden in the Law begin at the level of desire, which is squarely in view in this final commandment. Thus, it functions as a fitting summary of the whole.
But let’s zero in now and ask a basic question, what is it to covet? Simply put, to covet is to desire wrongfully. Or we could say, to covet is to desire more than enough. That’s a good start, but we can go further and say, to covet is to be discontent with our lot in life, to grieve at our neighbor’s good, and to foster an excessive affection toward what is theirs.[2] That really gets to the heart of it.
Where do we find coveting in the Bible? Well, as we’ve seen time and time again in the commandments, coveting takes us back to the beginning. After being made by God, given to one another, and placed in the garden, Adam and Eve heard the serpent’s tempting words to take the forbidden fruit. What did they do? Genesis 3:6 says it, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Before Eve ever took the fruit and ate it, she saw it and desired it. By doing so our first parents chose to covet and take what did not belong to them.[3]
From that point in Scripture we can see that every sin that follows begins in the same way, with seeing, desiring, and taking, or we could say, with disordered desire, with coveting. We already heard one of Jesus’ parables about this. Later on Paul mentions it many times, including it in a list of the vilest sins more than once (Rom. 1, 7:7-12, 13:9). James speaks of this memorably as he says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).
Let’s trace this out a bit more specifically for us. How do we covet?[4] Covetousness grows in the heart slowly. A covetous posture begins to rise in us when our thoughts begin to be wholly taken up with the world. When we cannot not think about the things of this life. Once that begins to grow in us, the next sign is that we become more eager to gain the things of this life than we are to gain the things of the life to come. Whether or not we recognize it, a value shift has occurred in us where we have begun to more heavily value and more eagerly pursue earthly possessions than heavenly possessions.
Once this shift has occurred in us, we’ll overload ourselves with worldly pursuits, so much so that we’ll scarcely find the time to devote ourselves to God. And once we busy ourselves in this way, our speech begins to reflect it, as most of our conversation becomes about the world and the stuff in it we’re pursuing. Which reveals where our hearts’ allegiance has settled into, as Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). At this point, we’re near a most dangerous place. For if the tongue is speaking much of worldly things, the heart is taken up with worldly things, and if the heart is taken up with worldly things, it reveals that we deeply love worldly things, and if we deeply love worldly things we’ll soon forsake heaven to gain more of earth.
This was the tragic error of Demas. Once a dear companion of Paul, mentioned even in a few of his letters, only to abandon Paul in the end. Why? Because he coveted the things of the world, so Paul warned against him later on in 2 Tim. 4:10 saying, “Demas, in love with this present world, deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”
After all of this slow covetous downward progression occurs in us, what will become of us? We’ll do what Demas did. We’ll be so caught up in the pursuit of worldliness that we won’t care what we do or what we leave behind to gain more.
Church, what is it for you? Possessions or lifestyle, money or status, people or relationships, body image, leisure and ease? Beware the sin of covetousness. It’s a subtle sin. It’s a dangerous sin. It’s a mother sin, leading to all manner of corruption.[5]
The tenth commandment is personal because unless acted upon, the only one who knows of these desires is you. But the tenth commandment is also communal because it has everything to do how we interact with the “stuff” of our neighbor. We see the stuff of neighbor and get disgruntled because deep down we believe we deserve those possessions more than them. Which leads us to one vile place: discontentment. A heart that is discontent is frantic, constantly searching for something to grab hold of, for something to restore happiness and joy, for something to give meaning. You look at your neighbor’s house, marriage, family, lifestyle, vacations, careers, Facebook photos, etc. and think “Oh that such a life were mine!”
We are never satisfied aren’t we? Do you remember what John D. Rockefeller said when asked ‘How much is enough?’ He said, “Just a little bit more.” Ultimately this discontent shows a lack of faith in God’s love and care for us. James 4:1-2 says “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.”
Church, a covetous heart is hard to see, but you can be sure of this. A covetous heart will eventually show itself publicly by breaking one of the other commandments.
How kind of the Lord to warn us against it in this tenth commandment? He’s warned against much in the previous commandments but now in the tenth commandment He takes us deeper, from actions to attitudes, from motions to motives, from forbidden deeds to forbidden desires.[6]
This is the negative command.
The Positive Command
I said it last week and I’ll say it again. Every commandment is two sided. Every commandment has a ‘thou shall not’ and a ‘thou shall.’ So…if coveting is the vice to avoid, the virtue to pursue is, what? Contentment.
We know what the covetous heart looks like, we’ve examined it already. What does a content heart look like? Contentment looks like many things, but I would argue that it mainly looks like rest. A content heart rests in God. Let’s trace this out in three ways.
Contentment is Rest in God’s Sovereignty
That God is sovereign means many things. It means there are no accidents, that God is never surprised, that God never says oops, that all things work according to the counsel of His will. Because God is sovereign nothing enters or leaves our life without God’s permission and design, thus no event in the universe should be considered insignificant. Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Daniel 4:35 “God does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; none can stay His hand or say to Him ‘What have you done?’” Isaiah 14:27 “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases.” Knowing that God is sovereign will bring you far on the road to contentment, because it teaches us that the life God’s providence has carved out for us is actually what’s best for us.[7]
Contentment is Rest in God’s Goodness
In God’s sovereign plan He orders all things by the counsel of His will, but He doesn’t do this as a disinterested bully with a magnifying glass over an ant hill, no. God governs our lives as our gracious heavenly Father. Psalm 145:9 “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.” Matt. 10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground and die apart from your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.” Romans 8:28 “For God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Seeing the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God together will bring a flood of contentment into your heart because together they teach us that God, as our good God, by design and in His wisdom only brings into our lives what He does for our good, and only leaves out what we don’t need. And He is wise. He knows what we need better than us, let’s trust Him.
Paul knew this. Philippians 4:11-13 says “…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Paul knew what it meant to have and to not have, and yet he remained content. How? He knew he could face anything, because he knew that in Christ he had everything. He taught young Timothy the same lesson in 1 Timothy 6:6-8, “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
One way to understand Paul’s contentment is to see the difference between him and us. You see Paul was content in any situation, but he was not content with his sanctification. He was always chasing hard after Christ, seeking to know Him more. We on the other hand are far too content with our sanctification, and far too discontent with our situation. You see the difference there? Paul knew that everything he truly needed, God would give him, and he rested in His Father’s care and longed to know Him more. We struggle with this, and try to take matters into our own hands by trying to place ourselves in the situation we think is best for us regardless of what God thinks about it. How foolish are we? We need to hear Jesus’ words again and again in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Contentment is Rest in God’s Gospel
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” This verse is a game changer. It means we have all we need in Christ. Theologian J. Gresham Machen once said, “In the gospel, there is included all that the heart of man can wish.” Do we believe that? Or does this sound impractical? If it sounds impractical, that’s the covetous heart talking, and Christ has much to say to us about it. That we have all we need in the gospel is the most practical thing you could ever meditate on in your entire life. Romans 8:32 powerfully tells us that since God took care of our deepest need, our redemption from sin, God will also take care of all our lesser needs in Christ. You see, in Christ God became our Father in the gospel and now He delights to care for us in all of life.
This brings us rest. And a heart at rest is a content heart.
Conclusion:
Church, we’ve now walked through Ten Commandments, and the Law has done its job. We might’ve thought we were righteous but the Law, as a mirror, has revealed our sin…and the tenth has had the final word. Not one of us has kept even this one.
But look at Jesus. He’s our opposite. We come into the world with nothing and eagerly desire everything. He came into the world with everything and willingly became poor, coveting nothing and was crucified for those who covet everything. “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”
Next time you look over the fence and feel the ache of ‘Oh, that such a life were mine,’ remember all we have in Christ, and then reinterpret your circumstances, trusting that nothing in our neighbor’s yard comes close to Him. Resolve, by His grace, to rest.
Hebrews 13:5 gives us good closing counsel, “Be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
[1] Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025) 813-815.
[2] Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q148.
[3] Clark, 812.
[4] Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1965) 175-176.
[5] Watson, 176-177.
[6] J.I. Packer, The Ten Commandments (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1983) 67.
[7] Watson, 183.
