You shall not covet anything of your neighbor’s

Friday, November 24th, 2006

You Shall Not Covet Anything of Your Neighbor’s

French theologian Renẻ Girard writes about the 10th commandment in his book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning: “It is not due to inflated self-love that Jesus asks us to imitate him; it is to turn us away from [covetous] rivalries.”  What is the basis for imitating Jesus?  It cannot be his ways of being or his personal habits: imitation is never about that in the Gospels. What Jesus invites us to imitate is his own desire: to resemble God the Father as much as possible….  His goal is to become the perfect image of God.  Therefore he commits all his powers to imitating his Father.

 In inviting us to imitate him, he invites us to imitate his own imitation. This invitation is more reasonable than that of our modern gurus, who ask their disciples to imitate them as the great man or woman who imitates no one.  Jesus, by contrast, invites us to do what he himself does, to become a perfect imitator of God the Father.

Why does Jesus regard the Father and himself as the perfect model for all humans?  Because neither the Father nor the Son desires greedily, egotistically.   God “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good,” and makes his rain fall on the just and the unjust.”    God gives to us without counting, without marking the difference between us.  He lets the tares grow up with the wheat until the time of harvest.  If we imitate the detached generosity of God, then the trap of [covetous] desires will never close over us.”  (pp13-14)

If one were to ask why the previous four commandments (dealing with murder, adultery, theft, and false witness) are necessary, one would have to conclude that these prohibitions are necessary because of human beings tendency to covet what a neighbor has or desires.  If one never desired the goods of one’s neighbor, the previous four commandments would never be violated.  Hmmmm.  Makes one think, at least.

Is it possible to desire only what Jesus desires, to care only about being a perfect imitation of Jesus imitating God?  I don’t know.  Paul says we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and that we can gain the mind of Christ. Whatever our ultimate potential in this arena, we can at least be assured that we can, with the help of power from God’s Spirit, enter a process of transformation that will move us toward that goal.

What does your journey demonstrate to you in this regard?  How has the process of transformation changed your desires?  Under what circumstances do you most struggle with covetousness?

If you are willing to share your experiences, ideas, or stories, click on reply to all and let us hear from you.

Ten Commandment Series

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