Tim Mackie

You will not desire your neighbor's house.

You will not desire 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.

So in a way, the 10th command comes back and it addresses the thing upstream of murder and adultery and stealing and bearing false witness.

Why would you do any of those things?

Probably you have a desire that's driving your decisions.

So in a way, the 10th is actually underneath all of 1 through 9.

So this is teaching us like the fundamental grammar, the rules of desire, that many things that are desirable are not good for you.

As it says in Proverbs 13, 12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire that is fulfilled is a tree of life.

Desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

We're created as creatures with desire.

To be human is to desire.

All of our desires, however, are created to come to a rest in their one ultimate good, communion with God.

We made it.

We're doing the Tenth Command, which is famously translated as covet.

Do not covet.

Do not covet.

So this last section of commands that are all neighbor to neighbor are all about how you should relate to things that belong to your neighbor.

their life.

Don't kill.