Editorial October 7, 1996 Issue

"Thou shalt not covet"—what a loving commandment!

Barbara M. Vining

Some people are facing such difficult challenges that they don't even know how they will have the money to buy shoes for their children, or be able to afford to take the family to a movie on a Friday night—as their neighbors do. The wonderful thing is, though, that when each one discovers the nature of God's all-embracing, always caring love, God is seen to be the provider of all good for everyone. We find that we don't need anything that belongs to our neighbor. God's goodness is blessing all of His children.

While I was praying recently, I became so grateful for the fact that all good comes from God that I found myself filled with a most generous spirit of love for others. I realized how enriched I am by the good that others express. Whereas a human view would have us comparing ourselves with others, thinking they possess opportunities, qualities, or objects we lack, the law of God, divine Love, fills our hearts with an appreciation of others that enables us to value and develop our own potential more fully. This realization gives a heightened awareness of the good in others. I found myself spontaneously rejoicing in their accomplishments, and telling them so. And it was so satisfying. We have nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by loving our neighbor in this way. It opens our thought so that we can see the good God is providing for us.

Covetousness has exactly the opposite effect. When we believe that God is not the supplier of all good—that good is material and limited, instead of spiritual and infinite—we are vulnerable to the insidious desire to have what belongs to another. When such a desire goes unchallenged at the door of our thought, and is permitted to lodge there, it fosters feelings of incompleteness, discontent, and envy. Wanting what belongs to someone else actually violates the law of Love—the law that operates to supply all our needs. If this longing is allowed to grow in our thinking, it could eventually lead us to regard that individual as only an obstacle standing between us and what we want to obtain. This kind of thinking is the seedbed of deeper problems—of unkind words and deeds, of unethical decisions, of theft, adultery, slander, and even murder.

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"Thou shalt not covet"—what a loving commandment!

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