Are you content with who you are and what you have? We live in a world that seems intent on keeping us from being content. You don’t have to spend much time on social media before you come across someone living the life you want to live. It doesn’t help that we understand much of what we see is a lie. Everything is staged for maximum impact,
but we still want what is being put on display. If we would step back for a moment and reorient ourselves to reality, we’d realize we’re seeing an industry built on breaking the ninth and tenth commandments of God. People are lying about their own lives to make others desire what they have.
The ninth commandment of the Law given by God is that we must not lie (Exodus 20:16). The Lord doesn’t say lying is a bad idea, or that we should do our best to avoid lying. He says if we love and honor Him, we will not lie. Now, that is a tall order for a race bent on making themselves appear more important than they are. It is a tall order for a people who never want to accept blame for anything. Still, this is what God demands. He calls us to be different from the world. I can think of few ways to more easily differentiate oneself than to have complete integrity, always speak the truth, and accept responsibility for our mistakes and shortcomings.
Wouldn’t you rather live a life of unblemished honesty than try to prop up some facade that you hope no one ever exposes? We all respect a humble person who lives with impeccable integrity far more than we do the gregarious but dishonest character. God commands us not to lie, so that should be the end of it. But we all know this is far more difficult to do than say.
One reason people lie is they want to seem like more than they are. They want to be seen as someone important or one who has some distinction. Seeing other people seemingly live the good life makes us desire to have the same for ourselves. Our sinful desire is an insatiable beast that always wants more. The Lord blesses us with shelter and we want a bigger house. He blesses us with food for the day, and we want to build storehouses and fill them until they are bursting at the seams. He gives us eternal life, but we want to experience the sin and evil that leads only to death.
The tenth commandment tells us not to covet, or desire, what someone else has (Exodus 20:17). God will provide all your needs (Philippians 4:19; Matthew 6:31-33). We must be content with those things He entrusts to us because, without Him, we are lost. Don’t be greedy. He already has given us eternal life, unending joy, and unconditional love. What more do we need?
Lying and coveting are different sides of the same coin. They both stem from dissatisfaction with how God has created us, and with what He has given to us. Both prove we think we know better than God. Both prove our desperate need for Him. We are prideful, sinful, and ultimately lost without Him. We lie to pretend we don’t need Him, and we covet because we don’t trust in His sufficiency. These are both egregious sins that slander the Name of the all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving God. He will not tolerate such affronts to His character. A holy God cannot stand idly by while we defame Him and live lives of contempt.
When we break any of the commandments of God, we prove our guilt. We prove we deserve the righteous wrath of the holy God. Do not read the Ten Commandments with a lazy familiarity. Memorize them, recite them, and live by them. The blood of Jesus covers all our sins, but His Lordship demands we walk in the ways He has commanded (John 14:15). Order your steps. Love the Law of God. Walk in the ways He commands.