“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.”
Exodus 20:17
The tenth commandment provides a little more detail than some of the previous ones in the list. Maybe it is because the impact of murder or theft or telling a lie is easily evident while coveting is a matter of the heart.
Jesus addressed the idea of secret sin –
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
Luke 8:17
“The tenth commandment is perhaps the most revealing and devastating of all the commandments, for it deals explicitly with the inward nature of the law. Covetousness is an attitude of the inward nature that may or may not express itself in an outward acquisitive act.’
JAMES MONTGOMERY BOICE
One of my study Bible commentaries reinforces that idea –
“When a person covets, he allows the desire for that which is coveted to govern his relationship with other people; this may become the motivation for murder, stealing or lying either to attain the desired thing or to keep it from someone else.”
The best way to avoid the secret sins is to avoid them altogether.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23
Don’t try to hide the secret, guard your heart.
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