The last of God’s Ten Commandments begins, “Thou shalt not covet your neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet your neighbour’s wife…” [ Exodus 20:17 ] The word covet belongs to the same family as cupid, the god of unrestrained love, for either an object, a person or money.

It’s right to desire a reasonable salary that will supply our need, but it’s wrong to want more and more in order to supply our greed. Water is fine for a ship to sail upon but if it leaks into the ship this is serious. Money, like water, is essential but if, “The love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil,” [ 1 Timothy 6:10 ] leaks into our hearts then charity and generosity are drowned by a flood of covetousness and greed. A man is addicted to covetousness when he takes more pains to get earthly possessions than to “lay up treasures in heaven.” [ Matthew 6:20 ]

Covetous people break all the 10 Commandments. The covetous man worships more than one God by bowing to the image on his bank notes and coins. He doesn’t, “Call the Sabbath a delight” and honour his Creator. [ Isaiah 58:13 ] Instead he goes his own way instead of his Owner’s way. The covetous have murdered to get money, they have committed adultery, stolen and told lies because of their unrestrained passion to get earthly treasures and pleasures. Covetousness is indeed the mother of all sins.

The best remedy for covetousness is contentment. St. Augustine wrote, “O Lord we are restless until we find our rest in Thee.” If we are content with what we have we shall not covet what belongs to somebody else. The Apostle Paul, who gave up a wealthy lifestyle wrote, “I have learned in what ever state I am, to be content.” He said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” [ Philippians 4:11,13 ]