"You shall not covet your neighbor's wife...." (20:17)
Sexually fantasizing about your neighbor's wife, or even simply envying your neighbor because his wife is the essence of perfection, is a sin of unbelief. It stems from the futile thought that God as Creator, as your God is incapable of producing a woman whose qualities exceed that of your neighbor's wife. It is a delusion, and it forms in the mind based on a conscious and initial choice to reject God as God.
3 comments:
So coveting your neighbour's spouse is a sin because God will give you more and better? To me that sounds like a sexual version of a health-and-wealth preacher condemning stealing because God will bless you with more money than your neighbours.
I still totally buy into the command, but I had figured contentment played the role opposite covetousness.
"So coveting your neighbour's spouse is a sin because God will give you more and better?"
In the sense of your own existential preferences, emotional and physical, yes.
I like the additional comment you give about contentment. I agree with you, and I definitely see that in there as well.
As for the health-and-wealth analogy, I feel no need to make apologies for what God has clearly stated He will do.
I'm not saying that health or wealth is at all a guarentee for Christians (or Israelites, for that matter). Look at me. I'm a poor student, and my health is always on the brink of collapse.
What I am saying is that God as Creator is both capable and willing to present a spouse to you who will far exceed that which you purport to find exclusively in your neighbor's wife. Plenty of wonderful fish in the sea, and you don't have to be a H&W heretic to admit it.
btw, so we are clear,
My own stance on the Christian Life is this: If you convert, you are far more likely to experience financial hardship than blessing. Not as if God can't work outside the norm; but "he has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty."
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