What Does Covet Mean? (Exodus 20:17)

To covet means to desire what belongs to someone else in a sinful way, or to crave more so that possessions and status become more important than God. In Exodus 20:17, the command “You shall not covet” addresses the desires of the heart. Wanting a good thing is not automatically coveting; the question is whether that desire leads us away from love for God and our neighbor.

The Hebrew word chamad can describe desire; in the Tenth Commandment it refers to wrongful desire for what belongs to a neighbor. The Greek word pleonexia, used in Luke 12:15, refers to greed or covetousness. This study explains those meanings, why coveting is dangerous, and how to recognize it in our hearts.

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This material comes from Being Content God’s Way. Read the study below or listen to the accompanying sermon for biblical help resisting covetousness and growing in contentment.

Sometimes, when people are at sea without fresh water, they become so thirsty that they drink the saltwater. The one thing they desire more than anything else—water—surrounds them. They must look at it until the craving becomes uncontrollable. They are dehydrated when they give in and drink it, making them thirstier. They drink more, and the cycle continues. They are getting what they want while it is killing them.

This illustrates what covetousness does. We desire something, and the craving seems uncontrollable. We give in and pursue what we covet, but satisfying covetousness only increases it. Coveters don’t need their covetousness satisfied any more than drug addicts need drugs or alcoholics need alcohol.

Picture a family trying to have a nice dinner together. Their dog starts begging at the table. To get the dog to go away, they give it some food. But all they have done is increase the likelihood that the dog will return. This is covetousness. Giving in to it only increases the likelihood it will keep coming back.

Jesus’s Warning About Covetousness

When Jesus was teaching, He encountered a covetous man. We can learn much from how Jesus responded to him. Hint: He didn’t give him what he wanted! But first, the account’s background.

In Luke 12:1–12, Jesus was teaching a crowd of thousands about hypocrisy, fearing God, and confessing Him before others. During this teaching, a man asked Jesus to tell his brother to divide their inheritance (verse 13). The law gave the firstborn a double portion (Deuteronomy 21:17), but Luke does not tell us the brothers’ birth order, the details of the dispute, or whether either had been treated unjustly.

The man addressed Jesus as Teacher, but his request was about the inheritance. Jesus used the interruption to address a deeper danger. We can learn from His response to the man and His warning to the crowd.

Jesus asked, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14). He declined the role the man wanted Him to take. The point is not that the word “Man” alone proves a lack of affection; the warning that follows directs our attention to covetousness.

God the Father has entrusted judgment to the Son (John 5:22), but that does not mean Jesus came to serve as the arbitrator in this inheritance dispute. He would not let the man’s demand set the purpose of His ministry.

Jesus’s response also reminds us that we do not need to involve ourselves in every dispute. We should care about justice while recognizing the responsibilities God has actually given us.

John 2:24–25 reminds us that Jesus knows what is in people. Here He addressed the danger of greed rather than awarding the inheritance. The account does not tell us what the man later did. But it does show that receiving what we want is not always the help we most need.

The man thought his problem was physical (not getting an inheritance), but his real problem was spiritual (covetousness). Jesus didn’t help him the way he wanted to be helped, but He did help him the way he needed to be helped. Jesus is a master surgeon, and He cut to the heart with great precision and exposed the man’s sin.

The Danger of Covetousness

Jesus would not render a decision on the man’s dispute, but He didn’t hesitate to render a decision on the man’s spiritual condition. He addressed the crowd: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). “Take care,” and “be on your guard,” are synonymous. Jesus repeated Himself to warn us about the danger of covetousness.

Consider how seriously Paul warns about unrepentant sin, including greed:

In 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Paul warns that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom. His list includes sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexual practice, theft, greed, drunkenness, reviling, and swindling. The ESV calls the covetous “the greedy.” Verse 11 then reminds the Corinthians that Christ had washed, sanctified, and justified people who formerly lived in these sins. The warning is serious, and forgiveness and transformation are available in Christ.

As we read the list, at first, we think, “Yeah, fornication, idolatry, adultery, and homosexuality are terrible sins. These people shouldn’t inherit the Kingdom of God!” But then covetousness is mentioned, and we think, “Are you kidding me? What’s the big deal about wanting stuff?”

Ephesians 5:3 says, “Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” What would we expect Paul to couple with sexual immorality as the severe other sin that shouldn’t be part of believers’ lives? Maybe idolatry or murder? Instead, Paul mentioned covetousness.

So, why is covetousness so severe? Here are three reasons:

1. If you asked people about the most common sins, some probably would not even mention covetousness. This subtlety (that some people don’t even think it’s sinful!) makes it dangerous.
2. Most sins are common to some people, but not everyone. For example, one person struggles with drunkenness but not lying, and the next struggles with lying but not bitterness. But covetousness is like pride; everyone struggles with it to some extent, which makes it dangerous.
3. People who commit adultery might make excuses, but they know they are adulterers. People who steal might feel justified, but they know they are stealing. Covetousness, on the other hand, is not apparent to the coveter. It is a sin that sneaks into our lives without us recognizing it. We can be infected but not know we are sick. We think we want something without realizing we are coveting it.

Covetousness was behind several of the most painful accounts in Scripture:

• Jacob coveted Esau’s birthright (Genesis 25:31)
• Rachel coveted Leah’s ability to have children (Genesis 30:1-2)
• Joseph’s brothers coveted the affection he received from their father (Genesis 37:4)
• Saul coveted David’s fame and popularity (1 Samuel 18:8-9)
• Isaiah 14:13–14 portrays the prideful ambition to rise above God’s stars. The passage directly addresses the king of Babylon (verse 4); I understand it also to reflect Satan’s pride.
• The vineyard workers coveted those who worked less but were paid the same (Matthew 20:12)
• The religious leaders coveted  Jesus’s popularity (Matthew 27:18)
• The prodigal son’s older brother coveted what his younger brother received (Luke 15:29-30)

For these reasons, Jesus warns, “Take care, and be on [our] guard against all covetousness.” Jim Elliff wrote:

In our wealthy and materialistic society, Christians often tend to trivialize covetousness, but Paul lists it as one of a number of sins that are bringing the wrath of God “upon the sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:5-6). Concerning the love (or coveting) of money, Paul told Timothy that it was a “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). John was speaking of covetousness when he wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “Do not be deceived,” Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. No covetous person “will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Jim Elliff and Daryl Wingerd, Restoring Those Who Fall, Christian Communicators, 2006, p. 12.

The Tenth Commandment Addresses the Heart

We are probably most familiar with covetousness because of the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17). Several commandments name visible actions, such as murder, adultery, and theft. The command against coveting explicitly addresses the desire beneath those actions. The Old Testament also commands wholehearted love for God (Deuteronomy 6:5), so concern for the heart did not begin with the New Testament. Consider these commands:

• “You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Exodus 20:4).
• “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
• “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12).
• “You shall not murder…commit adultery…steal…bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:13–16).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasized the righteousness He requires, exposing sins of the heart as well as outward actions. For example:

• In Matthew 5:21–22, Jesus applies the command against murder to sinful anger and contempt toward a brother.
• In Matthew 5:27–28, Jesus teaches that a lustful look is already adultery in the heart.

The Tenth Commandment exposes the same inward problem: refraining from theft does not make a covetous heart right with God. We must guard both our actions and our desires. Coveting was already forbidden under the Old Covenant; Jesus’s teaching leaves us no room to be satisfied with outward obedience alone.

Covetousness Is a Sin Even Paul Committed

When Jesus criticized the religious leaders, He said they looked good outwardly but terrible inwardly:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence…First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean…For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:25–28).

The scribes and Pharisees obeyed commands outwardly but disobeyed inwardly. One Pharisee who looked particularly good outwardly was Paul. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was able to write about himself:

In Philippians 3:4–6, Paul lists the credentials in which he once placed confidence: his circumcision, Israelite ancestry, life as a Pharisee, zeal expressed in persecuting the church, and blameless standing according to legal righteousness.

Paul’s outward religious credentials were impressive, but “blameless” did not mean he had never sinned. He had persecuted the church, and in Philippians 3:7–9 he rejects confidence in those credentials in order to have the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.

Despite what many people think, the law is not meant to show us how good we are or provide a way for us to be saved. Instead, the law shows us how bad we are and unable to be saved in our efforts: “By works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The law reveals our sinfulness, so we see our need to be saved by Christ.

But what about someone as obedient as Paul? Even he recognized he didn’t keep the law perfectly because of the Tenth Commandment:

If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead (Romans 7:7-8).

Paul doesn’t mean the law made him sin. Instead, he means that once he learned the law forbids coveting, he realized how much he coveted. Even Paul, an outwardly righteous man who obeyed the law in many ways, couldn’t escape coveting. The outside of the cup, dish, and tomb looked good, but there was still inward filthiness.

Covetousness Is a Heart Issue

If we think of the “worst” sins, adultery, murder, and idolatry probably come to mind. Covetousness might not even make the list, but it should because twice Paul associated covetousness with idolatry:

• “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
• “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5:5).

The first commandment forbids idolatry, and the tenth commandment forbids covetousness. Because covetousness is idolatry, the Ten Commandments begin and end with the same commandment.

God told the prophet Ezekiel that idolatry occurs in the heart:

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces…Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts [that] are all estranged from me through their idols. For any…who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the Lord will answer him myself (Ezekiel 14:3-7; see also 11:21, 20:16).

Because covetousness is idolatry and idolatry is committed in the heart, covetousness is also committed in the heart. Covetousness is a heart divided between two gods. Covetous people desire something more than they desire God. We might think that whatever we covet is the idol because we worship it, but whatever we covet is for us and our pleasure; therefore, when we covet, we make ourselves the idol. Covetousness is the elevation of self to an idolatrous point.

When Covetousness Takes Root

The Parable of the Soils, also known as the Parable of the Sower, would more fittingly be called the Parable of the Hearts:

In Luke 8:11–15, Jesus identifies the seed as God’s Word. The devil takes the Word from some hearts, while those represented by good soil hold it fast and persevere in bearing fruit. The different soils reveal different responses to the Word.

The parable describes what happens when the Word of God (the seed) lands on different hearts (soils). Whenever the Word is preached (seed is sown), a spiritual battle rages over the Word taking root. Here are brief descriptions of three of the four soils:

• Mark 4:15 says, “These are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” The first soil is hostile to the Word, so the seed (Word) doesn’t penetrate the soil (enter the heart).
• Mark 4:16-17 says, “These are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” The second soil quickly responds, but the faith is shallow, so the seed disappears when trials or persecution come.
• Mark 4:20 says, “Those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” The fourth soil represents believers, producing fruit as evidence of salvation.

The thorny soil represents people in whom worldly cares, the deceitfulness of riches, and desires for other things choke the Word (Mark 4:18–19). Mark uses epithymia for desires. Romans 7:7 uses the related verb epithymeō in the command not to covet. In Colossians 3:5, however, epithymia refers to evil desire, while the separate word pleonexia refers to covetousness. These terms are related in meaning but are not interchangeable labels in every verse. The warning remains: when covetousness takes root in our hearts, it can crowd out our response to God’s Word.

The Unhealthy Relationship Is the Problem

In the parable of the soils, the Greek word for “cares” in Mark 4:19 and Luke 8:14 is merimna, the same word Paul used for his “deep concern (merimna) for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). We frequently care about or have a deep concern, for good things, such as family members, friends, and jobs. It would be unloving and unprofessional if we didn’t have these cares. The point is that the thorns that choke out the seed are not necessarily sinful or immoral. There is potential for the non-sinful or moral—such as relationships, finances, hobbies, and recreation—to do so, too, if our relationship with the object is unhealthy. We overindulge in something spiritually neutral, and it becomes an addiction or obsession. The activity remains amoral, but our relationship to it has become immoral. For example:

• A man spends more time working on his old car than with his wife and children.
• A woman spends hours on social media but rarely reads the Word.
• A family spends weekends at their kids’ sporting events but rarely attends church.

The difficulty is that when amoral or spiritually neutral activities choke out Christ, it is harder to address with people. Rare is the person who will argue that drunkenness, drug addiction, or pornography are okay. But if you confront people about spending too much time working on a car, using social media, or attending sporting events, you might hear something like, “God’s Word doesn’t forbid this. Show me the chapter and verse!” Indeed, the Bible doesn’t forbid these activities, but it does forbid anything that becomes a thorn that chokes out the seed. The activity isn’t the problem, but the unhealthy relationship with it is.

When a Good Desire Becomes Covetousness

We can have healthy desires for moral or good things, such as:

• Marriage—“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22) and “Let marriage be held in honor among all” (Hebrews 13:4).
• Children—“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Psalm 127:3–5).
• Work—“Doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28) and “She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands” (Proverbs 31:13).

Because the above is presented positively, we can desire spouses, pregnancies, and job opportunities. We can desire food because Jesus told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

We are told repeatedly to bring our requests to God:

• “Let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
• “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18).
• “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Timothy 2:1).

God would not tell us to bring our requests to Him if desiring things were automatically wrong. A strong desire for marriage, children, work, or relief from suffering is not, by itself, covetousness. The question is what we desire and how we pursue it. In Exodus 20:17, chamad describes wrongful desire for what belongs to a neighbor. The same Hebrew word can describe a good desire elsewhere, such as valuing God’s commands in Psalm 19:10. Context matters.

The Greek noun pleonexia refers to greed or covetousness. Its connection with wanting more does not mean every wish to improve our circumstances is sinful. It describes a grasping desire that refuses to keep possessions, opportunities, and status in their proper place beneath God. For example:

• We can covet possessions like a bigger house, a fancier car, or a more extravagant vacation.
• We can covet things money can’t buy, such as better family members, friends, neighbors, or co-workers.
• We can covet pride-related things, such as greater position, power, authority, or prominence.

How do we know whether a desire has become covetous? Ask: Am I willing to disobey God to get this? Am I resenting my neighbor’s good or making this thing more important than Christ? We can honestly grieve an unmet need and bring it to God while learning to be content with what we have. Covetousness turns desire into an idol (Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5). For a practical next step, read the companion study on contentment, or explore Being Content God’s Way.