The Desires of the Heart

By Jay Memoria

INTRODUCTION:

Exodus 20:17: “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.”

This is a fitting climax to the Decalogue because it is the culmination and summation of the other nine. It goes deep into the heart of all the commandments. Without the 10th Commandment, we might think that the first nine are merely external laws, and we might begin to think that they are easy and that we can fulfill them and therefore earn our right to eternal life. 

This is precisely what the rich young ruler thought in Mark 10. In verse 17, he asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v.17). Jesus answered in verse 19, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”Jesus quoted the second table of the law. What is the response of the rich young ruler? “I have kept all of them.” (v.20). 

In verse 19, you will notice that there is one missing commandment. Jesus didn’t mention the 10th commandment. Why? Because in verse 21, He used the 10th commandment to expose the covetous heart of this young man. Jesus said, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Then in verse 22, it says that the young man was “disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

In other words, Jesus is saying, “You have a heart problem: You desire wealth more than God.”

The focus of the 10th commandment is the desires of the heart.

HOW JESUS INTERPRETED THE MORAL LAW BASED ON THE 10TH COMMANDMENT

In Matthew 5, we learned from Jesus that lust is the adultery of the heart and hatred is the murder of the heart (vv. 21-30). 

Where did Jesus get that interpretation? Is Jesus giving a new interpretation of the law? Some people think so. They suggest that Jesus introduced a new standard/interpretation of the moral law of God. They argue that the Old Testament focuses on the external, and the New Testament emphasizes the heart. 

Is that what Jesus is doing here? I don't think so. Jesus is not giving a new interpretation of the moral law; he is correcting the misinterpretation of the Pharisees and Scribes. 

This is clear from the context. In verse 20, Jesus said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is not referring to imputed righteousness, which we receive as a gift by faith alone here. That’s a wonderful truth, but that is not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is discussing genuine righteousness in contrast to the hypocritical righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes. Their hypocritical righteousness focused solely on outward appearance, lacking the right attitude of the heart. Jesus denounced them for this in Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 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.”

In Matthew 5, then, beginning with verse 21, Jesus corrects their misunderstanding and explains what kind of righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. What is that? It is a righteousness from the inside out. It is a righteousness that precedes from the heart. It is, as Jeremiah 31 says, the law is written on our hearts.

If that’s true, then where did Jesus get this idea that lust is the adultery of the heart and anger is murder of the heart? I believe that Jesus derived this interpretation from the 10th commandment. According to Jesus, adultery begins with lust. In verse 28, Jesus used the phrase “with lustful intent.” In Greek, it's “epithumeo,” which means to covet.

Jesus did not innovate this idea; He based it on the 10th commandment because He understood that sin begins with desires. James 1:14-15: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” 1 Timothy 6:10: “ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” Although Paul is talking about coveting money, the principle can also be applied to coveting in general.

Thus, the 10th commandment teaches us that obedience is a matter of the heart. This is implied in the other nine, but the 10th commandment makes this explicit. This is what the Pharisees and scribes missed! Therefore, broadly speaking, the 10th commandment is related to the other nine in the sense that all sin begins with desire. Breaking any of God’s commandments begins with coveting.

QUALIFICATION:

What does it mean to covet? We must understand that desire in itself is not a sin. The 10th commandment does not prohibit all kinds of desires. Jesus is the best example of this. He knows what it means to be hungry (cf. Mark 11:12-13, Luke 4:2). At the cross, we see Him thirsty. (cf. John 19:28). In the Garden of Gethsemane, before His gruesome crucifixion Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus is saying, “Father, is there any other way?” or “Is there any better way?” Jesus desired many things, but He did not break the 10th commandment. Therefore, it is not necessarily wrong to desire something nice or better. 

God created us to desire, ultimately to desire Him above all else. But desires for other things have their proper place. In the Song of Solomon, we see that a desire for sexual fulfilment in marriage is a good desire. As a result, the desire to have children is also good. It's one of the dominion mandates (Genesis 1:28). In the book of Proverbs, there is a strong emphasis on the idea that hard work can lead to a financially better and more stable life.

Here are a few relevant passages:

Proverbs 10:4: "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."

Proverbs 12:11: "Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense."

Proverbs 13:4: "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied."

Proverbs 21:5: "The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty."

Thus, the 10th commandment does not turn us into people devoid of any desires, aspirations, or ambitions. In fact, the idea that a person should suppress his desires or deny his desires is not even Christian; it's Buddhism.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: (1) Life is suffering (2) Suffering is caused by craving. (3) Nirvana is reached and suffering is ended when we stop craving (4) Liberation is found in freedom from craving.1 This is not Christianity! 

The 10th commandment does not prohibit us from desiring something good. We must understand that desire in itself is not the problem. “Our problem,” Kevin DeYoung wrote, “is not that we desire things but that we desire the wrong things or desire good things in the wrong way.”2

Narrow Meaning (1): A Stealing of the Heart

The 10th commandment is closely tied to the 8th Commandment: “You shall not steal.” Covetousness is the stealing of the heart.

In Joshua 7, do you remember Achan’s sin? When Israel suffered defeat, it was because Achan had stolen some of the devoted things. He confessed in verse 21: “When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them.” Before Achan stole the devoted things, he first coveted them. Coveting always comes before the act. It’s the sin behind the sin.

So, narrowly speaking, it’s desiring something or someone that is not yours to have. Coveting is not saying, “I’d love to have a nice house,” or “I’d like a better car someday.” That’s okay! But coveting crosses a line. Coveting says, “I want your house!” “I want your job!” “I want your wife!” When you want something that is not yours to have, and your heart says, “That should be mine!”—you’re coveting.

Narrow Meaning (2): A Discontented Heart

Coveting also flows from a discontented heart. Covetousness is not merely desiring what other people have; it is actually fueled by discontentment. You looked to other people’s stuff and covet them because you are not content with what you have, and you are not satisfied with what God has provided for you.

At the very core, a covetous heart is a restless, unsatisfied, unthankful, discontented heart.

Kevin DeYoung wrote, “There’s nothing necessarily wrong with noticing what other people have, but most of us don’t stop and notice so that we can give thanks to God for his blessings to others. We notice and then stop being thankful for all that God has given to us.”3

Covetousness is not merely a sin against your neighbour (stealing their stuff in your hearts), it is also a sin directly against God. 

We can see this in the structure of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments here start with “You shall have no other gods before me.” And then it ends with “You shall not covet.” I believe that the structure here is not arbitrary. God begins and ends with these commandments because they are virtually the same thing.

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Don’t worship idols. If you worship other gods, it’s Idolatry. What is an idol? It's not just worshiping physical idols; it's also the inordinate affections of our hearts to anything that takes the place of God. It is also a disordered love for anything that replaces God.

Timothy Keller put it this way: [An idol] "is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”4 Idolatry could be anything, even good things like money, sex, and power.

When something good takes the place of God as the source of your satisfaction, that’s idolatry. And covetousness is the desiring of those other things when your heart is not satisfied with God. When your heart is discontented with God, you begin to look to other things that could satisfy you and make them your god. 

The New Testament affirms this. Colossians 3:5 says, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

“Covetousness is a heart divided between two gods,”5 as John Piper puts it. 

When we lose our contentment in God and are no longer satisfied with Him, covetousness begins to take root in our hearts. And when covetousness rules our hearts, we then begin to break all other commandments. Remember, sin begins with desires, and desires become distorted when God is not desired above all things.

ANTIDOTE TO COVETOUSNESS

Covetousness is a heart issue, and it is an issue that all of us, to some degree, are dealing with.

What is the antidote for covetousness?

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:5 that there are “people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” They don’t really care about godliness; all they care about is what they can gain. They don’t love God; what they love, according to verse 10, is money. They are using godliness or religion to get that money. But Paul says in verse 6. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” This is the antidote to covetousness. It’s contentment in God.

This was exemplified by Paul himself. Philippians 4:10-13: “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

When Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he was in house arrest in Rome, and there was a possibility that he would be executed. Now, imagine being in that situation. What would you feel? You don’t have freedom, and you can’t support yourself financially. And remember, even though Paul was in house arrest, he was forced to pay his rent (Acts 28:30). We can attest to the fact that in such situations, we are often tempted to feel anxious and discontented. However, in this passage, the Apostle Paul demonstrates, by the grace of God, that even in such a difficult situation, we can be joyful and content.

In light of what he said in verse 9, he sets himself as an example of how to respond to hardships in a Christ-centered way. He showed the Philippians that contentment and peace are attainable even in the midst of life's chaos.

Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs has a book entitled “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.” He did not just call it contentment; it was Christian Contentment. The Greek Word for content is “autarkes,” which means self-sufficiency. Stoic philosophers defined contentment as “self-sufficiency grounded in aloof indifference.”6 They believe that a person can achieve contentment by becoming indifferent to the things around them. Contentment, in their view, is based on your ability to suppress your emotions by employing an “I don’t care” attitude.

Example from the Greek Philosopher Epictetus: “Begin with a cup or a household utensil; if it breaks, say, ‘I don’t care.’...Go on to a horse or pet dog; if anything happens to it, say, ‘I don’t care.’ Go on to yourself, and if you are hurt or injured in any way, say, ‘I don’t care.’ If you go on long enough and if you try hard enough, you will come to a stage when you can watch your nearest and dearest suffer and die, and say, ‘I don’t care.’”7

For the Stoic Philosophers, this apathetic attitude is what constitutes contentment.

This is not how Paul viewed contentment. Although he used the same Greek word, he did not adopt the Stoics’ definition. What he did was redefine the term with a distinctly Christian meaning.

For Paul, contentment means sufficiency, not in himself but in Christ. Unlike the Stoic view, which is self-sufficiency rooted in apathy, Paul grounds his contentment in Christ. It's not self-sufficiency but Christ-sufficiency.

TWO ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT

1. Contentment in God’s Providence (v. 10).

Paul wrote in verse 10, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.” (v.10).

The Philippians are one of the churches that financially supported the Apostle Paul. When they heard about Paul’s hardship in Rome, they sent Epaphroditus to give him a gift to cover his rent and living expenses while he was in house arrest.

But what we need to understand is that they are not that rich. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 8, Philippians is one of those churches in Macedonia that experienced “extreme poverty.” But what is remarkable about them is that they were extremely generous, especially to the Apostle Paul. In verse 10, we see that they were unable to support him for a while, likely due to financial difficulties.

But Paul understood that this hindrance was not due to a lack of concern, but rather a lack of opportunity. Once the opportunity arose, they “revived [their] concern” for him, and they were able to send him a gift.

What we see here in verse 10 is Paul’s confidence in God’s providence. He understood that it was God who opens or closes opportunities. As a result, Paul did not become anxious, complain about the delay in financial support, or manipulate others to meet his needs. Instead, he trusted that the Lord would open a window of opportunity to provide for his needs in God’s time.

Here’s the first secret to contentment: Learning to trust in the sovereign providence of God, and because Paul learned to trust God, he was not driven by covetousness but by contentment.

What does the providence of God mean? I love how Dr. John Piper defines God’s providence in his magnum opus. He calls it God's “purposeful sovereignty by which he will be completely successful in the achievement of his ultimate goal for the universe.” What is that ultimate goal? It is this: first and foremost, His own glory, but secondly, also the ultimate good of his people. In Romans 8:28, Paul wrote, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The Apostle Paul knows this by heart, and that's why he learned to be content. And we can learn this as well. We will be discontented if we think that we can control everything in our lives. We can’t, and it is foolish to think so.

2. Contentment in All Circumstances (vv. 11-12).

It’s challenging to remain content when life becomes difficult. When life is hard, contentment doesn’t come naturally. However, when life is easy and things are going well, we feel content and satisfied. However, the real test of contentment comes when life hurts. And let’s be honest—during those times, our sense of contentment often fades.

Why does that happen? Because, for many of us, our contentment is tied to our circumstances. Particularly, it's tied to our good circumstances. And when bad things happen, when problems arise, or when circumstances turn sour, our contentment dissipates in an instant. That’s the problem! If our contentment rises and falls with the ease of life, then we don’t have true contentment—we only have temporary happiness based on good happenings.

Notice Paul’s contentment in verses 11-12. Paul was able to be content not only in good circumstances but in any and all situations: “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” (vv. 11-12)

In every situation he faced, Paul learned to be content. How did he do this? Because his contentment was rooted, not in circumstance but in someone who gives him strength, and who is that? Verse 13: It is Christ (v. 13).

Here’s the second thing we can learn: True Christian contentment is rooted in Christ, not in circumstances.

If you attach your contentment to your circumstances, believe me, it will drift away into the sea of discontentment and disappointment. But if you anchor your contentment in Christ, even when life floods you with hardship, it will stand! Because Christ is the source of true and lasting contentment.

This is the correct meaning of verse 13. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” This is one of the famous verses that people often quote out of context. The phrase “all things” refers to finding contentment in all circumstances, especially during difficult times. So, this is about perseverance.

Dr. John MacArthur offers a clear explanation of what this verse means: “What [Paul] is saying is that when he reached the limit of his resources and strength, even to the point of death, he was infused with the strength of Christ. He could overcome the most dire physical difficulties because of the inner, spiritual strength God had given him.”8

Therefore, this verse is not a promise of success or a superpower that enables one to do anything like Superman. Instead, it is a promise of endurance through all circumstances. And this spiritual strength is especially experienced in our weakest moments. It is when we have no power of our own that we find strength in Christ.

We learn this from Paul himself.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul wrote: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

We don’t know the exact nature of the “thorn in his flesh,” but it’s clear that Paul suffered because of it. He pleaded with the Lord three times to remove this thorn, but his request was denied. But the Lord provided him with something better: Sufficient grace to endure painful circumstances.

This is what Paul is referring to in Philippians 4:13: It is contentment in all situations sustained by the grace and power of Christ. It is the strength that enables us to say with Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

This is a glorious verse, but it is often misquoted. This is frequently cited during graduations, promotions, or winning a basketball championship. It is good that they attribute their success to Christ. But here’s the question: can you still quote this verse wholeheartedly when your life is falling apart? When everything in your life is crumbling down, can you still quote this verse with all of your heart? Paul can. And we can by the grace of God.

St. Augustine, Confessions, Book I, Chapter 1:

“For You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”  

[1] Summarized by Kevin DeYoung, The 10 Commandments (Crossway, 2018), 158.

[2] Kevin DeYoung, The 10 Commandments (Crossway, 2018), 159.

[3] Kevin DeYoung, The 10 Commandments (Crossway, 2018), 157.

[4] Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters (Penguin 2009), 17.

[5] John Piper, Battling Unbelief (Multnomah, 2007), 93

[6] The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Reformation Trust, 2015), 2115.

[7] Quoted by William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians (Westminster Press, Philadelphia), 104.

[8] John MacArthur, Anxious for Nothing (David C Cook)