One ups

Do you struggle with covetousness? It is not really an area I struggle with but I have seen it a lot lately in the world around me.

What does God say about covetousness, or coveting?

Ex 20:17 says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Rom 7:7 says, [Struggling With Sin] What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

Rom 13:9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Well see even though I don't struggle with covetousness, I don't always love my neighbor as myself. And God lumps murder, stealing and coveting all together. Sigh.

So you may be wondering why I called this one ups. Do you have a desire when some one does something well, or gets something nice, to always one up them? Could it be you covet their ideas, their talents, their life? What is it about them that causes you to feel you must do better then them? Is it pride? Is it covetousness? Is it jealousy? God sees all of those as sin, just like murder and stealing and not loving your neighbor as yourself. Have you asked the Lord to deliver you from those feelings? And while I am at it, with the world we live in now who is our neighbor? Is it just the person next door? Or the person across the country or world from us that we have contact with through the Internet? I don't know about you but I will be hitting my knees on this one, cause I don't want to knowingly be in sin. And since I am not loving my neighbors (next door or some others across the world from me) as myself, I have some repenting to do.