The Tenth Commandment: Be Content!This is an important message to hear anytime something doesn’t go as we expect. How should we respond when we are unable to get what we want? How do we cope with suffering and loss? The world offers many coping mechanisms that are dangerously misguided. Buddhism and new age meditation teach us that life is suffering caused by craving. Therefore, the goal of Eastern meditation is to learn to eliminate craving altogether. To reach Nirvana is to no longer crave anything.
Today that might sound something like, “Accept defeat!” Stop striving after something that is beyond your reach. But, that would be like telling a struggling married couple to stop craving a deeper, more affectionate marriage. “If you want a happy marriage, stop trying so hard. Just give up. Remove all expectations and your spouse will always live up to them!”
God has created us with capacities to experience deep emotion. To cut yourself off from that experience might save you some pain, but it will also prevent you from experiencing the deepest of joys. Those who go through traumatic experiences build barriers so they won’t go through it again, but they end up missing out on the experience of genuine and healthy fellowship.
Does that sound like a good strategy? Of course not. Learning to be content does not mean that we no longer fight and strive for what is good and right and true in life. In fact, I would say, those who know contentment are more inclined to strive for the good of others.
This commandment is related to all of the commandments in the second table. It is the internal desire that motivates us to commit sins against our neighbor. As we have been doing, we will look at the positive side today (contentment) and the negative side next week (coveting).
Read Exodus 20:17
Inward ContentmentThe original audience frequently admired the security and prosperity of their foreign neighbors. They were tempted to explore and adopt the ways they lived, including their worship of false gods. Their desires revealed a lack of contentment with God.
Instead of coveting your neighbor’s house you must learn to be content with your own living arrangement. That does not mean you never seek to improve your living conditions. It is not wrong to desire to improve your financial status, but you should do so from a place of satisfaction rather than desperation.
Instead of coveting your neighbor’s wife you must learn to be content with your own spouse, or singleness. Wayward eyes, whether on the street or online, are a hint that you lack an appropriate contentment. This is an inward problem that we oftentimes justify due to some perceived wrong from our spouse. “He/she made me do this… If he/she were more aware of my needs, I would not be looking elsewhere for my happiness…”
The possession of male and female servants were a sign of wealth. The ox and the donkey represent a neighbor’s wealth. It is unclear, for this wilderness generation, how many of these families possessed servants and who owned the livestock. It would seem to represent a minority. However, the desire for servants might have been universal. Coveting other’s animals would be equivalent to coveting our neighbor’s job or income.
This is a universal problem. When Nelson Rockefeller was asked how much money is takes to be happy, he replied, “Just a little bit more.” Are you content with your resources or are you constantly seeking just a little bit more? The love of money is not only a problem for the rich, it is an equally destructive problem among the poor.
We can possess true contentment regardless of our financial circumstances. Writing from prison, Paul encouraged the Christians in Philippi with these words:
Philippians 4:11-13 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
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