IS COVETING EVER ANYTHING SEXUAL?

Douglas Hendrickson · Mar 29, 2018

Even coveting of neighbors wife,

that is wanting to and trying to possess and have, NOT TOUCHING.

TAKING NOT TOUCHING.

Stealing not loving.

TRYING TO STEAL. NOT TRYING TO LOVE.

faroukfarouk · Mar 29, 2018

Coveting is excessive desires.

Dave-W · Mar 29, 2018

In Matt 5, the Greek word used to convey our Lord's statement about "lust" (epithumeo) is the same word for "covet" in the 10 commandments - Septuagint translation.

So to lust (in a sinful way) is to covet.

Your statement "that is wanting to and trying to possess and have," is what sinful sexual lusting is all about.

Just being horny is not "lusting" or coveting.

Apologetic_Warrior · Mar 29, 2018

Douglas Hendrickson said:
Even coveting of neighbors wife,

that is wanting to and trying to possess and have, NOT TOUCHING.

TAKING NOT TOUCHING.

Stealing not loving.

TRYING TO STEAL. NOT TRYING TO LOVE.

To put this into perspective in application, let's suppose we are single or married and coveting, desiring in our heart a woman (or in the case of a woman a man) that is married, the God fearing believer should experience conviction by the Spirit of the sin of lust, and the shame of that sin, should shutdown the believer towards acting upon the sin in the heart, and bring about repentance, and desire to refrain and abstain and shun those desires, push them down and keep them in control, not being controlled by them rather being controlled by the Spirit in the matter.

com7fy8 · Mar 29, 2018

@Douglas Hendrickson Hi

God bless you

I am Bill, glad to meet you

To me, covet means to want or to wish for. It is in the heart. Anything more is acting on the desire. So, going after the woman is not coveting but going after her.

Also, I think you could covet another man's wife because you think she is desirable in other than sexual ways.

In any case, "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have." > in Hebrews 13:5.

In our hearts we need to be satisfied because of God's love; this makes it easy to have self control.

And if we are coveting someone or something, we probably are not seeing things the way we need to. So, we surely can be fooling ourselves into wanting someone or something which would not do us good and then we could get worse. Because God's love is creative, and with obeying God we have how our Father arranges all which He knows we have grown as His children to be ready for

Douglas Hendrickson · Mar 29, 2018

Dave-W said:
In Matt 5, the Greek word used to convey our Lord's statement about "lust" (epithumeo) is the same word for "covet" in the 10 commandments - Septuagint translation.
So to lust (in a sinful way) is to covet.
Your statement "that is wanting to and trying to possess and have," is what sinful sexual lusting is all about.
Just being horny is not "lusting" or coveting.

I thought it was about ownership, coveting is wanting to own, have as one's own.

In other words, "coveting thy neighbor's wife" is more wanting to marry her, than it is wanting to have sexual intercourse with her.

IS ANY ACTUAL SEX EVER PART OF IT, the coveting that is outlawed by the Commandment?

com7fy8 · Mar 29, 2018

Douglas Hendrickson said:
IS ANY ACTUAL SEX EVER PART OF IT, the coveting that is outlawed by the Commandment?

A person can be coveting someone in order to get sexual pleasure.

But a man could feel that someone else's wife is a good mother or a sensitive communicator or sensible and other things, and so he might covet her since he thinks she is so desirable.

RDKirk · Mar 29, 2018

com7fy8 said:
A person can be coveting someone in order to get sexual pleasure.

But a man could feel that someone else's wife is a good mother or a sensitive communicator or sensible and other things, and so he might covet her since he thinks she is so desirable.

My son-in-law has friends coveting his wife (our daughter) because she cooks extremely well.

Douglas Hendrickson · Mar 29, 2018

com7fy8 said:
"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have." > in Hebrews 13:5.

Hi Bill,
Thank you for the reference. This points to what I said, that coveting is (at the very least) discontent with what you have. IT IS ABOUT HAVING.

Not sex, nothing of sex; (interacting, loving).
Is this not evident in the other parts of the prohibition, against other things the neighbor "owns"? (Servants, cattle, etc.)

As to whether coveting is only a matter of desires of the heart (no acts of "trying"),
one way it is then is that there is no actual sex.

dreadnought · Mar 29, 2018

Douglas Hendrickson said:
Even coveting of neighbors wife,

that is wanting to and trying to possess and have, NOT TOUCHING.

TAKING NOT TOUCHING.

Stealing not loving.

TRYING TO STEAL. NOT TRYING TO LOVE.

I think marriage implies there will be a sexual relationship, doesn't it?

Douglas Hendrickson · Mar 29, 2018

dreadnought said:
I think marriage implies there will be a sexual relationship, doesn't it?

There is such a thing as an "unconsummated marriage, which perhaps mostly gets annulled?

Anyway, that may be entirely true, that marriage implies sex, but there is also the view that coveting implies wanting to take, and trying to take, AND not the having successfully taken. In the case of "coveting the neighbor's wife," from that terminology alone there is the implication that if she is no longer the neighbor's wife, but has become the wife of the one who coveted and is no longer coveting because he "does not need to," then she is not coveted.
There might well be a sexual relationship, but then that is adultery.

I would expect some adultery on the way to completion of the coveting intent.
That is, inclusion of adultery and/or attempts at adultery in the coveting.
In the case of coveting the neighbor's wife, there might well be elements of sexuality, don't you think?

com7fy8 · Mar 30, 2018

Douglas Hendrickson said:
Not sex, nothing of sex; (interacting, loving).
Is this not evident in the other parts of the prohibition, against other things the neighbor "owns"? (Servants, cattle, etc.)

lololololololol Yes, I think you are right that coveting cattle and someone's house is not sexual!! This is just too simple for me to have noticed, myself, thank you

Douglas Hendrickson · Mar 30, 2018

com7fy8 said:
lololololololol Yes, I think you are right that coveting cattle and someone's house is not sexual!! This is just too simple for me to have noticed, myself, thank you

"Sexuality" seemeth to have a couple of usages or meanings.

One is "sex" meaning the sex act; the other I notice is "sexual" meaning of desires and interactions of the (two) sexes.
(There is a perverted meaning that uses it for acts of "sexual" perversion, of course.)

So of the two real meanings there is one that would be involved in any adultery, and there is another that might be involved in coveting, but WOULD NOT BE THE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE OF ADULTERY.

I'm not sure what you were trying to say, but besides coveting cattle and coveting someone's house, coveting someone's wife ("LOVING THY NEIGHBOR" if ye prefer) also is not sexual in the sense adultery is sexual.
NO SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.
Wanting a neighbor's wife (RATHER THAN MERELY LOVING HER ) is clearly coveting, and actually having the wife that used to be the neighbor's wife would of course be adultery.

IS COVETING EVER ANYTHING SEXUAL?

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