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How does coveting hurt others?

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Sketcher

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I was reading this in my devotion today, and a question came to my head. It's fair to say that the law (toward men) is summed up in the command to love your neighbor as yourself, and if you do no harm to your neighbor, you fulfill the law. These commands that Paul lists make sense - Adultery, check. Murder, check. Stealing, check. But coveting? How does an internal desire harm another person, if it hasn't been acted upon yet? I thought coveting by definition was simply an inordinate desire for something you don't have; it's not stealing until you have actually stolen, for example. So where am I wrong on this? How does coveting hurt others?
 

madison1101

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Coveting has to do with a heart attitude. It actually hurts you more than the person whose things you covet. But, in that it can turn your heart sour toward the person whose things you covet, it can hurt your relationship with people in the long run.

I know that when I covet, it hurts me, and I feel negatively toward the person whose things I covet. That could play out in negative remarks and/or behavior toward that person if push comes to shove.

I hope this makes sense.

Trish
 
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pete56

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You have your focus wrong, God (in Jesus) gave us the command to love our neighbour as ourselves. Now it follows that if we are to love them as ourselves and we are called to treat them with love and respect, then we need to also treat ourselves with the same love and respect.

Now Coveting your neighbours wife, goods and chattels, may not directly harm him (or her) but it does affect the way you feel towards him (or her) - it is hard to be nice to someone that you are jealous of for having something that you covet!

So coveting may not be actual murder, but it is an easy step from coveting to anger to action that could so easily break one of the more overtly damaging commandments.

Pete
 
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Solidlyhere

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OK, OP . . . Let's pretend that you have a neighbor.
You hang-out with the Dad.
He's got a nine-year-old Daughter.

You've got the HOTS for her, and you spend 2 hours a day dreaming of raping her.
You want her REAL bad.

This coveting steers your Christian Love into a perversion.
You will have trouble exhibiting your Love with her Dad.
And, your seeping-in porny-Dreams will change the relationship with the Dad (and his Daughter).
Frequently, children can FEEL it when someone's drooling over them. This will "injure" the girl.

It can work the same
 
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AMOG

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My Ex wife had a problem with coveting friends nice things, homes, cars, etc.

She would get jealous of these things and want them for us, even though she was not willing to do the things necessary to afford such luxuries, (Saving for a down payment on a house/car, etc)

In the end, she refused to visit her friends in their new homes, or turned bitter toward them. It hurt them in that it destroyed a relationship and they didn't know why.

Of course, it hurt her far worse.
 
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Sketcher

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So I'm putting the cart before the horse, in other words. One could say that since I love my neighbor, I will not go after his wife, his property, or try to kill him. And that if I love him as I should, I will not have a covetous desire on anything he has, since coveting is incompatible with love. Correct?

Umm, wow. I'd say the perversion began WAY BEFORE the coveting started here . . . But I do get the point. You wouldn't have needed to go this extreme for me to get the point.

To everyone else, thanks for your answers too.
 
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Solidlyhere

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The OP said: "I'd say the perversion began WAY BEFORE the coveting started here."

That's just the point.

When a person obsesses over wanting something, THAT is coveting.
But, the obsession comes first (which is perverting our mind to over-Think it), THEN the object of that obsession.

So, if a person covets his neighbor's possessions (like a Sports Car), it isn't so much that he likes the Car ... but it is the AMOUNT of thinking about that Car (and the negative emotions which will grow out of that obsession).

Everything in Moderation.
The Bible talks about reducing obsession by NOT coveting things we don't own.
 
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whitedove7

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In Strongs 866 in the Greek (only used one time in the new testament) – without covetousness not greedy without filthy lucre. Meaning without gain. That is rooted in Envy and Jealousy in the lack of ability to believe and trust that God will meet your needs.

If a person does not deal with their envy and jealousy through covetousness of another, it can turn into bitterness, resentment against that person and even God. You see how it feeds on each other. Most of Satan’s kingdom works is by networking of realities to produce a final conclusion.
That final conclusion can lead to division with family, strife and separation, church splits, divorces, sickness and disease, destruction and even death to another either cutting off friendship and/or physical death. Cain and Able is an example.

 
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