The 10th commandment, contentment, and trying to better one's life

[Pergamum]

Hello,

I am studying through the 10th commandment again (not coveting). I would love any quotes, links, sermons, commentaries, etc., on how to balance not coveting with how to strive to better one's lot in life and not being content with a less than satisfactory status quo.

For instance, we have many examples of complaints in the psalms:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2, ESV)

I once read an account of slavery in the Old South. When a runaway was recaptured he was rebuked by the use of the 10th commandment (i.e., he was sinfully discontent with his lot in life and therefore, ran away from his master). Is this legitimate?

Also, I am looking for quotes on grumbling, complaining and murmuring against God.

 

[GloriousBoaz]

This quote has always been impacting upon me, I am glad you are concerned with not coveting instead of apathetic or ignorant to it!

"A Roman Catholic priest startled us not very long ago by saying that for 25 years he had been sitting in the confessional, listening to the confessions of men and women. He said he heard (of) murders, rapes, adultery, and fornication. He met men and women who have broken every law of God and man with repetition. But never in 25 years had anyone ever confessed to be covetous. Covetousness! We wrap it up and call it ambition. We may call it business or something, but right down in the middle of those things is a rotten word called "covetousness." Paul called it idolatry!" ~ Leonard Ravenhill

 

[Solparvus]

The best that I've seen comes from the Shorter Catechism on the eighth and tenth commandments. You'll find the questions and answers very satisfying!

Westminster Shorter Catechism Project

Go to that link, look up both commandments, and each link will provide you with further links and resources. For good stories, look at the link they have with the questions called "The Shorter Catechism Illustrated" by John Whitecross.

 

[jandrusk]

This quote has always been impacting upon me, I am glad you are concerned with not coveting instead of apathetic or ignorant to it!

"A Roman Catholic priest startled us not very long ago by saying that for 25 years he had been sitting in the confessional, listening to the confessions of men and women. He said he heard (of) murders, rapes, adultery, and fornication. He met men and women who have broken every law of God and man with repetition. But never in 25 years had anyone ever confessed to be covetous. Covetousness! We wrap it up and call it ambition. We may call it business or something, but right down in the middle of those things is a rotten word called "covetousness." Paul called it idolatry!" ~ Leonard Ravenhill

That quote is very convicting.

 

[Pergamum]

How would you respond to a parishioner asking, "What's wrong with me wanting a better job?" Or, "So what if I have lots of ambitions?"

 

[Pergamum]

The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate

ALL discontentment?

 

[Mushroom]

Is it covetousness to want to be able to pay one's obligations on time? I want to pay my rent by the end of this week, but in the eyes of flesh it looks nigh impossible. Is that covetousness?

But, all past experience proves to the eyes of faith that it will be paid. Is that presumptuousness?

All I know for certain is that the Lord is faithful, even though I am not.

 

[Pergamum]

There seems to be a godly way to exercise discontent as evidenced from the psalms and I am looking for how theologians have articulated this in the past.

 

[Pilgrim]

There is also a healthy ambition, or "sanctified ambition" as I heard one preacher term it. I think this is illustrated in several of the Proverbs as well as several parables, and perhaps elsewhere.

 

[KMK]

For what it's worth, I emailed you the notes from one of my recent sermons.

 

[Pergamum]

Thanks, reading them now.

 

[One Little Nail]

I once read an account of slavery in the Old South. When a runaway was recaptured he was rebuked by the use of the 10th commandment (i.e., he was sinfully discontent with his lot in life and therefore, ran away from his master). Is this legitimate?

Also, I am looking for quotes on grumbling, complaining and murmuring against God.

I would say hardly, you should ask was his slavery Legitimate ,doesn't Old Testament Law
permit Slavery on basis of debt or if it is a captured Canaanite & a slave could be released
in the Year of Jubilee could he not, Americans aren't Old Covenant Racial Jews & the Older
Covenants teachings on these matters have been nailed to The Cross.


for whatever reasons Black Africans were taken to many places against their will to many lands
often they were the booty capture of other African negro tribes & yes,yes I know that North American
Slavery was a lot more "humane" than Latin American or Arab enslavement of African Negroes & went
on for a lot less time & the numbers were significantly less, but it still doesn't make it right!

 

[Scott1]

Westminster Larger Catechism

The Westminster Larger Catechism with Scripture proofs is very helpful. The particularization of the ten commandments especially in this case. One way to approach this is go through the Scripture proofs, which are legion, and look at the context of those Scriptures to see how God (the Spirit speaking through Scripture) frames those questions. And how God deals with the very real emotions, feelings, sins, and temptations of His creatures.

It takes a good amount of time to study the context of the Scripture proofs, but would be quite helpful in answering from a principled standpoint the good questions you raise.

 

[Andres]

I once read an account of slavery in the Old South. When a runaway was recaptured he was rebuked by the use of the 10th commandment (i.e., he was sinfully discontent with his lot in life and therefore, ran away from his master). Is this legitimate?

Also, I am looking for quotes on grumbling, complaining and murmuring against God.

I would say hardly, you should ask was his slavery Legitimate ,doesn't Old Testament Law
permit Slavery on basis of debt or if it is a captured Canaanite & a slave could be released
in the Year of Jubilee could he not, Americans aren't Old Covenant Racial Jews & the Older
Covenants teachings on these matters have been nailed to The Cross.


for whatever reasons Black Africans were taken to many places against their will to many lands
often they were the booty capture of other African negro tribes & yes,yes I know that North American
Slavery was a lot more "humane" than Latin American or Arab enslavement of African Negroes & went
on for a lot less time & the numbers were significantly less, but it still doesn't make it right!

This is off-topic and I don't want to derail the thread, so I'll be very brief and you can start another thread if you'd like to further discuss. The "slavery" in Scripture was not the same as American slavery of the 19th century. Man-stealing is condemned in Scripture.

 

[Andres]

It seems that the 10th commandment, like all others, begins with our hearts. What is proceeding from the heart when a person desires to "better" themselves? Do I want a better job so that I might be able to better provide for my family? (Taking care of one's family is certainly commendable.) Or do I want a better job to make more money because I'd like to keep up with the Joneses and get the bigger house, nicer car, etc. We should examine our hearts in all of these situations. I agree that the quote from the RC priest is quite convicting.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Pergamum:

You are right to sense that there is some scriptural balance to be acheived here. The WLC on the eighth and tenth commandments show this. We are to seek, accoring to the eighth, to better the estates of ourselves and others. At the same time, we are to be content, according to the tenth, with such as we have.

What enables us to live in this tension, if you will? Living in the Word and prayer, particularly in pouring out our hearts continually to God. The murmuring and complaining, associated with discontent, that the Scritpures forbid, come when we are not in the Word and prayer. But when we are listening to Him, and glorying in His promises, as well as praising Him and casting all our cares on Him (which is not murmuring; murmuring is silence towards heaven and complaining to everyone here below), then we can walk and live in that tension, part of the already/not yet.

The Psalms, as has been suggested here, are redolent with the heart cries of the Psalmist, including all his burdens, care, complaints, cries for relief, etc. It is not murmuring to come and tell it all to Him, which would include "My car needs fixing," "Help me to get a job," "Bless my son who broke his arm," and everything that burdens us. We come, weary and heavy-laden, telling Him all about it, and take His light yoke upon us.

I Cor. 7 is helpful here: Paul tells the Corinthians that if they have occasion to better their estate, they may take it, but that's subordinate to the fact that they belong to Jesus, whatever their estate or whatever their condition. Paul, in Phil. 4, in fact, has learned in whatsoever state he is to be content. But he also, II Cor. 12., sought relief for the thorn in the flesh. So we may both be content and, in that contentment and resting, seek to better our own estate and those of others, resting all the while in Christ alone.

Peace,
Alan

 

[Ken_lamb]

While God has freed me from the bondage and temptation of some sins of my heart, discontent and self-pity have been very difficult for me. I guess it comes down to trusting God, and believing that he is indeed making all things work together for good. It's one thing to know it intellectually and yet another to believe it in your bones and live accordingly.

I have to continually remind myself that I am indeed blessed, abundantly so. But it always starts with 'why is it so hard for so little, and why does it seem so easy for others'. Then I have to have one of those "get behind me Satan" moments.

Please pray for me.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

You and me both, Brother Ken!

I have come to see those sins in me more and more clearly over the years, and as I've worked with others, I've concluded that few things afflict the saints more than pride and envy, another way of getting at this: my pride is manifest because I think that "I deserve better;" my envy, at the sense that others are having it better than me, and I wish that I were like them.

We know it's foolish, to even say it out loud makes us sense how absurd such sentiments are. Such irrationality is ever the mark of sin, isn't it? Thankfully, we are His and can rest in His finished work on our behalf, even as He enables us to die to this sin day after day.

Peace,
Alan

 

[Ken_lamb]

Amen!

 

[GloriousBoaz]

Now I don't think you should take this to quite the extreme in all regards listed in this short 5 page PDF but I don't think I quite realized how much pride and envy there is in me over theological knowledge and even having to win theological arguments until I read this.

http://www.ids.org/pdf/applied/discuss.pdf

 

[One Little Nail]

It seems that the 10th commandment, like all others, begins with our hearts. What is proceeding from the heart when a person desires to "better" themselves? Do I want a better job so that I might be able to better provide for my family? (Taking care of one's family is certainly commendable.) Or do I want a better job to make more money because I'd like to keep up with the Joneses and get the bigger house, nicer car, etc. We should examine our hearts in all of these situations. I agree that the quote from the RC priest is quite convicting.

A priest of the order of Babylon telling us about the sin of Covetousness give me a break, sheer hypocrisy
The scarlet harlot runs world commerce & has hoarded upwards of 50% of the worlds gold supply, remember
usurious banking began in Babylon from where our modern banking system has its foundations, this is why
babylon in Revelations 18 "Babylon the great has fallen" is an open reference to this, do you know the
rothchilds family are the official Guardians of the Vatican treasury, quote from the Jewish Encyclopaedia.

Don't know what Ravenhill was thinking when he quoted this? we've no need of the fox to run the hen house

 

[THE W]

It seems that the 10th commandment, like all others, begins with our hearts. What is proceeding from the heart when a person desires to "better" themselves? Do I want a better job so that I might be able to better provide for my family? (Taking care of one's family is certainly commendable.) Or do I want a better job to make more money because I'd like to keep up with the Joneses and get the bigger house, nicer car, etc. We should examine our hearts in all of these situations. I agree that the quote from the RC priest is quite convicting.

Pretty much,

The 10th commandment should prompt us to thoroughly examine the reason why we want things. Are those reasons centered in the will of the LORD or the will of ourselves? Will we allow those desires to be fulfilled in the LORD's timing and on His terms or on our own?

Are we okay with "no"?

 

[GloriousBoaz]

I think you missed the point Robert, Ravenhill was simply giving us a social poll showing the human condition. And the shock value of this is heightened because even a heretical Catholic priest noticed covetousness is an "acceptable sin" where as most protestants don't give a second thought to the motivations behind their striving to achieve the American dream. Even RC Sproul uses this tactic to make a point for instance listening to a sermon by him yesterday he said he often reads, in preparing his sermons, what the higher critics have to say because they often agree with scripture but their worldview won't allow them to fully admit it so they contradict themselves explaining away truth. His example in that sermon was a higher critic said something to the effect of: "When you read this passage you can't help but see penal substitutionary atonement, but since we can't really believe that we must disregard such an obvious reading" and Sproul used that to make the point that written on even unbelievers hearts is a conscience and the law, which sometimes glimmers through showing that we are consistent and they are not. That darkness can't keep light down. That even false prophets can't hide all truth and it sometimes slips through their teeth. Look at Caiaphas in John 11 or the demon possessed girl following Paul around in Acts 16, she was speaking the truth. I am not advocating we get our theology from tv sitcoms but I am saying remember remember what Paul tells us in Philippians 1

15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even [m]from envy and strife, but some also [n]from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition [o]rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my [p]imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.

 

[Solparvus]

The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate

ALL discontentment?

I would agree with the Catechism. I think that the Catechism uses discontentment in the sense of unthankfulness (at least, that's the best way I can say it). You can desire to have higher pay, but still be content because you know that God is providing you what you need, and God has decided that your current wage is best for you. A slave can desire freedom, yet still thank God because he knows that his slavery is, at that time, most to the glory of God.

I also recommend reading what the shorter catechism has to say on the eighth commandment.

"The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others."

If I can get higher pay without violating other Scriptural principles, then I can say it's to God's glory. However, if after trying everything I'm still denied the higher pay, I remember that it's a blessing for me to be paid anything at all. And if it's to God's glory that I'm paid a certain amount even though I want a higher amount, my contentment with God's glory needs to be higher than my desire for the higher pay. Sinful discontentment comes when God's glory is the lesser of the two desires.