BIBLE STUDY #5

UNGODLY*, IDOLATROUS LUSTS:

A STUDY ON IDOLATRY IN ITS MANY BIBLICALLY UNLAWFUL FORMS (INCLUDING HOMOSEXUALITY, COVETOUSNESS AND OTHER SINS WHICH BRING ON THE WRATH OF YHVH)

WRITTEN BY Mrs. Susan Johnson

(*”ungodly: 1. not godly; not conforming to God’s laws; irreligious; impious; sinful; wicked.” [The American College Dictionary, copyright 1962])

Part Four

Part 4.  THE COMMANDMENT REGARDING COVETOUSNESS & ITS BIBLICAL DEFINITION

Exodus 20:17-20 & Romans 7:5-8:13

The tenth commandment given to Moses by God concerned covetousness, a sin which deals with a delight in (having a desire for) anything that is not biblically ours (being forbidden by the Bible).  This ungodly desire is for a belonging of someone else’s, be it a house, wife (or husband), slaves, animals, money, car, land, food, power, position with its accompanying prestige, and so on.  It can be summed up as “grasping for more!”   --

Exodus 20:17: Thou shalt not covet [#2530] thy neighbour's [#7453, “an associate (more or less close)”] house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18: And all the people [#5971] saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people [#5971] saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19: And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God [#430] speak with us, lest we die.
20: And Moses said unto the people [#5971], Fear [#3372] not: for God [#430] is come to prove [#5254, to test] you, and that his fear [#3374] may be before your faces, that ye sin [#2398] not.

 

The apostle Paul teaches about this 10^th commandment in Romans 7:7.  The Greek word for “covet” in this verse is “epithumeo”, and it is defined in Strong’s Concordance as “to set the heart upon, i.e. long for (rightfully or otherwise) [#1937].”  This is the same word that “lust” [#1939] is based on [#1939: epithumia; “a longing (especially for what is forbidden)”], and it is used in many of the New Testament scriptures in this study.   According to the anointed Paul, one knows lust is evil by knowing the specific Law of YHVH that declares coveting is forbidden; therefore, lust is coveting what is forbidden by the Almighty.  We know what sin is when we know the holy Law of God, which is the Word of God.  These Bible verses bring out that the Law of God, if obeyed, brings life and peace.  One is able to obey the Law with the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit), which dwells in each truly born-again Christian whose Lord and Master is Jesus Christ.  We are made righteous through Christ’s sacrifice for our sins when we repent of them, and we then have no sentence of death.  Praise Jesus’s wonderful name!  (See “Salvation & Repentance” statement of beliefs.)  We Christians are to live through the Holy Spirit‘s guidance, resisting each temptation with His help.  We Christians cannot please YHVH by living in our flesh (being carnally minded).  A person is unable to completely obey the Law of God with his or her flesh, even though their spirit may want to; therefore, we must depend on God's forgiveness and grace when we fail.   This does not negate self-discipline and a wholehearted attempt at obedience to the Law on our part.  It does not give us a free license to do whatever we feel like doing.  If YHVH’s Law is not obeyed, the Law of sin (with its resulting death sentence) is obeyed.  --

Romans 7:1: Know ye not [#50, “not to know (through lack of information or intelligence); by implication, to ignore (through disinclination)”], brethren, (for I speak to them that know [#1097] the law [#3551],) how that the law hath dominion over [#2961, “to rule”] a man [# 444,” man-faced, i.e. a human being”] as long as he liveth?
2: For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3: So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4: Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5: For when we were in the flesh [#4561], the motions of sins, which were by the law [#3551], did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6: But now we are delivered [#2673] from the law [#3551], that being dead [#599] wherein we were held [#2722]; that we should serve [#1398] in newness [#2538, renewal] of spirit, and not in the oldness [#3821] of the letter [#1121].
7: What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known [#1097] sin, but [#1508, if not] by the law [#3551]: for I had not known [#1492, to see, to know]  lust [#1939; from #1937], except [#1508, if not] the law [#3551] had said, Thou shalt not covet [#1937].
8: But sin, taking occasion [#874, “a starting-point, i.e. (figuratively) an opportunity”] by the commandment [#1785, “injunction, i.e. an authoritative prescription”], wrought in me all manner of concupiscence [#1939; this is the same word used for “lust” in verse 7]. For without [#5565, apart from] the law sin was dead.
9: For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10: And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11: For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12: Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13: Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.…

18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. …

24: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law [#3551] of God; but with the flesh the law [#3551] of sin.

Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation [#2632, “an adverse sentence (the verdict)”] to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2: For the law [#3551] of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law [#3551] of sin and death.
3: For what the law [#3551] could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4: That the righteousness [#1345, “an equitable deed; by implication, a statute or decision”; from #1344;” to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent”] of the law [#3551] might be fulfilled [#4137] in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5: For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject [#5293] to the law [#3551] of God, neither indeed can be [#1410, “to be able or possible”].
8: So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9: But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10: And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11: But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die [#599]: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [#2289] the deeds [#4234] of the body, ye shall live.

Psalms 10:3 

In this scripture, we are taught that the wicked boasts of [#1984, “to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence, to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively, to celebrate; also to stultify”] his heart’s desire (longing).  To get a better understanding of how ungodly this boasting is, the word for “Lucifer” (#1966, one of Satan’s names; see Part 14) comes from this word.  Also, it is noteworthy to see that the word for “desire” in this Bible passage [#8378] comes from the word which means “to wish for” [#183], and it has been translated in the King James Bible as the words ”covet, (greatly) desire, be desirous, long, lust (after)”.  The wicked are covetous at heart and have high regards for others who are lustful (who give into the lusts of the flesh) like they do.  YHVH abhorreth (scorns; has extreme contempt for) such as these.  --           

Psalms 10:3: For the wicked boasteth [#1984] of his heart's desire [#8378; from #183], and blesseth the covetous [#1214], whom the LORD abhorreth [#5006].

LINKS

TABLE OF CONTENTS WITH LINKS AND INTRODUCTION

Part 5.   KING SAUL’S COVETOUSNESS

 

 

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