It is easy and very simple to define what a child molester is but let's talk about what it means to covet. That is not so easy because so many people, including believers, are involved in it and obscure the practice of covetousness. Child molestation makes the news in a heartbeat but does the news of covetousness and how it effects people's lives get any attention by the news media, NEVER, not even by most local churches and denominations. Come and let us reason together about this practice of coveting.
Believers covet against other believers, intellectually, materialistically, through morality and perfectionism, through standards of righteousness, involving family and possessions, the rights of others, knowledge of the scriptures and the understanding thereby, the gifts and the blessing from God through divine appointment, to only mention a few. I believe covetousness to be the greatest and most subtle sin and transgression practiced among believers in and out of the local church. It is the one bondage that most have not dealt with or been delivered from and it effects almost every area of their life.
One of the first signs of the sin nature that we inherit from conception begins to show up in the heart of a child when he begins to covet things (two young children fighting over a toy and crying when they can't have it). And we, in the name of love and being good parents to our kids, enable that practice in their life very early and we actually teach them how to covet things without even knowing what we are doing. I have never seen this in such full scale as we see it today in the age of electronic digital devices with this 'GOT TO HAVE IT' mentality and if they can't have it they will pull a tantrum or lock themselves in a room and tell you they hate you, until you give in.
This wave of having to have certain kinds of tennis shoes or sneakers and to actually see the fighting and lust that would go on over these is covetousness, it's even ended in one killing another over a pair of shoes. Many think that using drugs is caused by an addiction problem, I don't believe that for a second. I believe it to be a lust problem based on not getting or having what you want or covet after, and it becomes so painful that drugs and certain kinds of relationships and associations try to fill the gap of being without. Some even turn to lesbianism and homosexuality to they can fulfill what they covet in other areas but can't have. Then you get hooked and can't get out of it and your told by professionals that it's an addiction or sexual orientation problem and not a covetous problem.
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Jm 4:1-3
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Acts 20:33 I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.
1Tim 6:10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1Cor 10:5,6
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Ps 106:14-16
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord.
The 10 commandment crowd can come and help us out on this one.
Ex 20:17
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox (his work truck), nor his ass (his car), nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
I'll stop here at this point and say this, that many believers do not tithe or believe in it because they covet what belongs to God and not to them.
Red33,
You are erring in presenting the LETTER OF THE LAW which is LEGALISM.
A born again believer FULFILLS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW BY FAITH.
This FAITH WORKS BY LOVE.
LOVE FULFILLS THE LAW.
A born again believer is walking by faith and NOT by the letter of the law. Our hearts have been made clean and pure and we abide in Jesus Christ. Old things have passed away and ALL THINGS have become new. Not some things, ALL THINGS. We ESCAPE the corruption that is in the world through lust. ESCAPE. No more bondage to it!
2Co 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2Co 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
2Co 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
2Co 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but
our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8 How shall not
the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth
the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
2Co 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Now this liberty is not to yield to the lusts of the flesh, rather it is to walk in love by faith.
Gal 5:13 For, brethren,
ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Gal 5:14 For
all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Gal 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Gal 5:16 This I say then,
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But
if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
What you are doing is attempting to find SOME SIN so as to JUSTIFY YOUR VIEW that WILLFUL SIN can be engaged in and still enter the kingdom.
No! Sin is out of the question. If you walk in the Spirit YOU WILL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH. Do you believe that or not?
James is writing to the church warning them of these things. Read the entire chapter...
Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Jas 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Jas 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Jas 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
James is not saying that all Christians lust. James is contending for heart purity here because HE KNOWS that WITHOUT HOLINESS no one will see the Lord. Thus SUBMIT YOURSELVES TO GOD and the DEVIL WILL FLEE.
It is THROUGH CHRIST that the WORKS OF THE DEVIL ARE DESTROYED in our lives.
Jesus spoke of the wheat and the tares WITHIN the Church. Don't be deceived and think you can be saved and sinning at the same time. If the sins of the flesh have not ceased then you have not crucified the flesh with the passions and desires.
A born again believer MANIFESTS righteousness to the world and does not sin. Not in the context of rebellious willful sin. They may err in judgement and fall short but not due to iniquity present in the heart for that has been purged. If that iniquity has not been purged then they need to do what James taught and that is...
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
The END OF THE COMMANDMENT is love out of a PURE HEART and FAITH UNFEIGNED.
1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
Jesus came to redeem us from ALL INIQUITY. He did not come to leave His people in bondage like you imply.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.