See and Take
Introduction
There are many themes one can trace through the Bible, and if you are aware of them, it can enhance your daily Bible reading because you can be looking for them and recognizing them when they occur. So, I want to take you on my journey and how it led to a new understanding for me of several passages and eventually led to a couple changes in the NET Bible translation.
One theme that was pointed out to me recently was the idea of “see and take.” I was reading Dominion and Dynasty by Stephen Dempster at the time, and so my initial approach was to look at each of the See and Take passages to see how the dominion and dynasty themes might shed light on those passages. I do think it was helpful, but I discovered something else along the way that seemed more important. So I might occasionally mention the dominion and dynasty themes as I go through all the scenes in the Bible where the characters see something and take it. Or see it and don’t take it. And we are going to look at some teachings that relate to that theme.
I should probably start by explaining dominion and dynasty. My apology to Stephen Dempster for summarizing his book in two paragraphs:
Dominion
Gen 1:26-28 God creates Adam and Eve and tells them to be fruitful, multiply and rule the earth... to take dominion over the earth. However, Adam and Eve sinned and turned dominion of the earth over to Satan.
Dynasty
God had to fix that, so He chose the seed of the woman, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David through whom he would establish an eternal dynasty or line of descendants through whom the Messiah would come and solve the sin problem and reclaim dominion.
OT Passages
Who was the first person to see and take?
Gen 3:6
Eve saw that the fruit was attractive and desirable for making one wise, and she took it. Why did she take it? Because she wanted to be like God… to be a god. That’s an important thing to remember. We will see that idea come up later.
Ironically, she and Adam were already the image of God, but they corrupted that. They sinned and gave dominion of this world over to Satan. Maybe that’s why Satan could offer the world to Jesus in the wilderness? Or he could demand to torture Job or “sift” Peter and the disciples?
Gen 3:15 God cursed the serpent and said the seed of the woman would strike his head, and the serpent would strike his heel. That was the first reference to the dynasty theme.
Gen 6:1
The Sons of God saw the women on earth and took them. There is some debate about who the sons of God were. Some say some bad angels took the form of men and had children with human women. Others say the sons of God were the godly descendants of Seth and the women were the ungodly descendants of Cain. We don’t have to solve that debate because it turns out that it doesn’t matter. Our dynasty question can be asked of both situations. Does this affect the dynastic line?
If they were the offspring of angels and women, then what we have is the corruption of the human race. Was this an intentional attempt by Satan to corrupt the seed of the woman? It seems to me like they tried to corrupt the dynasty. And maybe this is also an example of Satan’s dominion over the earth. We see the link to dominion and dynasty here.
If the sons of God are the godly line of Seth and they intermarried with the ungodly line of Cain, then we have the godly line corrupted as the godly men go after the ungodly women and follow other gods. This is a common issue in the future as Abraham’s descendants are not supposed to marry Canaanites for that very reason.
So, God “started over” with either a pure human or a godly human… Noah.
Gen 12:14-15
Pharoah’s officials saw Sarah and took her. While this is another example of the human tendency to see and take, it doesn’t quite fit our model. It was wrong for them to do so because she was married, but they didn’t know that, so it wasn’t a “sin.” But it does have the see and take language, so I thought we should mention it. It could have corrupted the dynasty though had she stayed married to Pharaoh.
Gen 13:10-11
The land could not support both Abraham and Lot with all their people and herds. So Abraham told Lot to pick where he wanted to live and Abraham would take the other land. Verse 10 says, “Lot looked up and saw” and chose the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. I don’t think this quite fits the theme. For one reason, Moses didn’t use the word “take” when recording the story. If Moses intends this to be a see and take scene, this shows that Abraham was not seeing and taking. He was trusting God to provide. It’s a bit ironic that this happens just after lying that Sarah is his sister. So, he’s a lot like Thomas and the rest of us. Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.
Gen 34:2
Shechem saw Dinah and took her “forcibly.”
Gen 36:2
It says Esau took his wives from the Canaanites. It doesn’t “say” that he saw them, but he obviously did. I don’t think that fits the pattern either because Esau is not in the Dynasty, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to marry Canaanite women.
Gen 38:2
It says Judah (who is in the dynastic line) saw and took his wife. What was wrong with that? He married her. That seems to be OK. But the problem is that she was a Canaanite. Abraham’s descendants weren’t supposed to marry Canaanites. Judah had three sons with her. The first two were so bad that God killed them. It seems to me that Judah is doing his best to mess up the dynasty… the messianic line. But God uses his daughter-in-law, Tamar, who is ironically also a Gentile, but who is more righteous than Judah, to carry on the dynasty. So I think the Judah story fits the see and take theme.
Deu 21:11
10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail and you take prisoners, 11 if you should see among them an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, 12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, 13 discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may sleep with her and become her husband and she your wife.
This seems like an exception to the “don’t marry a Canaanite woman” rule, but it seems the idea is that a woman taken captive during war time would be taken away from her pagan society and integrated into the Jewish society. If she became a Jew and worshipped the true God, then perhaps she wouldn’t lead her husband away from God. Perhaps it’s like the divorce exception that Moses / God gave in Deut 24:1.
Joshua 7:20-21
When the Israelites conquered Jericho, they were told not to take anything. The gold, silver, and bronze belonged to God. Then they went to battle against Ai and lost. The reason was because someone had disobeyed the command.
20 Achan told Joshua, “It is true. I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel in this way: 21 I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon, 200 silver pieces, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. I wanted them, so I took them. They are hidden in the ground right in the middle of my tent, with the silver underneath.”
There is no challenge to the dynasty, but it was a threat to the dominion theme. It halted the Israelites taking dominion of the promised land. And we do have see and take language and some definite coveting... “I wanted them.”
Judges 14 – Samson
14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. 2 When he got home, he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. Now get her for my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me because she is the right one for me.”
We definitely have see and take language here. This is a violation of the command not to marry foreign women, but there is no challenge to the dynasty.
2 Sam 11 - David and Bathsheba
Verse 2 - David saw her, and verse 4 - he took her. (NET has “sent messengers to get her” but Hebrew word translated as get also could be translated as “take” and KJV, ESV, NASB, say “took.” Evidently the translator of Samuel for the NET didn’t know about the see and take theme. Maybe I should get that changed!)
We mentioned above that coveting was often the motivation for murder. That’s what happened with David and Uriah. He eventually murdered Uriah to cover up the sin.
With Solomon we don’t have a specific see and take verse, but 1 Kings 11 tells us that he married foreign women, and they turned his heart away from God. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Certainly, that was a violation of Deu 17:17 which says, “the king must not marry many wives lest his affections turn aside.” And that’s from the wisest man who ever lived.
Anyway, back to David… I can’t think of any other examples in the OT of seeing and taking, but maybe this story is told because even though David was “a man after God’s own heart” and the one God chose to build an everlasting dynasty with, David wasn’t “the guy.” He wasn’t the Messiah. Like all other humans, he failed. He saw and took.
This “see” idea involves seeing something you should not have, or should not have “yet,” but you want it. What’s another name for that?
Coveting….
Where do we first see coveting mentioned specifically?
The Ten Commandments
What two commandments correspond to see and take?
covet = see
steal = take
Rom 7:7 Paul says he would not have known sin except for the “Do not covet” law.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Why do you think he picked that one?
I think everyone intuitively knows you shouldn’t murder, steal, commit adultery, lie. Your conscience makes you miserable if you do any of those things. (unless you are a politician) Coveting and jealousy are not so obvious.
It turns out that little thought, “I wish I had as much money as him.” Or “I wish my house was as nice as hers” or “I wish I had the new iPhone” are much worse thoughts than we imagine.
So the question is how bad is coveting?
That made me wonder where “you shall not covet” was listed in the 10 commandments. I couldn’t remember the order, so I went to Ex 20. It is the last commandment. Why is it last if it’s so important? It occurred to me that the 10 commandments might be a chiasm. If so, what was “paired” or “opposite” covet in the chiasm. I found a couple web pages that showed they can be chiastically arranged, at least conceptually.[1]
I should probably describe what a chiasm is. Hebrew has a lot of parallelism. They like to say things twice. But they say it a little differently the second time. A chiasm is a form of parallelism where the repetition is spread out. They might talk about A, B, C, D. Then say similar things about A, B, C, D. The A’s are related, the B’s are related, the C’s are related, etc. Most of the time they don’t do ABC and then ABC. They usually use an ABC / CBA order. It’s called a chiasm because if you outline it, indenting B a little more than A, indenting C a little more than B, etc., it looks like the left side of the Greek letter Chi which looks like an X.
Ten Commandments
(A) You shall not have other gods besides me and make no idols (worship only God)
(B) Don’t take God’s name in vain (words about God)
(C) Sabbath – (no work)
(D) Honor Parents (marriage and family)
(E) Murder (killing God’s image)
(D’) Adultery (marriage and family)
(C’) Stealing (work instead)
(B’) Perjury (words about man)
(A’) Coveting (self is god, worshiping self)
I’m combining the first two commandments because they really go together and the “make no idols” elaborates on the first commandment. And you can see that conceptually things line up better. Later on we will see how commandments one and two do go together.
It turns out murder is in the middle and what’s in the middle of a chiasm is typically most important. And certainly, murder is a worse sin than stealing, for example. But this is also the main command in the Noahic covenant in Gen 9:6 where it specifically says that the reason it’s wrong to kill a man is because he is made in God’s image.
But I bring up the chiasm because I noticed that “Do not covet” is paired with the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.” That sure fits with Eve’s motivation for eating the fruit. She saw and took because she wanted to be wise like God… to be a god.
We always talk about having idols or things we desire more than God. The pairing of those two commandments seems to emphasize that idea.
OT Teachings
My friend James Davis pointed out to me that there is a Hebrew idiom of having “an evil eye.” It means being envious or greedy.
Deu 15:9
9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be regarded as having sinned.
The word attitude is “eye” and the KJV translates this as, “if your eye be evil”
Prov 22:9
9 A generous person will be blessed,
for he has given some of his food to the poor.
King James has “bountiful eye.” Pretty much all the translations go with generous eye or generous man or generous person. So, the good eye is a generous eye.
Prov 23:6 says not to eat the food of the one who has an evil eye.
Prov 28:22 says, “The person with an evil eye hastens after riches.
The KJV, NKJV and NASB translate it “evil eye.” Most translations translate it as greedy or stingy.
So, the evil eye certainly fits with the idea of seeing really meaning coveting.
NT Examples and Teachings
If we go to the New Testament, we don’t have any stories of seeing and taking, but we do have examples of someone who did not see and take, and we also have teachings about seeing and taking.
Luke 4:5-8
Jesus in the wilderness… the temptations of Satan. Satan led Jesus to a high place and “showed him all the kingdoms of the world.” That’s the seeing. Satan then offered rulership of the earth. It was his to offer because Adam and Eve had handed it over to him (verse 6 says it has been relinquished to me). There’s our dominion theme. But Jesus didn’t take the offer… the shortcut of getting it “now” because he knew he would “get dominion” later. He knew that every knee would bow to him in the end. He was willing to wait on God’s timing.
You know, that’s a lot like Satan saying, “You don’t need to wait until marriage. You can have it now. It won’t hurt anything….”
Let’s think about Jesus’ answer to Satan. Satan did say, “If you worship me” and Jesus answered with “You are to worship only God...” That answer also fits our model of seeing and taking being the opposite of worshipping only God. So, Jesus’ answer is the first commandment which counters what Satan is offering which is the temptation to covet (the last commandment).
Matthew’s Teachings
Now that we understand the see and take theme, the link between the last commandment about coveting and the first two commandments ... have no other gods before me and idolatry, and the evil eye idiom, let’s look at a few passages in the NT.
Matt 5:27-30
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.
Matt 5:27-28 - Jesus says that not just adultery is wrong (that’s the taking) but lusting is also wrong (that’s the seeing).
Matt 5:29-30 – What do we use our eyes and hands for? Have you ever wondered what it was that the eye and hand were doing that was sinful? I know I did. I now think seeing and taking are being referred to.
That passage is also chiastic
Adultery (take)
Lust (see)
Eye (see)
Hand (take)
The middle of the chiasm is “coveting.” What is often the most important part/point of a chiasm? The middle…
Matt 6:19-21
Do not accumulate treasure. Certainly, this is the result of greed and fits the “take” part of the see and take theme.
What would you expect to “see” next? (Pun intended) Right, something about seeing. And indeed, we have a couple verses about the eye.
Matt 6:22-23
Most translations have something about a healthy eye versus sick eye or a good eye versus a bad eye. I think they are taking into account only the light and darkness imagery in these two verses. And when someone preaches this passage, I’ve actually heard them say that these two verses seem to be about a different topic before Matthew returns to the treasure/money topic in verse 24.
The word being translated as sick or bad is ponēros and unless we are talking about bad fruit, it is usually translated as evil. I can see why they would translate it as bad, unhealthy, diseased, etc. because it doesn’t let in the light. But remember the evil eye in Proverbs referred to someone being greedy. And in the context of storing up treasures before and not being able to serve God and money after, it seems that the idea of greed fits better. And the Greek word aplous translated as healthy or good also has the meaning of being generous.
Remember in Prov 22:9 the good eye was translated as generous by most translations? And Prov 23:6 and 28:22 refer to the evil eye which is translated as greedy or stingy. So, being greedy versus generous seems to fit the context better, and the teaching about eyes obviously fits the seeing part of the see and take theme.
The word being translated as healthy or good in Matt 6:22 is aplous. It usually has the meaning of single and sometimes of being generous.
The word being translated as sick or bad in Matt 6:23 is ponēros and unless we are talking about bad fruit, it is usually translated as evil. I can see why translators would translate it as bad, unhealthy, diseased, etc. because Jesus mentions light and darkness, but this isn’t about sunshine or the lack thereof. Since the Hebrew idiom of the evil eye referred to someone being greedy, and in the context of storing up treasures in verses 19-21 and not being able to serve God and money in verse 24, it seems that the idea of greed fits our context better. The life that is full of light or darkness is the result of having a generous or greedy eye.
So, being greedy versus being generous seems to fit the context better, and the teaching about eyes obviously fits the seeing part of the see and take theme. Storing up treasure on earth = take and the evil eye (greed) = see.
My first attempt at a better translation was:
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is generous, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is greedy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
If translated that way, the teacher or preacher will not think this is a digression in Jesus’ sermon. And that would be a good dynamic translation.
And the preacher would be less likely to start finding applications about the good eye letting in the truth, etc. because it’s not about letting in the light/truth.
But the more I thought about the chiastic structure of the 10 commandments and the concluding statement by Jesus in verse 24, I realized that generous versus greedy doesn’t capture that meaning, and I think the verses are actually about devotion.
If we go back to the Greek word aplous, its primary meaning is that of being single, as in single-minded.
The KJV translates this with “if your eye is single” and “if your eye is evil.” The idea behind single is being single mindedly devoted to God ... having no other God’s before me. The “eye is evil” we’ve already seen is greed/envy/coveting.
Therefore, I think that “if your eye is single” and “if your eye is evil” is probably a more accurate translation because of the chiastic structure of the 10 commandments where #1 is have no other gods before me and #10 is do not covet.
I think the KJV got it right, but that is not easily understood to the modern reader who would not know what “single” means. In fact, the teacher I heard, who thought this verse was a digression, even pointed out that aplous also meant “single” and “generous.” We even went to 2Co 11:3 where aplotētos is translated “sincere devotion to Christ” but he didn’t make the connection.
A more dynamic way to translate this and keep the eye imagery would be:
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is focused on God, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is focused on self, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
I think that is core of what Jesus is saying in these verses and it combines the see and take pattern, the chiastic structure of the ten commandments, and the Hebrew idiom of the “evil eye.”
Store up earthly treasure = take
Evil eye / greedy eye = see
Can’t worship God and money = God versus self = coveting
The root cause of seeing and taking is coveting. Coveting is worshipping self. Coveting is idolatry (Eph 5:5, Col 3:5).
So, instead of being a digression, our two verses (22-23) are essential to understanding the progression of thought and are actually the central point of Mat 6:19-24.
Matt 6:24
Jesus then says, “You can’t serve God and money.” The Greek word can also be translated as “the love of money.” Hold that thought... I want to deal with that when we get to another verse.
In verse 33 he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.” That statement is the closing principle of that section in the sermon on the mount, and it is a summary of the total opposite of seeing and taking. And it fits well with verses 22-23 which say our eyes should be focused on God.
Matt 19:16-22
In Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, the young man asks what he must do to have eternal life and Jesus says he needs to keep the commandments. Jesus mentions several commandments but not coveting. But Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and follow him. The man goes away sorrowful because he was very rich. That’s the coveting/greed part. Jesus showed him that he was guilty of breaking the law.
Matt 20:15
Also see Matt 20:15 where the workers in the vineyard who came late were paid as much as the workers who worked all day. The ones who worked all day were mad. The owner says, “do you have an evil eye because I am generous?” but we translate it as “are you envious” or “are you greedy.”
Paul’s Teaching
Rom 7:7-8
We mentioned earlier that in Romans 7 Paul said it was the commandment against coveting that made him realize he was a law breaker. And it’s what Jesus used to expose the rich young man in Mat 19.
I feel like the see and take theme and the coveting being paired in the chiasm with have no other God and make no idols caused a couple verses to take on new meaning for me.
For example:
Eph 5:5
5 For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
After the word “greedy” we have in parentheses (such a person is an idolater). What now stands out to you when you read that? The link between the first and last commandments, perhaps? Being greedy is the same as coveting. They are the opposite of seeking God.
Col 3:5
5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.
Philip 2:6
Jesus did not “grasp” being equal with God. He already was God actually, but is this said as a contrast to the see and take theme? And is this alluding to the original sin of Adam and Eve who did grasp being equal with God. Satan did say, “You will be like God.”
We see dominion language – every knee shall bow...
We see dynasty language – he took on human nature...
At the beginning when I defined the see and take, I said that it was seeing something you should not have or should not have yet. I added the “yet” because Jesus had all those things but was willing to wait on the Father’s timing.
1 Tim 6:10
“The love of money is the root of all evils.”
The NET translator’s note points out that this does not mean “all sorts” or “all kinds” of evil. It means “all evils.” Most other translations say, “all sorts” or “all kinds.”[2] When I first read that in the NET, I thought that can’t be right. Surely some evil is not caused by the love of money.
John Piper has an article on desiringgod.org on this verse and points out that all the older translations like the Wycliffe Bible, Geneva Bible, King James, RSV have “all evil,” but modern translations have “all kinds of evil.” He says, “one exception among modern translations is the NET Bible,”[3] and he quotes the NET translator’s note. In his article he is saying that just because we don’t understand how the love of money could be the cause of all evil is no reason to change what Paul said because the Greek is very clear. It’s “all evils.”
But after working through the see and take theme, seeing the importance of coveting, it’s link to idolatry, having no other gods, self is god, etc. I think it is true.
The Greek word translated “love of money” could also be translated as “coveting.” The Wycliffe Bible actually does translate it as “covetousness.”
If “the love of money” represents being greedy and coveting.
And being greedy and coveting is the root of all evils.
Then “the love of money” is the root of all evils.
What other reason would be at the core source of sin than putting something as more important than God? Actually, I should say, “Putting self as more important.”
Now let’s talk about Matt 6:24 and “you can’t serve God and money.” It’s not just about money is it? Money is metonymy for greed, coveting, and idolatry. Self is god, so Matt 6:24 is really saying, “you can’t serve God and self.”
What about Pride?
I was discussing this with my friend Ani, and he asked, “What about pride?” That’s a good question. But what is pride? Isn’t pride putting myself before God? I want admiration, praise, etc. for myself. I want to be like God. I want to be God. I want... I want... I want... It sounds like coveting. Is pride just coveting what belongs to God. So, it seemed to me that even pride is a form of coveting and idolatry with me as the idol.
Another friend, Breck, says I have the cart before the horse. Coveting is not the source of pride. He thinks pride is the source of coveting. Pride is the attitude and coveting is the action. I can see how that is possible. They are so closely related it’s hard to separate them. If we limit our definition of pride to just an attitude of having an exaggerated sense of self-worth but no action, then maybe it comes first. But the minute I think “I want to be admired” or whatever, I am coveting.
One argument against that is which one of the 10 commandments is about pride? If pride is the root of all evil, then why is it not listed in the 10 commandments? I’ve been saying that with coveting, self is god. What is pride? It’s the same thing. We want to be admired. We want to be worshipped. So, pride would be a violation of the first commandment, just like coveting. That was the whole point of the chiasm. Coveting is a violation of the first commandment. It’s an argument from silence, but if pride was the source of coveting, it seems like God would have mentioned that.
I had lunch with a local pastor, Mark Richardson, after he wrote an article in JETS about the Sons of God in Gen 6. I had sent him a draft of this article before the lunch, and so I asked him about the pride connection. He said he thought it was a distinction without a difference. I liked that, but thought I’d do some more research.
Maybe we can’t figure this out logically. What does the Bible say about the relationship between pride and coveting?
I went searching for verses about pride and found the following:
1 John 2:16 says:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, 16 because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father but is from the world.
That says that arrogance is produced by material possessions. ESV has “pride in possessions.” Coveting and greed (the desire of the eyes) cause you to accumulate possessions, and you can become prideful of that. In that passage pride is the result, not the source.
And is it my imagination or is this also a see and take passage? The desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes is the “see” part. The accumulation of possessions is the “take” part.
James 3:14-16 says:
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.
Boasting (that’s pride) comes from jealousy and selfishness. In fact, every evil practice comes from jealousy and selfishness. That sure seems similar to the idea that the love of money which is covetousness is the root of all evil. James goes on to say in chapter 4 that the conflicts they are having come from the passions that battle inside them. What passions? He says, “you desire and you do not have.” That’s covetousness.
So, in my search for verses that said pride was the source of all evil, I found two more verses that said covetousness was.
Another passage where coveting and pride are mentioned is Gal 5:19-26.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.
I highlighted the pertinent words. Where is pride in the list? Forms of coveting are in the list four times. (And perhaps five since “greed is idolatry” Eph 5:5, Col 3:5) He finally mentions pride in verse 26. He says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.” Perhaps there the conceit (the pride) is the source of the provoking and jealousy (coveting)?
Final thought on pride. Perhaps pride is indeed the root problem. But the Bible deals with the actions. Maybe that’s why there are so many rules in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. God does say, “Be Holy for I am Holy.” But then he gives us a few hundred rules for how that works out. Maybe pride is the root problem, but covetousness is the expression of that problem that causes all the bad actions.
Conclusion
Well, that was my journey through the Bible looking for see and take stories. I thought dominion and dynasty was the key. I do think it tied in and was very helpful, but I think seeing the chiastic structure of the 10 commandments and the link between having no other gods and coveting being worship of self was the most enlightening and helpful thing I learned. It seems to me that coveting is the root of all sin.
And did we just solve the question of how “the love of money is the root of all evils”?
Incidentally, I was able to get the NET Bible translation changed in Matt 6:22-23 and the parallel passage in Luke 11:33-36. One confirmation that I was on the right track was that in Luke, right after Jesus says this, a Pharisee invited Jesus to have a meal with him. When the Pharisee saw that Jesus didn’t wash his hands before the meal, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for washing the outside of the cup and plate but on the inside they were full of greed. He goes on to say they need to give from the heart to those in need (which is generosity).
Applications
The main application should be obvious. Don’t see and take. Don’t covet. Don’t lust. Don’t be greedy. Don’t be prideful. Don’t put self or other things before God. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and he will satisfy you.
Another application is to be willing to wait. What you want might be a good thing, but maybe it’s not the right time. Wait for God’s timing.
Another application I come away with is how the whole Bible fits together. 66 books written by 40 authors over 1500 years and a theme like this spans all those books. It’s just more proof to me that the Bible is inspired.
And finally, there were quite a few verses about greed versus generosity. If you have trusted in Jesus for your salvation, then you have received something you did not deserve. You have been the recipient of God’s generosity. That should be motivation for us to be generous to others and even give them what they do not deserve.
[1] See chiasm here:
https://continueinmyword.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/chiastic-structure-of-10-commandments.pdf
Or here:
http://www.bible.literarystructure.info/bible/05_Deuteronomy_pericope_e.html#14
[2] NIV, NLT, HCSB, CSB all have “all kinds of evil.” RSV has “all evils” but ESV and NRSV both changed that to “all kinds of evil.” So much for literal translations not making interpretive decisions.
English (US) · 