Encore Post: To a serious believer, the Ten Commandments seem simple enough. Believe in God and don’t frequent idols — check. Don’t swear — check. Go to church every week, sometimes more — check. Love mom and dad — check. Never killed anyone, never took anything that doesn’t belong to you, never stepped out on your spouse, don’t lie — check on all counts. And then comes coveting… How do you deal with thoughts and feelings?
As we have considered the other commandments, we’ve learned they are not so simple. Still, they seem doable. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments point out the real problem. Our Old Adam and Old Eve want everything for themselves. Everyone at work gets a raise and yours is quite generous. But you know your teammate got more. So you’re jealous.
King David had everything, including many beautiful wives. Yet one look at someone else’s wife — and he took a bath. Committed adultery, lied about it and arranged the murder of her husband. Later he put his finger on the problem. He was sinful from birth — sinful since he was conceived. (Psalm 51:1-5) Jesus summed it up when he said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:19-20)
Let’s face it. We cannot do this alone. Instead, we can turn to the one tempted in every way that we are, except he didn’t sin. (Hebrews 4:15) His suffering and death breaks the power of sin in our lives. When we remember our baptisms, we remember that the Old Adam and Eve were drowned there. We can confess our sin to him, be forgiven and face our fight with the flesh. We also have those in this fight with us — our brothers and sister in Christ. Together we can resist whatever comes to our minds — and hearts.
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