America’s growing politics of envy reveal why the Bible’s forgotten Tenth Commandment may be more essential today than at any time in our nation’s history.
The following ran in the 28 July 2026 edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
Most Americans can name the commandments against murder, theft, adultery, and lying. Far fewer remember the Tenth Commandment. That may be because it alone reaches past our actions into our hearts.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17 (NKJV)
Unlike every human law, God forbids not merely the deed, but the desire that produces it. Before a thief steals, he covets. Before an adulterer strays, he covets. Before a liar deceives, he covets some advantage that does not belong to him. God addresses the root before the fruit.
It is no accident that the historic church counted envy among the Seven Deadly Sins. Like pride, which I wrote about last month, envy is a root sin. It teaches us to resent our neighbor’s blessings by convincing us they should be ours.
But coveting is not the same as ambition. Scripture praises diligence, hard work, wise stewardship, and honest success. It is not sinful to admire another person’s accomplishments or build a better life for your family. That difference matters. Ambition says, “I will work for what I hope to earn.” Coveting says, “I deserve what someone else already has.” One creates value. The other resents it. One builds. The other demands redistribution.
Coveting begins when we decide another person’s blessings belong to us.
It whispers, “What he has should be mine.”
Worse still, coveting often matures into envy. Coveting says, “I want what is yours.” Envy says, “If I can’t have it, neither can you.”
That difference explains much of our politics.
Every generation finds respectable names for old sins. Our age has become skilled at dressing coveting and envy in the language of fairness, equity, and social justice. We increasingly hear that no one should be a billionaire. Large inheritances are immoral. Profitable businesses have taken more than their fair share. Success itself becomes suspicious.
Notice how the conversation changes.
It rarely begins with, “Government needs revenue to perform its lawful duties.” Rather, it begins with the claim that the wealthy simply have too much.
That is no longer merely an argument about taxation. It is a moral judgment against prosperity.
The irony is striking. The Tenth Commandment assumes the legitimacy of private property, something classical socialism rejects. God speaks of “your neighbor’s” house, livestock, and possessions. The command makes little sense unless ownership itself is legitimate. Before God forbids stealing, He acknowledges that some things belong to one person and not another. Before He forbids coveting, He teaches us that what belongs to our neighbor does not belong to us.
This is why movements built upon redistribution should be recognized as political expressions of coveting. Whether it comes from the Democratic Socialists of America or politicians in both major parties, the message is familiar: someone else has more than you do, and government should correct that imbalance.
Sometimes injustice truly exists. Fraud, theft, and broken contracts should be punished. The Bible never defends dishonesty or exploitation.
But Scripture never equates another person’s success with injustice.
A free society depends upon people inventing, producing, saving, investing, risking, and building. It depends upon respecting property instead of resenting it. When success becomes something to punish rather than encourage, fewer people create the prosperity that benefits everyone.
The antidote to coveting is contentment.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Phil. 4:11). Contentment is not complacency. It does not forbid ambition or hard work. It recognizes that God’s blessings to another person are not evidence that He has cheated you. Contentment frees us to rejoice in our neighbor’s success instead of resenting it.
The Tenth Commandment confronts the one place government cannot reach. Legislatures can punish theft, but they cannot outlaw envy. Courts can sentence fraudsters, but they cannot convict covetous hearts.
Only God can.
That is why the final commandment may be the foundation of all the others. Before hands commit evil, the heart desires it. Before societies embrace class warfare, individuals first convince themselves that another person’s blessings rightly belong to them. Laws can restrain behavior, but they cannot produce gratitude. Elections can change governments, but they cannot change hearts.
The battle for a just society begins long before elections, legislation, or economics. It begins within each of us. A nation cannot rise above the character of its people. If we cannot govern our own desires, we should not expect our politics to do it for us.