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| from Clover Media |
Inviting Jesus to be our
Conscience Coach…
Exodus
20:17"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall
not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything
that belongs to your neighbor."
Please know that the
command, as it is stated, addresses the neighbor’s economic, or financial
resources. Even the wife in those days was considered property.
Our society does not
consider women as property. Changes in society and culture do impact our application
of words from thousands of years ago.
This command, original to
the top ten, set in stone commandments, deals with our internal thought life
rather than outward, observable conduct.
God seems to care about
our conscience as well as our conduct.
Society does a good job
of regulating our conduct. If you rob a
bank, prison is the consequence. If you tell lies while under oath in court,
jail time is the consequence.
Murder is punishable by
incarceration.
Ony those three of the
top ten, set in stone Commandments, have legal consequences.
Others, such as honor for
parents, Sabbath-keeping, though without legal consequences, have the possible consequence
of social and church disfavor or reprimand.
But our conscience is
beyond either legal or societal consequence.
And so, for the devout
Christian, keeping a watch on our nature to covet, to entertain desire, must be
regulated by our own sense of personal integrity.
Who influences your
personal integrity?
Is it commercial
advertisers, is it unbridled envy of someone else’s ministry?
Yep, again I encourage
looking to Jesus as our Conscience Coach.
Allow his teachings to
direct how we are to regard our neighbor, and our neighbor’s property either
physical, intellectual, or financial.
Neither the eyes of the
legal or the social world will know your heart.
But God will.
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, God,
and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Peace, Pastor Mike
