In the New City Catechism’s brief trek through the Ten Commandments, we come now to the final two. Unlike the prohibitions against murder, adultery, or theft, we might be tempted to these final two commandments deal with less severe sins. The reality, however, is that the Ninth and Tenth Commandments are just as endemic and deadly as the ones we have studied so far.

The actual text of the Ninth Commandment is found in Exodus 20:16: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The commandment is explicitly against being a false witness, that is presenting untruthful information in a situation where your testimony is needed. In Deuteronomy 19:15-21, we find a testament to this seriousness. If a witness was discovered to be false, he then received the very punishment that he meant to bring upon the accused. Thus, if you intended to have your brother executed via your own false testimony, you were then to be executed instead. The passage ends with the famous words: “It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (v.21), which was meant to be an act of warning to the rest of Israel regarding the deadly effects of sin. Indeed, when King Ahab and his wife Jezebel executed Naboth through the accounts of false witnesses in order to take possession of his land, God personally promised to repay him by eliminating his entirely household.

Yet, as the catechism explains, this command requires that we do not lie or deceive, but speak the truth in love. That is, at its most basic, the Ninth Commandment forbids all lying and deceit. Whenever we say something false, we bear a false witness against our neighbor. The context is rarely ever as life-or-death as a courtroom, but each time we speak we are giving witness and testimony to something or someone. All lies, therefore, are a breaking of this law.

Since we are forbidden from bearing false witness against our neighbor, what are commanded to do instead?Most generally, we must speak the truth. As followers of the one true God, our “yes” should mean yes and our “no” should mean no (James 5:12). Second, we must guard the honor and reputation of our neighbor. If a false witness destroys the name (or even life) of another person, we should instead be a people who refuse to be silent participants of the slandering of others. Third, we must be true witnesses of Christ. As Christians, each of our words and actions bears a witness to Christ because we carry His name as His ambassadors. We must, therefore, determine whether we bear a true or false witness of Him.

Exodus 20:17 gives us the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” By this commandment, God requires that we are content, not envying anyone or resenting what God has given them or us.

Almost as if to preemptively keep us from considering this commandment as being less consequential than the others, the LORD repeats it twice within this verse. Here God is emphatically declaring that what we want is just as important as what we do. Coveting, after all, is the act of desiring something. Of course, not all desires are sinful, but coveting is a sinful desire to have something that we do not possess. As verse 17 notes, this may be our neighbor’s house, his wife, his children, or his stuff. The commandment purposely ends with the phrase or anything that is your neighbor’s because the possibilities are endless. We may covet someone’s job, their skills, their abilities, their circumstances, or even just generally their life. Nothing is too concrete or abstract to be exempt from our covetous hearts.

We should also note that coveting is really just another way of understanding the First Commandment. In fact, we could say that idolatry is covetousness in violation of loving God with all our heart, soul, and might, while covetousness is idolatry in violation of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Regardless of how we conceptualize how idolatry and coveting fit together, Paul tells us twice that they are indeed bound together. To the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (5:5). And to the Colossians, he said, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (3:5). By the very words of Scripture, to covet is to be an idolater.

As the catechism notes, we must fight covetousness with contentment. Covetousness and contentment are mutually exclusive. When one is present, the other cannot also be around. Contentment is the state of being satisfied, of having enough, which makes it the exact opposite of coveting.

Indeed, since Jesus has now made us children of God, how can we be anything other than content? As Jesus said, if the God who provides food for the birds and clothes the grass of the field is our Father, how much more can we trust Him to provide for us? Indeed, we have the confidence of knowing that even during seasons of trial, suffering, and want, God is working all things together for His glory and our good. By our contentment, we reject the serpent’s lie and instead root our satisfaction in our glorious and gracious King.