In Today’s Worship

With all the turmoil in the stock market and fear of a recession, it may sound out of touch to ask us to be content. Whether we have a lot or a little really doesn’t affect how content we are. Rich people and poor people alike are usually discontent and want more. God asks us not to get our lives all wrapped up in the desire for more. Instead, He wants us to use what He has given us to help other people.

THE NINTH and TENTH COMMANDMENTS

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house
You shall not covet…anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Dr. Martin Luther wrote this about contentment in his Large Catechism:

You must learn that God does not wish you to deprive your neighbor of anything that is his, letting him suffer loss while you gratify your greed, even though in the eyes of the world you might honorably retain the property. To do so is dark and underhanded wickedness….Although you may act as if you have wronged no one, you have trespassed on your neighbor’s rights. It may not be called stealing or fraud, yet it is coveting—that is, having designs upon your neighbor’s property, luring it away from him against his will, and begrudging what God gave him. The judge and the public may have to leave you in possession of it, but God will not, for He sees your wicked heart and the deceitfulness of the world.