covetousness
What does the Bible say about covetousness? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
14 passages · most helpful first
15So he said to them: “Be cautious and wary of all avarice. For a person’s life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses.”
5Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,
5Let your behavior be without avarice; be content with what you are offered. For he himself has said, “I will not abandon you, and I will not neglect you.”
3But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints,
17You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; neither shall you desire his wife, nor male servant, nor female servant, nor ox, nor donkey, nor anything that is his.”
5For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
36Bend my heart with your testimonies, and not with avarice.
7What should we say next? Is the law sin? Let it not be so! But I do not know sin, except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting, unless the law said: “You shall not covet.”
10For desire is the root of all evils. Some persons, hungering in this way, have strayed from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.
15Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.
15So he said to them: “Be cautious and wary of all avarice. For a person’s life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses.” 16Then he spoke to them using a comparison, saying: “The fertile land of a certain wealthy man produced crops. 17And he thought within himself, saying: ‘What should I do? For I have nowhere to gather together my crops.’ 18And he said: ‘This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And into these, I will gather all the things that have been grown for me, as well as my goods. 19And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods, stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be cheerful.’ 20But God said to him: ‘Foolish one, this very night they require your soul of you. To whom, then, will those things belong, which you have prepared?’
20“But,” he said “the things which go out from a man, these pollute a man. 21For from within, from the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22thefts, avarice, wickedness, deceitfulness, homosexuality, an evil eye, blasphemy, self-exaltation, foolishness. 23All these evils proceed from within and pollute a man.”
31And they come to you, as if the people were entering, and my people sit before you. And they listen to your words, but they do not do them. For they turn them into a song for their mouth, but their heart pursues their own avarice.
9For example: You shall not commit adultery. You shall not kill. You shall not steal. You shall not speak false testimony. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.