The Tenth Commandment - Wrong Desires, Wrong Objects

Although it may not appear so at first, this tenth commandment is perhaps the most difficult of all the commandments to keep. It is probably the one we break the most in the course of a day, and has the capacity also to be the most destructive – for the violation of this commandment naturally leads to the violation of others.

The great difficulty behind this commandment is that to desire is natural, you were created by God to desire things. In the garden, in his state of innocence Adam initially had right desires directed to right objects in the right manner.

However after the Fall of Man, the original equation regarding desire: right desires directed to right objects in the right manner has been shattered. Now man frequently has wrong desires directed to the wrong objects in the wrong manner. Sometimes he can even have right desires, as for instance the desire for worship, for love, and so on are all right desires put in his heart, but these right desires are no longer directed solely to the right objects in the right manner – they are more frequently be directed to the wrong objects in the wrong manner.