17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

The final commandment is a unique one. It goes deeper than the acted out behaviors to address the inner, conceptual thoughts and desires. It is not enough to refrain from stealing our neighbor’s things, it is wrong to even lust for those things. It is not enough to refrain from committing adultery with our neighbor’s wife, it is wrong to even lust for her.

Desires, of course, are not entirely in our control. By our lifestyle we can foster certain positive or negative trends in them, but even with the purest of habits we will surely encounter invasive thoughts that would be impure to put into practice. Thankfully, having a random impulse is not the same as “coveting.” Coveting is making a choice to dwell on the unholy notion, to entertain it, to fantasize over it.

Also, we are not told that all things are wrong for us to hold a long and burning passion for. God’s commandment does not tell us that we cannot aspire to obtain a certain status in life, or to earn a certain accomplishment, or to marry a certain spouse. What we are not to obsess over is that which already belongs to another. We are each meant to seek our own. We have no justification in lusting for that which God has already given to our neighbor.