The Q&A for this session surprises us because the answer isn't at all what we would expect. The question concerns the tenth commandment: "You shall not covet." The answer is that we should "hate sin and avoid any thought or desire that goes against any of God's commandments." How do these match up?

The Heidelberg Catechism, from which this Q&A is derived, follows St. Augustine's interpretation of the tenth commandment as a summary of all the other commandments. It's about the attitude of the heart we need in order to do God's will. We should hate sin and burn with a deep desire to please God. Obedience isn't about outward appearances but about the heart.

Rather than addressing specific actions, like murder, lying, or adultery, this commandment speaks of a wrong state of mind. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us to understand all of God's commandments from this perspective. For example, he says not only that adultery is wrong but that so too is the lust of the heart that causes it (Matthew 5:28). All of the commandments spring from one of two heart problems: lack of love for God or lack of love for our neighbor.

Coveting is a sort of mental theft, but deeper than that it expresses a deep discontent. We refuse to be content with what God gives and always want more. Jesus says we need to be more like the lilies of the field that are content to be clothed with the glory God gives them. Be like them, says Jesus, and "do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?'" (Matthew 6:31).

The problem for us today (and this may be even more true of the kids in your group, who represent a huge target market) is that we live in a society, an economy, that's based on covetousness. Desire propels a consumer-driven economy. Advertising isn't designed to give you product information but to make you want it, crave it---whatever it is---to desire it above all else. This is the best, the sexiest, the most costly, the coolest new product. Marketers even pull us into advertising their products for them by wearing their labels prominently on our clothes, shoes, or handbags.

So what is going to convince you, or the young teens in your group, to give up your covetous ways? Perhaps you can start by exposing the dark side of covetousness. It fills us with anxiety and discontent. Even when we finally get what we covet, it won't be long before the next thing is out there to feed our desire.

Ultimately, covetousness is a deeply spiritual problem, because it says that what God gives us is not enough to make us happy. We can recognize its danger in the story of Adam and Eve. It was a kind of covetousness that led them to rebel against God in the first place---the desire to be like God, knowing good and evil.

It isn't that food and drink and clothing have no importance in a "spiritual" life. After all, says Jesus, "God knows you need them." It's spending our time, emotional energy, and desire on them that's dangerous. "Seek first [God's] kingdom and [God's] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."