"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."
Exodus 20:17

One astute legal mind mused, “What system of laws outlaws coveting?” It is virtually impossible to legislate what cannot be policed and punished. Unless you are God.

We often comfort ourselves (falsely), thinking that what we think is secret and therefore safe. Not according to God. We might imagine that our thoughts do not hurt anyone. But that is simply not so. Not only do sinful thoughts, like coveting, take their toll on our own mental and spiritual health, but if everyone is thinking sinfully, society is adversely affected. Consider:

Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Wickedness on the earth begins with evil “intents and thoughts of the heart.”

Does this matter to God? Consider the next verse two verses that led to God’s drowning all of humanity (except for Noah and his family):

Genesis 6:6-7 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

Coveting may not affect others as much as stealing, for example, but do we really want to think thoughts that grieve and even anger God? I certainly hope not!

Human legal systems cannot successfully legislate what people think. But God can and does see, and judges our hearts. Therefore, coveting is not only legislated by God, God places coveting in His Top Ten list of sins!