О десятой заповеди
The Tenth Commandment Defined
The tenth commandment forbids coveting anything that belongs to one's neighbor.
Question 71. What is the tenth commandment?✦ Answer. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; you shall not covet your neighbor's house, or his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or any of his livestock, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor" (Ex.1 20:17).
Understanding the Tenth Commandment
The tenth commandment requires perfect love for neighbor, encompassing both inward thoughts and outward actions, and is the foundation of Christian life.
Question 72. In what sense should we understand this commandment?✦2 Answer. When it comes to love of neighbor, this commandment is the most complete of all, because it forbids not only a person's outward actions but the inward ones as well: the thoughts and desires that incline toward doing evil.✦ Keeping this commandment calls for Christian perfection.✦ And whoever keeps this commandment fully discharges their duty toward their neighbor.✦ For whatever you wouldn't want for yourself, you shouldn't do to anyone else either. This is exactly what the salvation of all Christians rests on: wanting nothing that conflicts with love for God and for your neighbor, and instead loving God more than yourself and your neighbor as yourself.✦
Hope for Perfection in Love
Diligently practicing love leads to the hope of future perfection and eternal glorification of God.
If we diligently carry out these acts of godliness in this world, by the grace of our Lord and God and in line with the Catholic and Orthodox Faith, we can confidently hope that in the age to come, having reached perfection in love, we will glorify in heaven the one God praised in the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.34 Amen.
Read the original Russian
Вопрос 71. Какая десятая заповедь?
Ответ. «Не пожелай жены искренняго твоего, не пожелай дому ближняго твоего, ни села его, ни раба его, ни рабыни его, ни вола его, ни осла его, ни всякаго скота его, ни всего, елика суть ближняго твоего» (Исх. 20, 17).
Вопрос 72. В каком смысле должно принимать сию заповедь?
Ответ. Заповедь сия, по отношению к любви ближнего, есть совершеннейшая: поскольку она запрещает не только внешние действия человека, но и внутренние: его помышления и желания, клонящиеся к соделанию зла. Для исполнения сей заповеди требуется совершенство Христианское. И кто соблюдает сию заповедь, тот вполне исполняет обязанность относительно ближнего своего. Ибо чего сам себе не желаешь, того и другому не должен делать. На сем-то и утверждается спасение всех Христиан, чтобы не желать ничего несогласного с любовию к Богу и ближнему своему; напротив, любить Бога более себя, а ближнего своего как себя самого.
Исполняя рачительно сии дела благочестия в настоящем мире, благодатию Господа и Бога нашего, согласно с Кафолическою и Православною Верою, можем несомненно надеяться, что в будущем веке, достигнув совершенства в любви, будем прославлять на небесах единого, в Троице воспеваемого, Бога: Отца, Сына и Святаго Духа, во веки веков. Аминь.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.20.17 — You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
- ↩Exod.20.17 — You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
- ↩Exod.20.17;Deut.5.21 — You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Deut.5.21 — You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
- ↩Matt.5.48 — Therefore be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- ↩Rom.13.8-Rom.13.10 — Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves the other has fulfilled the law. Rom.13.9 — For the commandments — 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet' — and every other commandment are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Rom.13.10 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
- ↩Matt.22.37-Matt.22.39;Lev.19.18;Deut.6.5 — And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Matt.22.38 — This is the great and first commandment. Matt.22.39 — And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Lev.19.18 — You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. Deut.6.5 — And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Notes
- 1 ↩The source uses two different Slavonic words for the same person — "искренняго твоего" (literally "your close one") in the first clause and "ближняго твоего" ("your near one") afterward. Both render the biblical "your neighbor," and the English keeps that single term throughout, as the Exodus text intends one referent.
- 2 ↩Russian «должно принимать» is impersonal ("it must be taken"). Rendered with a modern inclusive "we" rather than a passive or archaic "ought this commandment to be taken", which keeps the catechetical question direct without loosening the sense.
- 3 ↩'дела благочестия' rendered 'works of godliness' rather than 'works of piety'; 'благочестие' here names the whole devout life commanded by the commandments, not a devotional mood.
- 4 ↩'Кафолическою' kept as 'Catholic' (in the creedal sense of the whole Church), paired with 'Orthodox' as the source does; not a confessional reference to Rome.
Orthodox Confession (Pravoslavnoe Ispovedanie) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit