Episode 160 – Coveting (The Ten Commandments, Part 10)

Our Ten Commandments series finally wraps up this episode, and we end it on a high note! (Yes, even despite the episode going up almost a day late.) We’ve got a bit of a preview of an upcoming discussion to start with, as Grant’s kicking off a game of Offworlders. Our Patreon question this week comes from David Hastings, who asks “What game do you love personally even though you know that objectively, it’s not that great?”

Our topic this week is, of course, the Tenth Commandment—”Thou shalt not covet”—and we’ve got a lot of Scripture to introduce as we start our discussion. “Covetousness” is a word often conflated with “envy”, “jealousy”, and even “desire”, so we take a moment to talk about the word itself. We also take care to differentiate it from a righteous anger at injustice and want—especially since many use that false distinction to their own advantage. We then talk about how the Tenth Commandment is somewhat unique in that it forbids a particular sort of thought rather than a particular sort of action, and the implications of that distinction.

Naturally, we have a lot to say about covetousness in a gaming context—rogues, corporate malfeasance, dragons, and more! But we have just as much to say when talking about real concerns of covetousness in the gaming hobby, whether it be a shelf of RPG books, that ridiculously-expensive custom gaming table, or even production values and knowledge.

Scripture: Exodus 20:7, 1 Kings 21:1-7, Luke 12:15, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Timothy 6:6-10