What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?

Which Bible passages support this answer?

The Westminster Assembly attached these Scripture proofs to answer 81. Read them together and ask what each one shows about the answer.

1. 1 Kings 21:4

   So Ahab went into his palace, bitter and angry that Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not sell to you my ancestral inheritance.” He lay down on his bed, pouted, and would not eat. (NET)

2. Esther 5:13

   Yet all this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” (NET)

3. 1 Corinthians 10:10

   And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. (NET)

4. Galatians 5:26

   Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another. (NET)

5. James 3:14, 16

   ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. ¹⁶For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice. (NET)

6. Romans 7:7-8

   ⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ⁸But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. (NET)

7. Romans 13:9

   For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (NET)

8. Deuteronomy 5:21

   You must not desire another man’s wife, nor should you crave his house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything else he owns.” (NET)

What does this answer mean?

The tenth commandment forbids discontentment with our own situation, envying or grieving at our neighbor's good, and all inordinate motions and affections toward what is his. 'Inordinate' means out of order: desires that grow beyond their right place. Envy is grieving at someone else's good, which is the opposite of the charity required in question 80.

What can we ask our children?

1. What is envy?
2. What does 'inordinate' mean?
3. What can we do when we feel jealous of someone?