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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
14. Part 3, Section 14: The Tenth Commandment
The tenth commandment is a full explanation of the foregoing commandments; and it requires, that we should not only refrain from doing evil, but also not desire it in our hearts.
The words of the gospel are clear: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies;” Mat. xv. 19. Therefore, in this commandment, God, by condemning every evil desire, cuts down evil at the root, and dries up the flood of iniquity at the very fountain head. Thus, the fifth commandment requires, that we should render due honour to the higher powers, and this commandment, that we should always be well disposed towards them in our hearts. The sixth commandment forbids the taking away our neighbour’s life, and this forbids the very desire of so doing, or every internal emotion of anger towards him. According to the seventh, we must refrain from every unlawful fleshly lust; this forbids the very inclination to this evil. The eighth and ninth commandments forbid the taking away of another’s property, and injuring his good name by evil speaking, and this forbids the very thoughts of so doing.
Conclusion of the explanation of the commandments.
In this salutary law of God’s commandments, are contained eternal truths, which form the perfect rule of a godly life. O how happy are those who delight in the law of the Lord, and meditate on it day and night! who rejoice in the embraces of virtue, and find the reward of their own good deeds within themselves, that is, peace of conscience! And this consideration exceeds every other object that can be desired, that the God who loveth them will continue to love them eternally, and will be united to them in a state of inconceivable bliss, according to these words of our Saviour: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
Notwithstanding, though we should make ever so great advances in fulfilling the commandments of the Lord, and whatever degree of progress we may make in virtue, yet, when we consider, that all this is the fruit of divine grace, and that all our virtues are mixed with imperfections, we have not the least cause of self exaltation; but rather to keep in continual remembrance the words of the gospel: “When ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.”
Woe to the despisers of the holy will of the Lord, who, preferring sensual pleasure to spiritual, turn away from divine virtue, and, like dumb beasts, live the slaves of their own corrupt passions. Even their present existence is more like death than life; but this evil is the more terrible, on account of its not ending with this life; for it subjects them to judgment in another, where the law itself will be the witness and judge of all their actions, even that very law which they now despise. For, according to the apostle, “as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law,” Rom. ii. 12.