Having a life is in the Bible, not the same thing as being alive. You can have life, biological life, but to be alive you need to know God, you need to know him and walk with him and feel him and receive his blessing. You cannot have that experience; you cannot in any way seek him or find him or know him or experience him, while you are covetous, while you are putting your hopes in gaining something on this earth. Yes, we all have life, but that's not the same as being alive in the biblical sense of knowing God. It's not what you have. You can have all sorts of pleasure on this earth; you can have money, you can have good health, but that doesn't mean to say you are anything in the sight of God, because with God it is not what you have, but it's what you are. When God looks at you, are you one of his children? Do you have spiritual life in you? Can he communicate with you? Do you communicate with him? Does he lead you, direct you, use you? Are you in his hands? Does he have your love? And do you have his love? Are you a child of God? Do you know him? ‘Oh,’ says the Lord, ‘beware of covetousness.’
At the end of the day covetousness is the cause of so many agonies and ills. Covetousness is the cause of nearly all unrest in the individual heart and life, that unrest that leads to all kinds of tension and trouble, because I must have something and I feel I am being deprived and somebody is standing in the way of my getting what I want in one area or another. That's the basis of so much hate, envy, hostility. This is at the bottom of so many disputes and bitterness and feuds; it is at the bottom of wars, industrial disputes, family disputes. Beware of covetousness. This philosophy, this idea that I can be happy and I can be contented and I can be fulfilled If I just have more of something: that will shut you off from God. It will create in you all kinds of tensions.
And yet material gain is the key recipe offered by this world for all your problems. You are unhappy, you are ill at ease, you feel deprived. What does this world say? Seek more of the very thing that got you into this problem, covet this world’s goods. Make advancement in some way or another; get more; develop something of an ego and go after things.