From Covetousness to the Love of God: Escaping the Void That Draws You to the World

From Covetousness to the Love of God: When Your Heart Seeks to Fill a Void

Have you ever had that moment when you realize you are chasing after something that, once you get it, does not satisfy you? A car spotted on the street, a life that looks better than yours on social media, a position, recognition, a person. You get it, and the emptiness comes back. In his message preached at ICC Montreal on November 9, 2025, Pastor Malu Bialuta asks a question that puts things back in their place: what if covetousness were not first a problem of desire, but a problem of love? And what if the only thing able to uproot it were the love of God himself?

This article covers the substance of his sermon "From Covetousness to the Love of God." You will find here the outline he followed, the texts he explained, and the questions he leaves you to carry home.

1. Three cravings that work together

Pastor Malu starts from 1 John 2:15-17: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world."

He points out a subtlety that many read without noticing: three elements are cited with a singular verb. These are not three separate problems, they are triplets. Where one enters, the other two follow. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life form a single mechanism.

We find this same mechanism as early as Genesis 3:6. Eve sees that the tree is "good for food" (flesh), "a delight to the eyes" (eyes), and "desirable to make one wise" (pride of life). The pastor points out a detail in passing: when the serpent questions her, she has already moved the tree to the center of her heart, as though the forbidden tree had become the center of the garden. Depending on who you listen to, you can lose focus on what God has truly given you.

2. The enemy always attacks where you already have a foothold

The desire of the flesh is that burning craving that comes from your nature. The pastor gives a simple example: when you want to buy a car, you compare, you look at the least common brand on the market, and the day you drive it out of the dealership, you see it everywhere, as if it had multiplied overnight.

It is the same in spiritual warfare. "The devil never attacks you on things for which you have no foothold." If you had a certain leaning before your conversion, you will notice that temptations on that point multiply afterward. It is not God who tempts you, Scripture is clear in James 1:13-14: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'... but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."

The pastor adds a valuable distinction: temptation and testing can cover the same situation. What changes is your response. The devil tempts you to make you fall; God allows the testing to reveal where you stand in your love for him. And he never allows anything beyond your strength (1 Corinthians 10:13).

3. Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

The Hebrew word chamad, often translated "covet," means a burning desire, an ardent desire. It is this word God uses in Exodus 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 is your neighbor's."

Here the pastor makes an important distinction. Seeing a brother excel and wanting to grow in turn: that is called emulation. It is healthy. But desiring what he has, wanting his position, his wife, his car, his reputation: that is a wrong desire. And a wrong desire, once fed, becomes an idol.

Now idolatry is not limited to bowing before a statue. "An idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life." It can be your spouse, your job, your phone. The pastor puts it this way: "Your idol is whatever you do first thing in the morning." A question that stings.

4. The thorns that choke the word

In Mark 4:18-19, Jesus speaks of the ground sown among thorns: "They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word."

The pastor breaks down each thorn:

• The cares of the world: whatever society sets up as the standard of happiness at any given moment. "It is said that in Canada, to be happy, you have to earn 170,000." And because you do not reach it, it becomes a care that eats away at you. Yet there are people in old Honda Civics happier than others behind the wheel of a Porsche Panamera. What you earn is not what determines the quality of your happiness, otherwise, why would millionaires ever take their own lives?
• The deceitfulness of riches: the Hebrew word literally evokes the bait, the food placed in a trap to lure the animal. You have to ask yourself: what bait is the enemy placing in front of me to make me fall?
• The desire for other things: one craving calls for others. They arrive in a pack.

5. Two verbs: put off and crucify

Getting out of covetousness requires active work. The pastor cites Ephesians 4:20-24: we must "put off your old self, which is corrupt through deceitful desires." Deceitful, because they carry great persuasive power, especially when they lean on your wounds. An inner voice tells you, "If I am like this, it is because of my parents, because of my past." And that voice keeps you in the prison instead of pushing you to leave it.

Then comes 1 Peter 2:11: "Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." The pastor is direct: we do not negotiate with the desires of the flesh, we crucify them. Otherwise, as James 1:15 says, "desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

This death is not first biological. It is separation from God, a spirit of delay, doors closing because the motives of your heart are not right. There are things God will not give you as long as he knows they will feed your covetousness instead of doing you good.

6. The true remedy: the love of God

This is where the pastor makes his turn. His wife had suggested "Love for God" as the theme. He kept "The love of God." The distinction is subtle but crucial.

Love for God can drive you to do things for God: serve, come to church, be responsible, lead worship, be a deacon, be a pastor. That is what the church of Ephesus had, and Jesus rebuked it for having abandoned its first love.

The love of God is agape love, the love God pours into you and that puts you in a state of loving others as he loves. It is what makes you truly live out 1 Corinthians 13.

The remedy for the void that pushes you to covet is to let God himself fill that void. "Every time you covet, it is because his love is missing in you. We want to fill the Creator's place with creatures."

7. How to cultivate this love day by day

The pastor gives several concrete keys for developing this love of God:

1. Desire God for himself, not for what he gives. Spend time in prayer (an hour, two, three), asking for nothing but him. That is where you enter another dimension.
2. Worship before you ask. He recalls a thought from Pastor Karambiri: "When you pray, God sends an angel. When you worship, he himself comes." The wise person worships and then asks, directly of God, rather than of his messengers.
3. Seek the communion of the Spirit. In the word communion there is "common." To commune with the Spirit is to become one with him, until his supernatural ability transfers into you. Without that, you may have undeserved grace, but you will never give birth to what God has called you for.
4. Meditate on and know the word. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). Even iniquity done in ignorance remains iniquity.
5. Deny yourself and serve. Matthew 16:24-25: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Every day, you have a choice: either you die to yourself to live for God, or you live for yourself and die spiritually.

Key takeaways

• The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life form a single mechanism. Where one enters, the other two follow.
• The enemy never tempts you on something for which you have no foothold. Identify your weak spots and strengthen them.
• Idolatry is not only worshiping a false god. It is anything that takes God's place in your life, including your phone at the moment you wake up.
• Every craving can be overcome. God never allows anything beyond your strength in him.
• The lasting remedy is not to harden yourself against desire, it is to let the love of God fill the void that pushes you to covet.

Personal application

1. If Jesus stood before you today and asked what fruit your life has produced this year, what would you answer him?
2. What is the first thing you do when you wake up? Does it reveal something about your true priorities?
3. Is there someone around you whose position, life, possessions, or spouse you covet? What would happen if you replaced that craving with a prayer for them?
4. What is the void you are trying to fill with the world instead of with God's presence?
5. When you pray, what dominates: requests or worship?

Verses cited

• 1 John 2:15-17 · The three cravings
• Genesis 3:6 · The fall of Eve
• Exodus 20:17 · You shall not covet
• Mark 4:18-19 · The thorns that choke
• James 1:13-15 · Verse of the week
• James 4:5-6 · God opposes the proud
• Ephesians 4:20-24 · Put off the old self
• 1 Peter 2:11 · Passions of the flesh
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 · No temptation beyond what you can bear
• Matthew 16:24-25 · Deny yourself

Frequently asked questions

Is it wrong to have desires?

No. The Bible distinguishes healthy desire (emulation, the aspiration to grow) from the burning desire that wants to possess what belongs to someone else. The first pushes you toward God, the second turns you away from him.

Why does God allow me to be tempted in the area that affects me most?

Because temptation is also an opportunity to test where you stand in your love for him. The devil tempts you to make you fall; God allows the temptation so that you grow and discover his strength in you. And he never allows anything beyond your capacity in him (1 Corinthians 10:13).

How can I know if something has become an idol in my life?

Look at what you think of first when you wake up, what makes you lose your peace when it is missing, what you could not let go of even if God asked you to. If God is not first in these three areas, you have identified an idol to remove.