Covetousness is Idolatry
By David Cox

Introduction

Covetousness is simply desiring. When desiring something highly, then a desire changes into covetousness. Usually, when we need something physically, like air or water or food, it is not considered covetousness. Covetousness involves a desire for non-essential things.

Definition of Covetousness as Idolatry

Note that the worship of something is when it is important to you to the degree that whatever pertains to that person or thing overwhelms all the other priorities in your life, you worship it. If that one thing that overwhelms and dictates how you live your life is not the one true God (Mat 4:10), then you are worshipping an idol. This can be a person (real or imaginary) as well as a thing, like money.

Mt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The God of Mammon

“Mammon” or riches is very distinctly identified as a god (like “g”) that many people worship.

1Tim 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 1Tim 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1Tim 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

The point here is that people have trust or confidence in the things or persons that provide them with provisions and advantages in this life. After a point, that thing or person becomes more and more dominant until, at some point, it becomes like their god. While friends and side jobs can provide things for you, they are not dominant. When you trust in them to the point of making way, moving everything else so that your relationship with them is 100%, then they are your god(s) or idol(s). And really, not even 100% loyalty is necessary.

Kill your desires

Col 3:5 Mortify (kill, or make so that they do not have effect on you) therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

The high desire for things, the putting of high priorities on things or on how we procure things, by what means, indicates what our god really is. When prayer and working your life as God indicates is your priority, then the God of the Bible is your god.

Covetousness is when your desire for something eclipses your desire for God.  You want something more than you want Him.

It’s surprisingly easy to spot when the thing you desire is withheld: you get frustrated with God, angry and bitter. — Source