The Destructive Nature of Envy
If I asked you to make a list of the most dangerous sins, how many of you would include envy in that list? If we’re being honest, most of us don’t think of envy as a serious sin. Some of us are even unaware when we are envying someone; and others are surprised to learn that envy is even a sin at all. We tend to think of envy, at worst, as impolite or distasteful–but surely not dangerous.
But this attitude is precisely what makes envy so destructive. We allow envy to quietly dwell in our hearts without any urgency to kill it. I believe that we allow envy to grow in our hearts because we assume that is not that serious or dangerous. We treat it as something that’s harmless!
Yet, Scripture does not view envy the same way as we do. Proverbs 14:30 tells us, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” Instead of life, envy brings death. Death to our joy, death to our contentment in God, and death to the kind of love God commands us to live out.
Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord our God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). If we understand envy biblically, then it’s easy to see how it strikes directly against the two greatest commandments.
First, we cannot love God with envy in our hearts. When we envy others, we compare our circumstances with theirs and begin to doubt God’s providence in our own lives. Outwardly, we may say to someone, “Oh I’m just so happy for you.” but in our hearts we seethe with envy “God why don’t I have that?! Why her? God, why did they get that opportunity when I’ve been waiting longer? Don’t you see that I’m working harder than them? Why do you keep opening doors for them but not for me?”
In this way, envy makes us discontent with the portion God has given us and more focused on what he has withheld from us. We begin to view what we have almost like a second place prize or a consolation gift, instead of an unmerited blessing. Instead of exactly what we need from an all-knowing and all-loving Father.
This is exactly what the serpent did in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in paradise, lacking nothing. Yet the serpent drew their attention away from all that God had lavishly given to them in the garden and showed the only thing they didn’t have. His temptation to them was simple yet subtly deceitful: “Oh yes, God has been generous to you – but not generous enough.” Just like Adam and Eve, we forget that whenever God withholds something from us, it is for our good.
Secondly, we cannot love our neighbors while at the same time envying them. Envy makes us incapable of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Scripture could not be any clearer about this, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that, “Love does not envy.” For love to someone we say/feel, “I’m happy when you’re happy. And I’m sad when you’re sad.” But envy says, “I’m happy when you’re sad. And I’m sad when you’re happy.” When we envy our neighbor we don’t rejoice with them but instead desire to take what they have. In this way, envy keeps us from loving our neighbors and rejoicing with them.
When we envy something that God has given to someone else, instead of questioning/doubting Him, we must learn to trust Him. To trust in His wise and loving providence. He is a good Father who knows not just how to give good gifts but also when to give those good gifts.
In closing, envy is a sin that is far more destructive than we care to admit. It’s a silent and small dose of poison that slowly rots away our love for God and others. And when that poison takes over completely we can no longer be content in what God provides for us each day and begin to seek for other things. We can no longer rejoice with our brothers/sisters because we compare ourselves to them.
And so, church, let us no longer tolerate envy in our hearts, but be quick to repent and turn to the Lord whenever those thoughts rise within us. Remember, “A tranquil heart gives life but envy brings death. Let us now come before the Lord honestly and confess the ways we have been envious.
