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Envy: Or How to Steal Your Own Joy

“Envy makes the bones rot.” That portion of Proverbs 14:30 will get your attention! An animal carcass will rot within no time at all but generally you don’t think of bones rotting. I know this is science fiction but the mental image I have is of the Nazis in the Indian Jones movie dissolving and disintegrating when they looked into the Ark of the Covenant. It’s a bit macabre but Proverbs is telling us that is what envy is like. 

Envy is one of those socially acceptable sins. No one talks about it much. In my years as a pastor, I’ve had people confess many sins but no one has ever come to me and confessed envy. Culturally, envy is in vogue. In fact, envy seems foundational to some of the more popular political philosophies. Criticizing the possessions and excesses of others garners praise. Inevitably, the solution for such excess is always some form of redistribution to others, which seems suspiciously similar to the aspirations of envy. At best, it seems that we view envy as a harmless character flaw. Meanwhile, God’s Word gives us a very strong warning against envy.

The picture in Proverbs is of the self-destructive nature of envy. Now, no one who indulges in envy perceives that they harming themselves. Somehow, envy makes us feel like we are helping ourselves and harming the other person. By desiring what belongs to another we trick ourselves into thinking we have somehow come closer to attaining that thing for ourselves. We feel we are more deserving than the other person.

Envy rots our bones by making us dissatisfied with what we presently have. Often envy regards possessions. Maybe we envy someone else’s car. Or someone else’s home. Or someone else’s furniture. Sometimes envy regards family. We envy someone else’s spouse. We envy someone else’s children. At other times envy aspires to someone else’s position or status. We think we would be more qualified or suited to a given responsibility than the one who has it. 

Envy chokes out gratitude. The envious person places little or no value on the gifts they have already been given. The only value they can perceive is in what another has. Our fixation and our focus moves from the goodness of God to what God has not given us. The envious person begins to think of God as stingy. Worst of all, envy blinds us to the Gospel. God has not withheld his own Son, “how will he not also with him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

If envy makes the bones rot, what’s the remedy? The first part of Proverbs 14:30 tells us that it is a healthy heart that keeps us from this state. Contentment and gratitude slay envy. Reflecting on the blessing of God upon our lives rescues us from the destruction of envy: “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:7-8)

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