Love Does Not Envy

Alba 11-16-2025

LOVE DOES NOT ENVY

I Corinthians 13:4

Dwight L. Moody once told the fable of an eagle who was envious of another that could fly better than he could. One day the bird saw a sportsman with a bow and arrow and said to him, “I wish you would bring down that eagle up there.” The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow.

So the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but it didn’t quite reach the rival bird because he was flying too high. The first eagle pulled out another feather, then another—until he had lost so many that he himself couldn’t fly. The archer took advantage of the situation, turned around, and killed the helpless bird. Moody made this application: if you are envious of others, the one you will hurt the most by your actions will be yourself.

I Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love does not envy. Again, the Greek word for love used in the original text is a word which describes a sacrificial, giving kind of love that looks for the best for others. That kind of love has no place for envy. Envy is described as both wanting what someone else has, and also not wanting them to have it. That's not very loving.

So is envy a problem for people today? Most assuredly, envy is currently very evident in our culture. If you don't think so, just look at what some politicians promise to do if elected: “Tax the rich!” And many people say, “Right on!” The very idea that the rich have too much money and don't deserve what they have worked for is built on envy. The feeling is, “I want what they have. I deserve it. They don't need that much. They should give it to me.” Envy. That is all that is. The trouble with taxing the rich to pay for programs through the government is that you soon run out of other people's money. The end result is that everyone has less, not more. Envy has no positive end. Just ask a featherless eagle.

The Lord knows that envy works against everything that is good. That is why I Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love does not envy. This section of this chapter on love begins to describe love, not by what it is, but by what it is not.

Sometimes the best way to say what something is, is to say what it isn't. If a child asks you what a smooth surface is, you would probably say it is a surface with no bumps and no rough spots. Bumps and rough spots are not what smooth is, but what smooth isn't. It would be hard to describe what smooth is without reference to its opposite, what it isn't.

If a daughter asks a mother what she means by perfectly clean sheets, the mother will say, “I mean that there is no dirt or stains on them.” The easiest way to describe a vacuum is to say it is the absence of air. The easiest way to describe total darkness is to say there is no light, and the easiest way to describe pure light is to say, as John does of God, He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the Book of Revelation tells us about what heaven is like, it focuses on what heaven is not. It is the absence of night, pain, tears, sin, and death. The point is, a quality or value can only be fully grasped by seeing its opposite, and by knowing what it isn't.

That is why Paul, after telling us two positive things about love, that it is patient and kind, he follows up with a list of eight things which love is not. The first thing Paul says that love is not is envious. Love does not envy. One of the reasons why God warns us against envy is that...

ENVY IS SIN

The Ten Commandments teach us that. Exodus 20:17 says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” You see, to covet carries the idea that you really want what someone else has. And you want it so much that you would be willing to take it from the other person.

And if that is not enough to see that envy is a sin, check out some New Testament verses and look at what category envy fits into. Romans chapter one describes the state of the world that tries to live without God. Sadly it describes much of what is going on in our own county today. Verse 28 says, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”