When the early church fathers developed this list of the seven deadly sins, they knew well what they were talking about. Today we look at the sin of envy.
There are 2 reasons this is an important sermon for us. First, Envy is the sin no one talks about. We boast about other sins, but envy is not one Christians ever admit to. People pridefully brag about their accomplishments. They show off their new possessions. People make jokes about their procrastination. Men will tell stories about their lust. Entertainers or pro-athletes brag about their liaisons with women on the road.. People aren’t shy about gluttony, either. On the Discovery Channel I once watched a show about men who were preparing for an eating contest. It’s actually a sport in America. Under age minors pop off about drinking and never getting caught. Comedians make routine about heavy drinking. But envy; very rarely will anyone ever suggest they’ve sinned in envy. VH1 has a show called the Fabulous life of…..
A second reason this is an important sermon is because envy is probably the most vicious or destructive sin in our list of seven. Yoda in the Star Wars movies once said “Envy leads to jealousy, jealousy leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to the dark side”
One author describes envy as the nastiest, ugliest, meanest and most grim of the seven deadly sins.
If you are slothful some times you just miss out on something better, no one is directly hurt. If you are angry and keep it to yourself, you just sour your own heart. The person who offended you may not even know you are upset. If you have been lustful, your indiscretion may not end in pregnancy or great harm, you just live with the memory of something stupid you did in college. But envy has a malicious nature to it that seeks to do harm to others. Envy loves to traffic in gossip, slander, hatred, retaliation, even thievery and murder.
In 1 Kings 21 there is a story about Wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in ancient Israel. Naboth who was a good man, a righteous had a lovely vineyard next to Ahab’s palace. Ahab was envious and asked if he could buy the vineyard but Naboth said it has been in the family for years, I can’t sell. So Queen Jezebel devised a plot to invite Naboth to a royal banquet where two hired scoundrels surprised Naboth and accused him in front of the King of cursing God and the King. The false charges stood and Naboth was stoned to death.
I’ve got news that will be a shock some of you. If you are a Christian today, and live openly, people will lie about you and to you. Sometimes it’s even hard to be vindicated from their lies in this life.
Envy is a terrible sin. Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
There are a lot of stories in the Bible about envy. In the book of Esther ole hateful Haman was envious of Esther uncle Mordicea and sought to have him killed. King Saul envied David and once through a spear at him in the King’s court trying to kill him. In Genesis Jacob’s son’s turned against Joseph who was smart and good looking. They sold him into slavery and the history of Israel was changed forever.
The most vicious story of envy in the Bible though is in the gospels. Remember that scene when Pilate offered to release Jesus because it was the custom at the Passover and the crowd stirred up by the Pharisees called instead for Barrabas to be released. In Matthew 27 we read, “17So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18For he (that’s Pilate) knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.”
Politically speaking Jesus died on the cross because the Pharisee envied Him so and they couldn’t stand the fact that common men and women and children everywhere loved Jesus for who he was and what he had done for them. The world the Bible says didn’t like the master they won’t like the church. They can always be looking for a way to destroy our work.
I heard about a little old wonderful Christian lady who lived next to an atheist. Every morning as a witness to her neighborhood this little Christian lady would call out, ‘Praise the Lord’. The atheist hated this so living nearby he would call out, ‘There is no God.” She did this every morning with the same results. As time went by the lady ran into some financial difficulties and had trouble even buying food so one day on her porch she prayed and asked God to help her and then called out Praise the Lord. The next morning she goes out onto the porch and there’s the groceries she asked for and she calls our Praise the Lord. The atheist jumps out from behind a bush and says, ‘Ha, I bought those groceries. There is no God.’ The lady looks at him and smiles, she shouts, “Praise the Lord, not only did you provide for me Lord, you made Satan pay for the groceries.”
James 3:16 “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” Chances are when you read in the bulletin today that the sermon was on envy you even thought to yourself, this is not for me. But scripture is so direct that we begin to see our own struggle with envy. An old Danish proverb says, “If envy were a fever, all the world would be ill.” Let’s look at the symptoms of envy, of this spiritual illness.
I. SYMPTOMS OF ENVY.
A. This sin dislocates our soul. We take God off the throne of our life and put our own wants and desires in that place instead. Envy is the sin of the evil eye. It always sees and desires what it doesn’t have. Its punishment is that it will never have what it sees and desires, because there will always be more to see than to possess.
B. In a book I saw recently the author listed 5 things that are symptoms of envy in us.
1. Envy is malicious. Envy has been defined by one author as ill will with a desire to harm. The ancient teachers gave a representative color to each sin. For example anger was red, Pride was violet, the color of royalty. And we said for years that people can be “green with envy.” Because we normally associate sickness with our complexion turning green. There is a sick way envy chips away at another person’s character through innuendo and half-truth and even fabricated lies. The Latin word for envy literally means “to look at with malice.”
2. Envy is jealousy. Most commonly envy is a sin among equals. Preachers envy the preacher with the big church or the large salary. Players on the ball team are jealousy on the players who scores all the points. A doctor is more likely to be jealousy of another surgeon than a poet. Saul the King of Israel promoted David to lead the army into Battle, but when David returned victorious and the people cheered David saying, ‘Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands.’ After that parade Saul didn’t like David very much. Envy is the reason some managers make sure thy hire weak employees because the manager thinks it makes him or her look better to those in authority.
3. Envy is usually dejected. Envy becomes sad or depressed over our own lack of possessions or position or looks. When a colleague succeeds we don’t rejoice but rather think I’ve never been blessed, my life is a failure. If you are constantly depressed about your circumstances you may be envious rather than grateful. This may be a root problem for many here.
4. Envy is hypocritical. Paul told us in Romans 12:15 “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Envy causes us to do a flip-flop; we rejoice when others weep and we weep when others rejoice. If you rejoice when someone else loses out or is hurt, envy has a grip on you. Envy prevents us from rejoicing sincerely. So we become hypocritical. We pretend happiness for others when we don’t mean it. And we are made out to be a hypocrite.
5. Envy involves lovelessness. Envy is rooted in self-love. And so as an accumulation of all that we have thus mention envy ultimately becomes loveless towards others. We are so burdened down with self, we do not have the desire or the energy to love others. Envious people aren’t active in lovely those around them. Bob Russell used to say that our country was founded on Give me liberty or give me death. Then it became, Give me liberty, now its just, Give me, give me. I saw a license plate the other day. A specialty state plate, the said, ME ME ME. Then I notice to the left end of trunk a fish symbol on the back.
II. THE BIBLE’S CAUTION.
A. The Bible cautions us about envy many times over. I Cor. 13 says, Love does not envy. Eccl. 4 says, “4And I saw that all labor and all achievement (often) spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Proverbs 3 says, 31 Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, 32for the LORD detests a perverse man.”
C. For us as believers though there is one danger we must be realistic with, it is the caution given in Proverbs 23:7 and we need to be reminded of this many times. It says there “17Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD. 18There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” There is a danger in our lives, sometimes we can actually envy sinners. You know how it happens we think they have more fun and success and money and we think we love Jesus, but am I missing out on something.
D. Envy is deadly to us not just because it can be very destructive, but most of the time it will not let us live. It will not let us be satisfied with what we have or be grateful for our own talents and personality. Envy hinders us from finding meaning in our lives because we think the meaning must be someplace else.
III. THE CURE FOR ENVY.
A. So what can we do to curb envy in our lives and replace it with love for others. I have some suggestions, as you might have guessed. You didn’t think the sermon was going to end just yet.
1. Practice being thankful for what you have. God says, don’t buy into the myth of more - thinking that having more (of something or someone) will make you happy.... Don’t buy into the myth of thinking that you are just one purchase, one buck, one promotion, one relationship, one accomplishment, one good time or one gut busting experience away, from true lasting contentment. In a world of give-me, give-me, give-me you must remind yourself to be thankful. Why? Because everything you have comes from God. The Bible teaches that we are stewards of what we have. Everything is a gift. Be careful here, because if you try to create gratitude in your life by using the comparison method, you will eventually be confused. I went to Haiti, saw some of the poorest in the western hemisphere and I was thankful. Then I went to Hilton Head on Vacation and thought I had a great condo to stay in for a week and we only had to walk a block to the beach and then I saw the guy who had an expensive house right on the beach and he only had to walk out his back door. The quickest way to be happy is to be content with what you have. And we really have much to be thankful for.
2. Remind yourself the truth about yourself and other people. Sometimes when we envy other people or we get all wide-eyed about sinful people who seem to have it all and we think why can’t I have a little bit more. But you only need to remind yourself that the things people have in this life are very temporary. The truth is life is uncertain. A simple accident or fire or doctor’s consultation that you have cancer changes your life in a second. I was in Chicago a few years ago for a meeting and I was driving in on I-94 there were 5 heavy lanes of traffic when the cars in front of me slowed quickly and cars began to scatter, and then suddenly I realized that a blue mini-van with it window busted was driving the wrong way down the expressway at a high speed coming right for me. I erratically moved the car as close to the concrete wall on my left side and they missed me by inches. But for several minutes I thought how my life can change so quickly. The truth is your wealth is temporary. James 5:1,2 “1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.” The truth is our influence is meager. You can think you are so important, but it’s humbling….George Foreman for people my age remember him as boxing his way to a gold medal in Mexico City Olympics and waving the American flag. But George laments today kids don’t know him as that, He said, “The grills took my identity away. When I’m with of group of kids now, they just yell out. That’s the cooking man.” Our influence fades fast. The NFL is the number one sport in America now, but most of us can’t remember who won the Super Bowl 10 years ago. We don’t even remember who was in the game. What you realize is that apart from God we really aren’t worth that much. Very few people really notice us or will they grieve when we are gone. It’s senseless to fret about do I measure up to someone else’s opinion of who they think I should be. When I started ministry years ago, a youth minister I worked with had on his desk a little sign that said, “"Only one life, t’will soon be past; Only what’s done for Christ will last."
3. Seek the best for others in your life. Romans 12:15, 16 said, 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” I want you to make a pledge today. You will not look down on others or minorities any longer. We will never say again, you know those people. I want you to pledge to authentically rejoice with your family and friends who find a blessing you may not experience. You know Jesus could of said, I don’t want to do this. But he care more about us then himself. Likewise lets start do the same. We ought to cheer for others. A Dad in our church was telling about how he corrected a couple teens at a local ball game who were just vile in their jeering against the opposing team. His child happened to be on the opposing team. I want to say cheer for others. Want to best for them.
4. Love heaven first. Romans 8 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Sometime on this earth we get very concerned with the clothes we must have, the car we must drive, the club we must belong to and in the perspective of heaven those things matter very little, actually they don’t matter at all. We get all caught up in the house we live in. 50 years from today, it could very well be torn down and your lot in a shopping center. Heaven is our goal, love is the highway we will travel to arrive their.
History tells of a statue that was erected to celebrate the victory of the Grecian games. It so aroused the envious hatred of the rivals that one of them sneaked out at night to topple the statue. He found it so heavy he had to put quite an effort into rocking it back and forth. When he finally got it to topple it fell the wrong way and crushed him to death. This is the way of bitter envy.
Love Wins!
