The Christian’s Answer to Envy
(Rom.9:14-18; Prov.23:17)
Envy has been called the third deadly sin and for good reason. You see its evil consequences everywhere. Envy is defined as “a painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another person that you lack and want….”
Cain killed his brother Abel because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s (Read Gen. 3:4-8)
Similar jealous and anger feelings arising out of envy this time over a father’s favoritism to their younger brother caused Joseph’s brother to almost kill him before they sold him into slavery to Midianite traders. (Gen. 37:28)
Most of the time we try to reign in our envious feelings sometimes masking them with a false sense of well being for the person envied.
The athletic superstar or top executive who makes
millions in salary and here I am working just as hard or so it seems and it’s all I can do to make ends meet.
There go the Allens getting a new SUV and I have to drive a six year old clunker. And why is it that just because his skin is white he gets the job and I go a begging? If my wife asks me one more time why the neighbors can afford to have their house air-conditioned and we can’t, I going
to tell her to move in with the neighbors.
Yes from the time we were old enough to recognize that my sister got a bigger piece of pie than I did to today’s social and economic, racial and gender differences that continue to foster envious
feelings of jealousy and rage, injustice and favoritism, we-know- something- about- envy.
From the Bible we are taught not to feel envious of others:
--Ps. 37:1 Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers.
--Mk. 7:20-23 For from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, fornication, theft
murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, ….All these evil
things come from within, and they defile a man, said Jesus.
And as most of us know simply saying that envy is evil and harmful does not stop us from feeling envious especially in our younger years when peer pressure and expectations run high
and strong. Soon it will be June and graduation time, look what expectations the graduates have for prom and weekend activities. Expensive dresses and tuxedos, limousines, all night parties, prom king and queens. Who can look the flashiest, spend the most money, stay up the longest, on and on one contest after another to evoke praise and acceptance but at the same time usher in more and more feelings of envy.
It would be nice to say that as we grow older we grow out of such temptation, but envy does not escape the older generation any more than it does the younger. As one senior brags to another
about his wonderful winter life in Florida and summers in Ohio while the other listens with
the envious regret that he still must continue to work.
What are we to do as Christians to avoid this envy trap? Is it fair or even reasonable to think
that we could somehow stop feeling envious? Is feeling envious that much different from
feeling angry and look how anger haunts our trail throughout life.
In Proverbs 23:17 we get an answer on how to handle envy:
Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
-2-
Solomon makes the point that rather than feel envious toward the other fellow, fear the Lord throughout the day. It’s a matter or rather a technique of substitution or replacement. Instead
of allowing envy to creep into my thoughts, there is this ever on-going fear of the Lord in
my heart and mind that does not allow “space” for envy. The Christian answer to ridding myself of envious feelings is not to stop feeling envious but to fear the Lord more.
Naturally we would then want to know how to fear the Lord. No doubt there is more than one
answer to that question but to head us in the right direction is that verse in Psalm 115:3
Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
A similar verse is in Ps. 135:6
Whatever the Lord pleases He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
This is one of the points of the parable about the laborers in the vineyard (Mt. 20).
The owner you remember hires laborers to work in his vineyard and agrees to pay them a
denarius for their day’s work. Later in the morning he hires some more workers and then
early in the afternoon hires more workers and near the end of the day he hires still more
workers. Finally at day’s end, the workers come in and are all paid the same
wage, which of course makes the fellows he hired first in the morning mad because
they are envious of the guy who was hired late in the day worked only an hour and got
the same paid they did.
The early workers complained bitterly and the owner, who represents, the Lord, says: you
got what I told you I would pay you....am I not allowed to do what I choose with what
belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity. (Mt. 20:15)
This parable is not only an illustration of God doing whatever He pleases to do but it is also
a lesson on what it means to fear the Lord. Fearing the Lord in this example means taking
your denarius for your day’s work whether you worked all day or part of the day and being
thankful you had work and could work and that the Lord provided you with work and
payment for that work. Whatever else the Lord wants to do with His money is under
His authority and sovereignty. He knows what is best for me and them and will always do the best, so thank you very much for another day of His grace to live and work and receive
compensation—may God continue to bless and keep me and thee.
This same issue about God doing as He pleases in His sovereignty and my fearing the Lord by
not questioning His ways but accepting the blessings of His grace is seen in the story of Jonah.
This time the temptation for envy is not over who gets paid for how much work, but what will happen to a sinful and wicked people called the Ninevehites whom Jonah is told by God
to go and preach to about God’s coming wrath and judgment upon them.
You know the story how Jonah went the opposite direction to flee from God’s assignment until
Jonah was thrown overboard from the ship he was fleeing in and a great fish swallowed him
up and 3 days later spewed him out since he was now willing to obey God and go preach
in Nineveh. And when he does, the people repent and God forgives them and Jonah
is angry as he tells God:
…I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love….therefore…take my life from me I ask, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
-3-
Jonah long before he came to Nineveh already had made up his mind on what those evil Ninevehites deserved- death and destruction for their wicked ways. But obviously, God
in His sovereignty had other plans for this people- to do as He pleased with them – in this case to forgive them. To fear the Lord in this example would have meant for Jonah to rejoice
that the people were spared and that God had used him, Jonah, as an instrument of His grace.
But just as Jonah had fled the Lord’s command in the first place and only obeyed after the traumatic fish experience; here again in the aftermath of his preaching campaign, Jonah has
still not learned to fear the Lord. But like one caught up in the net of envy with it’s angry
jealous feelings, now Jonah wants the Lord to kill him, so he, Jonah, does not have to watch this
wicked nation enjoy the mercy of God.
Fearing the Lord means letting God be God and not demanding our own way or sense of justice
as if we know what is right and best. We are not god. God is God and to fear Him is to
obey Him without question or complaint only relying upon a child-like faith that willingly
and lovingly continues to trust in God’s unfailing grace.
Lord, if you want to pay all the workers for the day a denarius, so be it, the Lord’s name be praised.
Lord, if you want to forgive all these wicked and evil people, so be it, the Lord’s name be praised.
God is running the show and whether or not I understand or agree with what He is doing;
He is Lord and I am His servant. I have only to do His will and He will take care of
everything I need for eternity. His promises are faithful and true; His love
is steadfast and everlasting. And according to His plan and time, the best is yet to come for those who love Him—that kind of mind-set is what it is means to fear the Lord.
Job after losing his property and children said:
“Naked I came from the mother’s womb, and naked shall I return, the Lord gave and the Lord
has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
That is what it means to fear the Lord.
And that is why, Solomon, the wisest of men said:
Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
The next time you find yourself feeling envious, remember God is on the throne not you; He will do whatever He pleases and it will be good; and those who serve Him as Lord and Savior are called and chosen and faithful destined to receive the crown of life promised to those who love Him.
