The Seven Deadly Sins: Envy Series

Alan personally invited me to be one of his four Assistant Spiritual Directors and be a team member on Little Egypt Walk to Emmaus Number Thirteen, and since that time all my old resentments towards him have been completely eradicated by the blood of Jesus, and now I truly love and appreciate Alan and his ministry for our Lord Jesus Christ.

From early childhood, through youth, and throughout my adult life I have struggled with the deadly sin of envy. I’ve turned it over to the Holy Spirit and put it on the altar, but there have been times when that temptation attacks me once more. Sometimes I have taken it off the altar and let it mar my relationship with Jesus once again. Therefore, the struggle has not completely ended, but currently those feelings are surrendered to Jesus, and I feel no animosity or ill will towards anyone because of envy.

Oscar Wilde tells this powerful story: “The devil was once crossing the Libyan Desert, and he came upon a spot where a number of small fiends were tormenting a holy hermit. The sainted man easily shook off their evil suggestions. The devil watched their failure, and then he stepped forward to give them a lesson.

“What you do is too crude,” he said.

“Permit me for one moment.”

“With that he whispered to the holy man, ‘Your brother has just been mad bishop of Alexandria.’ A scowl of malignant envy at once clouded the serene face of the hermit.

“‘That,’ said the devil to his imps, ‘is the sort of thing which I should recommend.’” [SOURCE—Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses, Nelson, 1994, p. 143.]

We often think of envy and jealousy as synonymous terms, and basically they are, but there are slight distinctions. Jealousy in Scripture can sometimes be a good quality. God is a jealous God , because as the Only True God He longs for a personal relationship with every human being ; and, for this very reason, He can not tolerate situations where anyone makes someone or something other than Jesus Christ the Lord of their life.

In the marital relationship between husband and wife, we promise that we will “forsake all other and keep each other only to ourselves as long as we both shall life.” When husbands and wives are jealous to keep this monogamous relationship between each other inviolate, that is a holy jealousy in the good sense of the word.

The Greek word ZELOS is ancestor of our English words zeal and zealous. It means either jealous or envy in the New Testament. When this term is used in the New Testament it is the choice of the translators whether to use the word jealous or envy in English, therefore, different translations use different terms. Once again the word ZELOS in referring to jealousy can covey either good or bad connotations depending on the context of the passage.

ZELOS is not the basic Greek term Scripture uses for the concept of envy, and that Greek word never conveys a positive image in Scripture and is never translated as jealousy in English. When I envy someone I harbor an attitude of ill will or bitterness against them because of their possession, status, popularity, success, achievements, advantages, or accomplishments for which I long as well. Such an attitude whether we call it envy or jealousy in English is sin in God’s eyes and is always condemned in Holy Scriptures.