It’s funny that the Old Testament’s references to envy focus on God’s people looking outward to the world (“sinners”). They were not to envy wrongdoers.
The New Testament’s references, by contrast, are directed inwardly, warning believers against envying each other. For those of us who know the inner workings of church life, we fully understand the change.
Envy: The Sneakiest Sin of Them All
Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:26)
Now, a confession first. As I reflect on the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, avarice, anger, sloth, gluttony, and lust), the one that interests me least is this one: envy. What’s exciting about envy? Nothing. No funny stories to tell, no dramatic scriptural stories to relate.
Something inside me insists that envy is not a problem in my world. I honestly don’t know anyone sitting around stewing over the neighbors having a car and wishing it was in their own driveway. I know of no preachers fuming because another pastor received a doctorate which he should have rightfully received. So, maybe envy is no longer a problem to moderns.
The reason for that strange–and erroneous–conclusion is the narrow definition I was applying to the concept.
If to envy means to wish we owned something another person now possesses and only that, few of us would be guilty. But that’s far too thin an interpretation of this obese transgression.
Envy: The Sneakiest Sin of Them All
Here then are several observations on envy, what I’m calling “the sneakiest” of the seven deadly sins.
1. Envy is ugly.
Henry Fairlie, in the Seven Deadly Sins, a book I’m leaning heavily upon for some of these insights, writes: It has been said that envy is the one deadly sin to which no one readily confesses. It seems to be the nastiest, the most grim, the meanest. Sneering, sly, vicious. The face of envy is never lovely.
In fact, he goes on to say, envy is not even pleasant. The other six sins provide at least a measure of pleasure–self-gratification–in the early stages. Lust provides titillation, avarice the pleasure of possessing, pride a sense of self-fulfillment at least momentarily, and sloth the joy of snoozing. But envy provides no pleasure at all.
It has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own feet in its efforts to escape. (Fairlie gives that line as a quote, but never attributes it.)
2. Envy causes us to lower standards.
We envy those who make good grades and win awards, and so what do we do? We work within the educational system to throw standards out the window so that everyone makes high grades. Grade inflation, it’s called. Some schools refuse to even assign grades, because they look upon the students (and their parents) as customers and don’t want to offend them.
RELATED: How to Kill Pastoral Envy
People envy the talented artists and poets and writers, but unable to achieve the high standards they have attained, they lower the standards. They produce art that is rubbish, poetry with no standards, and books and movies that insult our intelligence.
Such are the works of envy. Fairlie calls this “the revenge of failure.” Since we cannot succeed in this field, we get our revenge by changing the rules and branding our work a success.
3. Envy is behind all spite and gossip.
The old Church Covenant, which we Baptists adopted a century ago and which still hangs prominently inside some church buildings as though it were handed down on Sinai, warns against “backbiting.” It’s an old term that means character accusations, slander, gossip.
Now, gossip can assume pious disguises in church. “Pastor, I knew you would want to know what Mr. Jones is going through….” “You’ll want to be praying for Sister Thompson….” “Hey, you remember that girl that used to come to our church. Well, I just found out that….”
No one gossiping would admit that he/she is envious of the target of their attack. But that is the heart of their slander.
I was the new and very young pastor of a church when the office secretary informed me who was having sin problems within the congregation. It so caught me off guard I did not know how to react. Soon, the secretary announced her husband had been transferred to another state, and they would be moving. The chairman of deacons said, “Preacher, God has just done you a big favor. That woman was the biggest gossip in church.”
Little people envy, and thus little people gossip. Wanting to make others low and themselves look larger, they employ this most unChristian of methods.
4. Pastors, too, are guilty of envy.
A preacher sat in my office. “The reason I don’t go to the pastors conference is that I get so tired of hearing them brag on how many they’ve baptized, how large their church is, and such.” I said, “You must be talking about some other conference. Our guys don’t do that. In fact, most of them are having a hard time, almost none of them ever mention baptizing anyone.” But I knew what the problem was.
That pastor was suffering from a terminal case of envy. It soon came to light that he was lazy and worldly (if imbibing of alcohol and betting at the casino qualify as worldly), and he was summarily dismissed from the church.
People who know pastors only from a distance might be surprised to learn that some struggle with envying their peers. The most obvious form it takes is when they look askance at the larger “more successful” preachers, the ones who have made the newspaper because of awards received, mission trips taken, new churches built, and such. Listen closely the next time pastors congregate, and chances are you will hear someone speaking negatively toward one of his brothers.
“Sure, he has a doctor’s degree, but his church is really small.”
“He’s taking all these mission trips when I understand his church is hurting financially.”
“He’s started several new churches, but the older members are complaining that he’s neglecting the members he’s got.”
Envy is so ugly on the one displaying it. If a smile brightens a face and blesses a room, envy sours the mouth and uglies the eyes and dampens the joy in any gathering.
