5. Envy is all sadness.
Fairlie says, If all the (seven deadly) sins are loveless, Envy’s eyes are peculiarly so. They seem to find nothing to love in the world, not in the whole of creation, not in anyone else, not even when they are turned up to what is lovely. The other sins have been celebrated, however perversely, in popular song down the ages, but Envy has no song. It does not sing; it…is riddled with fear. This gnawing fear that, if someone else gains something, it must be losing something.
Faith or fear. Faith produces joy and gladness; fear produces envy and sadness.
6. Envy makes us competitive.
Why, we sometimes wonder, do fabulously successful people continually devote themselves to earning more and more money?
Look at professional sports. A star player will leave the team where he had been so successful and move to another team for more money. Never mind that his former team offered him enough that he would never have to think about money again for the rest of his life. So why did he do that?
Not for the money. In many cases, it’s about envy.
RELATED: God’s Blessing and Money Heresies
The most successful coach or athlete wants to be the best rewarded. He yearns for the recognition that comes from being the highest paid in his profession.
Envy may not fuel all competition, but it powers plenty of it.
7. Envy afflicts the finest of people.
One day Moses began to be the subject of slander from his sister and brother. Miriam appears in the story books as the big sister who took care of her baby brother down in the bulrushes. We so admire this lady. Her brother Aaron was the head of the priestly line at this time. These are great people. No doubt some people envied them. But–and this is my point–they themselves were envious too.
Listen to them. So? Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Doesn’t He speak through us as well? Who does he think he is?”(Numbers 12:2)
Not good. If they had said this outside the hearing of Almighty God–I speak facetiously–they might have gotten by with it. And the Lord heard it, we read.
Uh oh. Not good.
Later, we read of a group of 250 leaders of Israel, so-called “men of renown,” confronting Moses. You have gone far enough, Moses. All the people are holy, every one of them. God is in our midst. So why do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord? (Number 16:3)
Sooner or later, every pastor hears a version of this! Get ready, preacher. But be sure to do what Moses did: let God answer it.
Both events had disastrous consequences.
The remedy is love. It’s that simple.
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant; does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. (I Corinthians 13:4-6)
If I love you, then I “rejoice with you when you rejoice and weep with you when you weep.” (Romans 12:15)
And where do we get this love?
The love of God has been shed abroad in your hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)
Love one another. Such love does indeed cover a multitude of sins, as one of the apostles said.
This article originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
Envy: The Sneakiest Sin of Them All
