09 Feb 06 113949633356489203

Is envy so bad? What harm is there in being just a little bit envious? Can I be envious of someone else and that not be a sinful attitude? What’s the harm in wanting what someone else has? I mean besides breaking into their car or house to take something that doesn’t belong to you?

Consider this ancient proverb:

Anger is cruel and destroys like a flood, but no one can put up with jealousy! (Proverbs 27:4 NCV)

Did you catch that? We can deal with anger – even though anger can be quite damaging - but no one can stem the tide of jealousy.

Think about the bible stories where envy and jealousy brought great heartache, tribulation, and destruction into the lives of those who had every reason to help and support each other. (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers, Miriam and Aaron against Moses, Saul and David to name a few.)

Think of how the biblical narrative would have been different, think of how our world would be a different place today had this spirit of envy and jealousy not permeated these relationships. Think of how different our own relationships would be if we stopped competing against each other and started competing for each other.

The ruin of every relationship we value can somehow be traced to envy, jealousy that leads to bitterness. Notice how Romans 13 includes jealousy in a list of what we would consider some high profile sins.

Romans 13:13 (NCV) Let us live in a right way, like people who belong to the day. We should not have wild parties or get drunk. There should be no sexual sins of any kind, no fighting or jealousy.

I’ve wrestled with the difference, if one exists, between competition that makes you better and competitiveness which makes you bitter. If I see someone who is better at something than I am that can inspire me to practice or work hard at becoming better myself. I can also see someone who is better and that can inspire me to despise them and seek for ways to tear them down so that I will appear better.

The Bible does seem to make a distinction between competition that makes you better and competitiveness that makes you bitter.

James 3:13-16 (NCV) Are there those among you who are truly wise and understanding? Then they should show it by living right and doing good things with a gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you are selfish and have bitter jealousy in your hearts, do not brag. Your bragging is a lie that hides the truth.

That kind of “wisdom” does not come from God but from the world. It is not spiritual; it is from the devil. Where jealousy and selfishness are, there will be confusion and every kind of evil.

James makes no excuses - he does not attempt to soften the concept of selfishness or jealousy. James attributes the wisdom of bragging, thinking or acting selfishly, and hearts full of bitter jealousy as being demonic.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis called envy “The Great Sin.” Because of envy he wrote:

we get no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.

Certainly confusion and every kind of evil is the product of jealousy and selfishness.