Envy

I'm going to begin by telling a story.

It's not a biblical story, as you will quickly realize, but it illustrates a point I want to make. An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman were given a single wish by one of these genies whose relentless habit seems to be to pop out of bottles. The Englishman said that he had a friend who had a magnificent home in the English countryside. The Englishman said that that home was the envy of everyone who saw it. And he said, I would like a home like that in the English countryside, but with a bit more ground, two extra bedrooms, a bathroom, and a brook running nearby. The genie said, your wish is granted. The Scotsman said that he had a friend who was married to the most beautiful woman you could imagine, she was absolutely gorgeous, and his friend was the envy of every man who looked at his beautiful wife. He said, I want a wife like that, but not a brunette, I want a blonde.

I want her to be a bit more sophisticated, more beautiful, and he was Scottish, the heiress of a great fortune. The genie said, your wish is granted. The Irishman said, well, I'm a farmer in rural Ireland. I'm a very poor farmer of a very small farm, and I have only one cow. He says, my neighbour is also a poor farmer, and he also has just one cow, but his cow is the envy of every farmer in Ireland. He said, that cow produces the riches of milk, from that you get the heaviest cream and the purest of butter. The genie said, what's your wish?

He said, I want that cow dead. That's envy, isn't it? Envy is a very, very powerful force, and today as we continue our series on the seven deadly sins, we come to a sin which I think very, very few people acknowledge or confess. It's a very unusual sin, because although this sin is very, very prevalent in the advertising industry, exploits it, this sin is never really enjoyed by those who commit this sin. Many of the other deadly sins give certain enjoyment, such as being glutton or lazy or lustful or greedy. In pursuing these sins, there's a certain amount of enjoyment, but with this sin, this unique sin, those who pursue it and practice it never really enjoy it.

Isn't that right? The sin of envy. In fact, the more envious you are, the greater the torment you personally experience. Envy is a very insidious sin, because although it doesn't necessarily harm others, it destroys our very soul.

It's a deadly sin, and it is self-destructive. Turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Peter chapter 2, and we're going to read various passages of Scripture this morning, and here is one which mentions envy. Now, Peter is writing to persecuted Christians.

He's writing to believers. I am preaching to many professing believers, and you may think, well, I never commit this sin of envy. Well, let's see, 1 Peter 2, verse 1, So put away all malice, malice and envy often go together, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, put it away. I read this week, by the way, in a recent poll of evangelical Americans, not quite sure how we define an evangelical nowadays, but thirty-eight percent of American evangelicals consider religious belief as a matter of personal opinion and not based on objective truth.

Isn't that absolutely tragic? That people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ are saying their belief is based on their personal opinion rather than objective truth, such as Scripture. How sad that is, the sin of envy. I want to say four things about the deadly sin of envy. First of all, envy is covetousness with a twist.

It is the evil eye. Now, it's not a sin to emulate someone or to admire someone. If you're a student playing football or learning the piano and you see someone who is better at playing football or better at playing the piano than you are, you can admire them and you wish you had their skills. That's not necessarily envy.

In fact, watching them and admiring them may lead you to work harder, to improving. Similarly, to be ambitious is not to be envy. But remember the tenth commandment, the last commandment, thou shalt not covet. You shall not covet. You know what it is to covet someone's success, their looks, their achievements, their friends, their family, their car.

You know what it is to want something what someone else has or to be what someone else is. That is covetousness, but envy goes beyond covetousness and jealousy. Envy is not simply wanting what someone else has or is. At the heart of envy is to begrudge what someone else has. At the heart of envy is to be resentful at their happiness, to be eaten alive by their success, to want their success to be removed, to want the cow to be dead. Envy is secretly happy when misfortune happens to someone. In envy, it's not enough to succeed, others must fail. You say, that's a really nasty, malicious sin.

It is, and you know something about it, don't you? Here is a high school student, she considers her friend much more attractive, more popular, has better grades, has more followers on social media than she has. And this young lady is envious of her friend, she talks behind her friend's back. She slanders her, and she is absolutely delighted when her friend sprains her ankle and doesn't make the cheerleading squad.

Have you ever heard of the mean girls? The mean girls are envious, but it's not just mean high school girls. All of us can be impacted by this sin of envy. Envy believes if I'm not enjoying myself, no one else should. You see then that envy is a particularly malicious sin. It is covetousness with a twist. Secondly, envy is a sin of the heart. Gore Vidal wrote, whenever a person succeeds, a little something in me dies.

Why is that? Envy. Those around us are usually unaware of our envy. Some of the sins such as theft or immorality or anger often become known to others. But envy can be a secret sin, can't it?

Because it deals not so much with our outward actions as our inner attitude. Jesus said, it's not what comes outside of a person, inside them which defiles them, but it is that which is within them. Mark chapter 7 verse 20, here are the words of Jesus. Mark 7 verse 20, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All of these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Where does envy come from?

It comes from within. It comes from the heart, and says Jesus, it's evil. It's a sin and it defiles you.

It impacts you. It's a sin of the heart. It's covetousness with a twist. It's a sin of the heart. Third, envy leads to other sins very often.

What begins as an inner attitude of the heart often springs to other sins. If you're envious of another person's appearance or achievements, you may slander them. You may lie about them. You may gossip about them. Here's an individual at work who is envious of a fellow employee because that individual gets promoted. That individual has more compensation and they are envious of this person. That can lead to gossip in the workplace.

It can lead even to the person plotting and trying to manipulate things so that individual is fired. So envy very easily leads to other sins, slander, resentment, anger, hatred, yes, and even murder. Where does it begin?

It begins with the heart. It begins with the sinful attitude of envy. Fourth, envy, when you think of it, is usually a sin of proximity and pettiness. Generally, we're not envious of people we don't personally know. You are much more likely to be envious of some of your friends.

You don't tell them that, of course. You smile at them, but you're envious of your friends or acquaintances, people you know at school, people at work, people in your family, people at church. These are the people where these sins of envy come so easily. You resent that friend, fellow believer, that's wealthier than you are.

You really are envious of them. You think you work harder than they do, and you're certainly smarter than they are, but they are wealthier than you are, and you're envious of that person, that friend, supposedly. If you're a student, you're envious of another student. If you're a carpenter, you're envious of another carpenter. If you're an attorney, you're envious of another attorney.

If you're a pastor, you're envious of another pastor. That's how it is. That's why arguments between friends and business partners can be so acrimonious and nasty. That's why sibling rivalry can be absolutely devastating.

Why? Because we tend to envy those within our circle, that meanness of spirit, that envy of the heart, which you may have hidden for some time, sometimes comes out as a source of hostility, and slander, and even hatred. But envy often seems so petty when it begins. That's why we rarely admit to being envious. When we spell out our envy, it sounds so trivial, so petty, so childish. But that envy, if we're not careful in our heart, can become all-consuming and insatiable. That envy in your heart can lead to self-destruction, agony, torment, and it's devastating to your relationships.

It is unquestionably a deadly sin. Now, what's the cure for envy? I'm going to suggest three antidotes.

If you go to the doctor and he says there's something wrong with you, you trust he has a cure, an antidote. And I'm going to give you three cures for envy. The first is contentment. That's difficult for many of us, isn't it, to be contented? But when you think of it, the envious person is not content. You're not content with who you are.

You're not content with what you have. So, what does the Bible say? Turn to Hebrews, towards the end of your Bible, Hebrews chapter 13.

Isn't it wonderful that the Bible has all of the answers to these sins? The ultimate answer, of course, is the cross of Christ. Hebrews chapter 13, that envy in your heart, here is the cure.

As your spiritual physician, I'm saying this is cure number one. Hebrews 13 verse 5, keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? The envious person is never satisfied. The envious person is not content. So here is the spiritual antidote to your envy.

Be content. Jeremiah Burroughs lived in 17th century England, and he wrote a book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I recommend that book to you. It is written about the need for Christian contentment. Here is a quote from his book. He's writing in the 17th century in the way they did, Christian contentment is that sweet inward – notice it, inward – envy is inward, contentment is inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Now there's a wise man. Notice, it's sweet. It's inward. It's quiet. Envy is noisy, isn't it?

It's always there, always making a fuss. Gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. Spiritual contentment then recognizes the providence of God in our lives. When you're envious, you're saying that God isn't treating you the way that you deserve. You deserve better. Why does this person have this?

Why does this person look like that? You're not accepting what God has for you. Will you accept what God has for you rather than what you want for yourself? Will you accept your appearance?

Will you? Will you accept your strengths and your limitations? Will you acknowledge that God made you with many talents? As a follower of Jesus Christ, if you are, you are gifted, but you don't have all of the gifts. You have limitations. You are not superwoman.

You're not superman. We all have limitations, and they come from God as well as our strengths. And this is difficult for us. It takes a humble, gracious spirit, as Burroughs are saying, to accept where God has placed you in His sovereign providences. The one who's envious wants a change, wants something different, wants what someone else has or is. No, contentment is accepting where God has placed you in life under His sovereign providence. The envious person is restless, not contented.

She's confused. He's unhappy, and he's not at peace. Let me ask you to answer this before the Lord. Are you a person at peace?

Are you? That peace begins, of course, being justified by faith. We have peace with God. That peace continues as we take all of our anxious worries and put them on the Lord, and He gives us that peace which passes all understanding.

The contented person is a person at peace. Are you envious of others, envious of wrongdoers, wonder why people who do not follow Christ, why they prosper? And you're envious of that businessman who is corrupt, but his business is flourishing, and you're on the edge of bankruptcy, and you are not contented. Psalm 37 verses 1 and 2, the psalmist says, be not envious of wrongdoers.

Do you hear that? Don't be envious of wrongdoers. Why? The psalmist says, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. We only see the present. God sees the future. God will take care of them. Why are you worrying about them? Why are you restless about them?

Why does the problems of this world upset you so much? Be at peace. Be content. When we're envious, we're not trusting God.

Isn't that true? Contentment is living in dependence on God. Contentment is independent of our circumstances. There are always difficulties with our circumstances because we live in a fallen world. There are always problems in life, until that glorious day when our Lord comes. To be without problems, that's heaven, that's our future.

Sometimes circumstances can be difficult, there are disappointments, there are tragedies, there are obstacles to navigate in life, that is true, but the contented person accepts their circumstances, their appearance, their achievements, your possessions. So Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, Godliness with contentment is great gain. You want to be a godly person? Answer is yes. You want God to look on you and be pleased with you?

Yes. Godliness with contentment is great gain. To him, as he led us in prayer, asked us to pause for a moment and to give thanks to the Lord for one thing. Did you find that difficult? I wonder if you'd asked us to take a moment and complain about something. Would we have been quicker to do that? Quicker to complain?

Quicker to grumble? Godliness with contentment is great gain. I want you to reflect on the blessings and the generosity of God in your life.

I know it's not perfect. Do you understand how God has blessed us? It's called grace, giving us what we don't deserve. Thankfulness to God for His many blessings on your unique life will cause envy and resentment to wither.

Thanksgiving is a great cure for envy. And stop making comparisons with other people. Listen, I don't care if you're a young man and a quarterback and a team, I don't care how far you can throw that ball, someone can throw it further.

Some of you have been watching the golf going on in our own city with the President's Cup, and if you're a golfer, I don't care how long you can hit that ball, I can guarantee someone out there is hitting that ball much further than you are. There's always someone who can do something better. There's always someone who is richer. There's always someone who is more effective at what they're doing than you are, and that's not the point.

Stop making comparisons. Thank God for all that you are and all that you have. Stop being resentful and envious of what you do not have. Thank God for what you have that will produce a joyfulness, that will produce a generosity. Envious people are not very generous, are they? They are covetous, they are frustrated, they are resentful in life.

There's a bitterness, I've met some people who have almost died with this inner resentment and envy at other people. An unthankful spirit produces envy and discontentedness which leads to anxiety and leads to the nasty sin of rejoicing over people's failures. This evening we're going to continue in Ephesians 1, and we saw a couple of weeks ago that Paul begins and thanks God for all of the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ.

God has showered us with blessing after blessing after blessing. The contented person takes that from the good hand of God and is amazed with a testimony from Carl as she spoke briefly, amazed at the grace of God in our lives. That's the spirit we want, isn't it?

The spirit of contentment. Here is the second part, the second antidote I'm prescribing for you, put to death the sin of envy. I read 1 Peter 2 verse 1, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Put it away, throw it out, put it to death. Turn to Colossians chapter 3, there's a wonderful passage which is a great key to our sanctification, to living the Christian life.

Colossians 3 verse 5. This is very strong, this is a serious antidote. You go to your doctor and he tells you he's got bad news, you've got cancer, and he says it's going to require surgery. It's going to be painful, it's going to be cut out. That's the antidote, you've got to cut it out. It's growing, it's a serious problem, and we're going to cut it out.

That's the picture. Colossians 3 verse 5, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry. That's envy, isn't it? It's a form of idolatry. After putting something before God on account of these, says Paul, the wrath of God is coming.

In these you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Put to death envy. The old-fashioned theological word is mortification, mortification of the flesh. Putting to death that which is earthly within you. This sin of envy is serious.

Don't travel with it. Don't say, well, it's just in my heart, no one else knows about it. No, it's a serious sin, and it must be put to death. You must acknowledge the sin.

Painful surgery is necessary. And Owen, the great English Puritan, said so wisely, be killing sin or it will kill you. You've got to deal with it. This is a deadly sin. Don't trifle with it. Don't say it's harmless. It's not. It's deadly.

I want you to cut it out is the point. It must be put to death. It must be put away. You have got to acknowledge this is a sin. Are you prepared before God to say, I am confessing my envy?

That's dealing seriously with it. Don't just at night say, God, if I sin today, please forgive me, and then jump into bed. That's not a prayer of confession. If you're convicted of the sin of envy today, you need to deal with it. You need to say, I'm guilty of envy and specify in what way this sin is being expressed in your life.

Put it to death. You're receiving no joy from this sin. It's slowly destroying you spiritually. It's negatively impacting your walk with God. It's making you resentful of others. It's changing you from being a joyful Christian to being resentful and negative and bitter and shriveled. No, you must root it out. Name the sin.

It must be put away. You say, how am I going to do that? It's done through the power of the living Christ who indwells you. I invite you to study the first four verses of Colossians 3 where Paul tells us that we are united with Christ. In fact, he says, Christ is our life. This is the Christian life. We'll think this evening of the power of God in the life of the Christian, a supernatural power. I'm in Christ. Christ is in me. He's going to give me all of the power I need to do the spiritual surgery and root out the sin of envy.

Don't trivialize it. Paul says here, doesn't he, in verse 6, the wrath of God is coming on account of these sins such as covetousness, which includes envy. But not only are we to kill the sin, there's something positive we must do. We must put on what is good.

That's the third part of this cure. I'm to pursue contentment, number one. Number two, I'm to put to death the sin. Third, I'm to put on what is good. Colossians 3, if your Bibles are still open there as I'm reading, look at verse 12. There's certain things you've got to put off.

What am I going to put on? Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility. Last week we thought of pride, meekness, and patience. Verse 14, and above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Isn't that wonderful? I'm going to put away all these nasty sins, I'm going to root them out, but now Christ has something far better for you than envy and immorality and slander and all of these nasty things. No, I want you to put on compassionate hearts, I want you to put on humility, I want you to put on meekness, and above everything else, verse 14, above all these, put on love. Love is the coat over everything else, puts everything in place.

Envious person isn't very loving, is she? No, I'm to love God first, and then I'm to love others. Listen to Paul in that great chapter on love.

We'll think of it in more detail later in the series, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. We saw last week that one of the characteristics of pride is boasting.

You want everyone to know how good you are and what you've achieved. Love doesn't boast, but also love does not envy. It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. The person who's envious is resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Envy often rejoices at wrongdoing. Envy secretly rejoices when something goes wrong in the life of the person of whom you're envious. When you're proud, when you're envious, you're not loving. You may flatter that person you're envious of, but you certainly don't love her. You may say he's your friend, but when there's envy, there's no authentic loving relationship. When you're envious, you may smile at the person and you're stabbing them in the back.

It's called betrayal. Many of us have experienced that envy. But when there's love, when there's kindness, envy dies. Love does not envy. Here's this person that you're envious of. You pray that God would give you a heart of love to them, that you'd be kind to that person. That you'd be compassionate, and you say, well they've got everything, I need more. No.

God's put you exactly where He wants you to be. He wants you to love the person. Love does not envy. You got a brother or sister you're envious of? Stop that. You got someone at work that you're envious of?

Stop that. You got someone at Calvary that you're envious of? They can play a musical instrument better, sing better, know the Scriptures better, got more friends, whatever it is, you're envious of them, stop that.

Love them. When there is love, envy dies. Love does not envy.

And also learn to celebrate the joys and the successes of others. Envy has difficulty doing that, doesn't it? Envy really wants the person to fail.

No, love always, always seeks the good of the other person. Something good happens to them. They're honoured in some way. They make the team. They are… something happens to them.

They're promoted at work. Learn to rejoice with them. When you're envious, you're not experiencing God's love, nor are you focusing on the gifts and the abilities and blessings and opportunities which God has given you. Do you understand the basic that God created you and God loves you? The God who decided on your height, the colour of your eyes, your intellectual, artistic and athletic ability is a God who loves you. This God has purposes for me which are being fulfilled. I am to trust Him. He will… He will guide me.

He will help me. He will give me the strength and the wisdom I have as I depend on Him and as I walk by faith. Have you received the love of God? That comes at the cross, doesn't it? Yes, God loves us in many ways, but His love is supremely seen in the cross. It was while we were His enemies that Christ died for us. It was when we wanted nothing to do with God that God's love comes to us through His Son who dies as the sacrifice for our sins on the cross, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And I wonder if some of you have not yet come to the cross personally, turned from your sin and trusted Christ as your Saviour and experienced that supernatural love which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts. And so John can say, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Why are you not doing that? Why are you not loving that person at school? Why are you not loving that sister?

Why are you not loving that colleague? Lack of love, ask God for that love to flow in your heart, dispelling that envy which is going to be rooted out. And this Christ who loves me will come and fill my heart with His love. Envy is a dreadful, insidious, yes, deadly sin. And the seed of envy lies in all of our hearts. Some of you are thinking, as I am, of people you've known in your life who've been particularly envious.

That's not the point of the message, is it? So ask God today to convict you of any envy, to be content, to root it out, to ask God for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit is now what Paul says, as I think about at the end of Galatians, he says, verse 25 of Galatians 5, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Do we live with the Spirit? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, we do. He gives us the Spirit.

I'm to depend on Him as I'm walking just now. Step by step is the point, it's a daily dependence on the Spirit. You get up in the morning and you ask God to guide you, you ask God for His help. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. And then verse 26, let us not become conceited, no pride, provoking one another, envying one another. Written to Christians. He's talked about the works of the flesh in verse 21, which includes envy. It's a work of the flesh.

It comes from our enemy. It's totally inconsistent with the new life that you have in Christ. Walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, stop provoking one another, stop envying one another, but rather thank God for His goodness in your life. Thank God for the blessings that He gives you.

Thank God above all for the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, and praise and give thanks to God for all of His goodness. And I tell you, the more you thank God and praise God, that envy will wither and wither and wither and walk by faith, and if you've never tasted of the wonderful, immeasurable love of Christ, I invite you to come to the cross and turn from all of these sins. The wonder of the Gospel is that all of the sin, however deep, however horrible, can be totally cleansed.

All of that defilement in your heart and life can totally go as Christ comes and forgives us. We're going to stand and sing in a minute a wonderful old hymn that Christ would be our vision. May you focus on Him and live a life which makes a tremendous difference in our world to display and proclaim Jesus Christ. Eternal God and our Father, we realize how quickly these sins can spring to life in our hearts, but we thank You that we have a greater power, the power of the Spirit. And so, for those who are following Christ, Father, I pray we'll all turn from these sins, give us hearts of love, hearts of thankfulness, hearts of joy.

And perhaps here there's some envy which is really spoiling some relationships in a home at work, even in ministry. May we root them out, Father, give us humility to confess these sins. And for those who have never tasted that the Lord is good, for those who have never come to the cross, may You open their eyes. Father, I do pray. Thank You for the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, and may He be the vision we ask in His name, Amen.