Striving to Keep Envy Out of Our Lives
Romans 13:13 ; Galatians 5:26
Envy is a very difficult thing to keep out of our lives. As we will see in this lesson Envy affects every one of us in some way. Envy also has some horrible results. In the end envy can even be deadly. As we are warned in the opening verses for this lesson we should strive to keep envy out of our lives and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to simply see what the word of God has to say about envy.
What is envy?
Envy – “To feel uneasiness, mortification, or discontent at the sight of superior excellence, reputation, or happiness enjoyed by another; To repine at another’s prosperity or to grieve oneself at the real or supposed superiority of another, and to hate him on that account.”
[American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828]
Before us is the dictionary definition now let us see a biblical definition;
Proverbs 14:30 (Envy is like rotten bones)
- This is an interesting thought because of two result that can be connected to rotten bones. One would be bones that break or have no strength. The other would be a disease that causes the marrow of the bones to not produce white blood cells and therefore our body could not fight of infection and we die.
- With these two thoughts we see that envy destroys use either way. It cripples us with no strength or it leaves us helpless against infections.
Who does envy affect?
The simple answer to this is everyone. This is shown to us in Proverbs 27:4. The truth is that everyone at sometime will have someone that they are envious of. The problem with this is that if we don’t get it out of our lives it could cost us dearly.
To help get envy out of our lives it is good to examples from the word of God and remind us of what envy can cause us to do.
1) Those who delivered Jesus to Pilate did it through envy (Matthew 27:18 ; Mark 15:10)
- We would never like to think of ourselves as capable of delivering an innocent man to be executed especially if that man is Jesus Christ. But the men in this passage did and the reason for it was envy.
2) Joseph brothers sold him into slavery because of envy (Acts 7:9)
- Could you imagine selling your brother into slavery? Joseph’s brothers did an it was directly connected with envy.
What are some results of envy?
There are many terrible things that come from envy but we will look at two specifically from the word of God.
1) Confusion and every evil work (James 3:16)
- These pretty much cover everything that comes from envy.
2) The slaying of the simple one (Job 5:2)
- As we have said before envy can lead to death not only for the one that someone is envious of, but for the one who has envy in their heart.
By looking at the definition and what he bible says about envy we should have a desire to get it out of our lives. But when it rears up its ugly head we should look at the examples and results of envy and get rid of it as fast as we can.
Striving to Keep Envy Out of Our Lives
Romans 13:13 ; Galatians 5:26 (Handout)
1) What are two good verses for showing us that we should not envy?
2) What is a good definition of envy?
3) What is a good biblical definition of envy and what is it connected with?
4) Who does envy affect? (Give a verse with your answer)
5) Who are some good examples in the Bible for seeing envy first hand?
6) What are some of the results of envy?