Fighting Envy
September 17, 2009
Fighting Against Envy
Envy is a vice, a sin, a wrong attitude, thought, and action. The Bible warns against it often. If you want to do more research on envy go to http://net.bible.org/home.php.
The word envy comes from Latin invidere. En comes from “in” meaning against, and VY in envy comes from “videre” meaning to see. So to look at another person’s life, possessions, talents, achievements, gifts, and blessings causing an attitude of against because of them is what envy is about. It is also about turning inward by asking the pitiful “Why not me?” No one wants to live like this since there isn’t even a smidgen of pleasure in this sin. We want to be rid of it.
How then, shall we live free of envy, or at the least live toward an envy-free life? How do we disregard the mirror on the wall in which we desperately want to hear that we are the fairest of them all? If envy has to do with looking against others and pitying ourselves in the process, what practices offer us a fighting chance with this sin that besets us? Peter commands us to get rid of envy (1 Peter 2:1). After all envy was part of the human sentiments that committed the first murder and put Jesus on the cross (see Matt. 27:18; Mark 15:10; John 11:47)
We get rid of envy when we understand and live up to our Identity in Christ. One of the main features of the Christ event (incarnation, life, passion, resurrection, and return) is that we who are in Christ enjoy a new identity. We are new creatures who put away old things and who relish the stamp of Christ on our lives.
How does our Christian help to rid us of envy? Here’s my take. Our perception of personal worth in comparison with other people is a huge factor in envy. The envious focus on the third car garage where our neighbor’s boat is stored. They focus on the talents, on the degrees, on the year-end bonuses, and on the awards their colleagues gets. They ask why not me? Why do they have more worth than I do? It’s a short step to from here to feeling ill will against others. Possessions, affluence, blessing, and talents become the measure of a person’s worth. This is typical in the society we live in. Envy, because of this understanding of self-worth, always crouches at the door ready to incriminate.
What if our identity is not in our work, roles, achievements, or talents? The Christian is cloaked with Christ. The fruit of the Spirit marks his life, not envy or other passions of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-24). Christ in him shapes his identity. If the inner life is not formed in the likeness of Christ, his worth will be determined by his material possessions. In the end these go to the hay and stubble bin.
When the Christian steps out of her identity in Christ to wear another that is based on having and doing, she is trapped in envy’s matrix. When the Christian falsely believes that what she does is less valuable than others, envy is near. When she believes the house next door is better decorated or the kid across the street is smarter and better mannered than hers she is on the slippery slope of envy. This is a dead end. Christ bestows his worth on our families, our activities, and ourselves. This grace enables us to rest in him.
In an amazing tour de force, Paul, following in the footstep of His Master and Ours, equalizes the playing field when he put marginalized people on par with the privileged of society: husbands, fathers, and masters. For example, in Ephesians 5:21-6:9, Paul addresses wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves and masters in a context of mutual submission. The fact that wives, children, and slaves are dignified with an address from Paul and honored for their identity in Christ, radically frees these marginalized people of his day. Worth for Paul is not based on race, gender, or status. There is room for work and achievement but only as a result of the worth that unifies our identity as Christ followers.
The Jew and the Gentile inherit sonship and oneness in Christ. Men and women benefit from following the equal opportunity Leader we obey. The haves and the have-nots are equally needy of love and grace for deliverance. We come to believe that when we abide in Christ, our identities develop from our union with Christ. This unity leads us to prefer others and to love them sacrificially. In this equality of worth in Christ there is freedom from envy. Envy is easy when doing replaces being as the foundation of our identity in Christ.
We also get rid of envy when we practice Contentment. Paul believed that contentment is an attitude worth developing. How to be content? Can Paul tell us? Paul knew times of plenty and times of scarcity. His spiritual economics rested on a reality that is beyond the material. His secret of contentment was a deep appreciation of past faithfulness of God and present experience of grace (Please take the time to deepen your understanding of contentment by meditating on these passages: Hebrews 13:5; 2 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Timothy 6:6,8; Philippians 4:11).
In practicing contentment we intentionally look beyond our mundane existence. We peer into the spiritual reality of the sufficiency of Christ that pervades our life. This practice of peering is best done in times of solitude, self-examination, and fasting. Each of these disciplines contributes a unique vantage point from which we can study our entanglement with envy. Then we can proceed to confession, repentance, reconciliation, and shalom secure in our identity in Christ. Those who walk with the Master are learning that when they experience bounty or scarcity they rejoice in Christ. At times they opt for scarcity of food and friends even when there is plenty of them around in order to appreciate, withdraw, and savor the worth that the grace of Christ bestows on our identity. Envy. Be gone! In Christ I stand content.
On Envy
August 24, 2009
Why Not Me?
Envy made it to the big league of seven sins along with pride, gluttony, anger, sloth, lust, and greed. Its opposite is contentment, the subject of next month’s article. The three words that give envy its impetus are “why not me”.
Is there anyone who doesn’t envy something or someone? I agree with many who croon that envy is the only sin that brings no pleasure at all. As a matter of fact envy is a feeling that is described as sadness, unhappiness, and discontent. What’s fun about that? The other six brothers and sisters of envy afford some pleasure. Envy is the black sheep of the sin family.
So why do we envy? This is worth pondering since inspired men commanded us to get rid of it (1 Peter 2:1; Galatians 5:21).
Envy is born in us when we feel that others have more status, abilities, possessions, gifts, and talents than we do. We feel we deserve what others have. That feeling takes center stage in our thoughts and gives birth to these awful words: “why not me.” Or in the case of a national or corporate envy, why not us?
Nations envy other nations. Israel had a king: God. For reasons I can’t discern they felt a human king is better than a God king! Was Yahweh too demanding on their sinful nature as a people? Did they feel they could get away with more grumbling and posturing with a human king than with the God king? The why not us attitude rooted and sprang up like a weed “we want a king to rule over us like the other nations.”
God laments this request from his people: “They (the people that I rescued from slavery) have rejected me as their king.” And what did their envy of other kingdoms get them? Heavy taxation, wars and more wars, betrayal and intrigue in the palace, children put in front of war chariots, a divided kingdom, another day older and deeper in sin, weaker in morale and morals, subject to attacks, revenge, slavery, and loss of homeland for hundreds of years on end. Their human kings put lusts ahead of the good of the people. And what is the end result of the why not us debacle that crept up on Israel? Exile. A vagabond people! And all the human miseries attached thereunto!
If history is not written from a revisionist posture, I wonder how many wars would be attributed to malicious, nefarious, necrophilia-loving envy.
National envy is likely preceded by personal envy. Here again, the Scripture masterfully gives us the reason hatred and murder came into the world: Envy produced by the why not me attitude. Envy first reared its ugly head in the midst of paradise. Envy when indulged becomes Exile, a sad alienation from others and God.
Cain championed envy in the next generation. He was lackadaisical about his sacrifice to God. His brother, Abel, was dead serious about worshiping God (pun unintended). God called Cain on his envy. It crept up on him. He nursed it. He formed it into a weapon dripping with hate and manipulation, destruction and death as he slew his own flesh and blood. The earth cried out. God stepped in. Another vagabond generation! More exile. We’re still paying for the original why not me? Why does God accept my brother and not me? It never occurred to Envious Cain to emulate the good-hearted Abel.
Today’s advertisement world runs on envy. This industry buys and sells envy. Nothing is sold in America, and now around the world, that is not envy-wrapped. This is not to say that what is advertised is not needful. But why does it need the cloak of envy? From personal care products, to cars, to gum and beer, and you name it, the advertising industry has hit on a cash cow by capitalizing on envy. “What your computer takes 3 seconds to download 10 megabytes? Mine does it in 2.” The three-second guy rushes to the store faster than speedy Gonzales outsmarting his nemesis, Sylvester the cat. “Quick, tell me where the closest Best Buy is, please!”
What about you and me? A friend takes me on a spin in his brand new Lexus. Bells and whistles I’ve never heard of don the dashboard. Silently, envy’s germ gets planted in my heart: Why him and not me? Maybe I should revise my budget and cut out the money I give to the poor. With a little luck in my business I can afford a Lexus too.
The pastor five miles away has to build again. Last year we dropped another 15% percent in attendance at our church. God is good to him but what about me? The next big church conference oughta do it.
A relative retires and now takes several vacations every year. Cuba in the winter, Cancun in the spring, Florence, Italy, in the summer, and a Caribbean cruise is slotted for the fall. Not fair. Why not me?
Never mind the hard work it took these relatives and friends to enjoy the benefits of their labor. What about me?
Those who walk with the Master put away envy. The Holy Spirit is an envy killer. Trust his guidance.
How, in your own life, have you been envious of other people? Can we live free of envy? How are you overcoming the sin that causes so much sadness in us? Next month, we’ll see how.
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