Envy

I invite you to turn this evening to Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14—find Proverbs in the Old Testament. If you can make your way to the 14th chapter.

So, a good number of months ago, we commenced a study on what I give an overarching title to: Bible Answers for Inner Battles. And we’ve addressed nine different subjects so far—certain struggles that really, if there’s something that marks them all, they can be very much kept hidden. No, they can be manifest outwardly. They can be seen outwardly. We’ve addressed insecurity, depression, things of that nature. And so, we have a few more that I want to address with the Lord’s help, and tonight we’re going to address with the Lord’s help the subject of envy. Envy.

So, just reading one verse to help you with memory. I was going to read from James, but decided against it. I’m going to read from Proverbs 14. You’ll find verse 30. The Word of God says, Proverbs 14 verse 30: “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

This, beloved, is the word of the Lord, which you are to receive, believe, and where appropriate, obey. And the people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we ask that thou wilt give us those lips of thanksgiving and praise, that that psalm would echo with consistency through our being. “Praise is comely for the upright.” Help us, O God, to always enter before thy presence daily with a whole frame of praise. And as we delve into the specific inner challenge, inner sin—that which can be manifest outwardly but begins within the heart—we pray that thou will give light. Take thy Word, shine it into places that are yet unreached. Expose the ground that still remains undefeated and unconquered by thy grace, that we might be fully surrendered and governed by thy Word. Bless us here tonight. Give the Holy Spirit. Whatever opposes, whatever exalts itself against the name of Christ, we pray that that would be conquered, expunged, removed, that we would be delivered from it, and that thou wilt give freedom for the Word to run.

So bless thy people, feed thy sheep and lambs, and should there be any here without Christ, unstop their ears, soften their hearts, and save them tonight. Oh, we’re glad that thou art a God who saves. May they surrender their sin. May they have done with their broken standing before God. And here in this place, come to know Him whom to know is life eternal. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

There are few thought patterns more inherently joyless than envy. Unlike other sins that at least promise some fleeting satisfaction, envy never pleases even for a moment. It cannot enjoy what it has because it is consumed by what it lacks. It cannot love our neighbor because it resents his good. And worst of all, envy quarrels not just with man, but with God.

Over the years, there are some who have tried to find redeeming qualities in envy—trying to find some good in what we describe as envy, or have attempted to perceive good forms of envy. For example, when a person is motivated to achieve more in life because of envy, maybe there’s some redeeming quality there. This may have been triggered by the thinking of Aristotle.

Aristotle said, “Ambitious men are more envious than those who are not.” And while I have no reason to doubt the general truth of the observation there, at the same time, I think one can be motivated to achieve more from a position of wholesome admiration, not just envy. No doubt there are those—envy is the driving influence or engine of what causes them to strive for more. But I think there can be a wholesome ambition, a wholesome appreciation—maybe, is a better way of looking at it—in someone that causes you to be lifted up and strive after something good. And that’s not envy.

I well remember—I can see myself right there in a chair, the last class of the week, exegesis, sitting under Reverend John Greer as he was teaching exegesis, not by principle, but by example, expounding the word—and there were many times I was immensely blessed, but I can still see myself, I can still feel, as it were, a moment on a particular occasion where, with my hand cramped, trying to keep up with the pace of his dictation, and you couldn’t not take it down, because if he saw your hand not moving, he would glare at you and say, “Why are you not writing?”

But with my hand cramped, my heart was overwhelmed. And I remember in a tear—in a condition of tears—saying, with all the sincerity of my heart, “Lord, enable me to preach Christ like this.” I don’t think it was envy. It was admiration, appreciation, and it generated, produced a prayer called upon God: “Lord, help me there. Lift me up to there.”

At the same time, I also remember an occasion—I would, at times I don’t these days, but I would read Spurgeon’s sermons aloud. And I would try to give the inflection and the tonality and just imagining… Of course, I can’t hear him. There are no recordings. But as I’m reading aloud the sermon, another occasion where a tear came to the eye and the realization: “I know I will never preach like this in my life, ever. It is far too high. The grasp of language is something that in ten lifetimes I don’t think I would ever attain to.”

So there can be good things that we see in others that drive us along. But envy is not something we can redeem at all. It is not a redeemable quality. Whatever it appears to give birth to, while some may refer to malicious envy and benign envy, all envy is opposed strongly in Scripture. It has no place in the Christian life.

I’ve read here in Proverbs 14 verse 30: “Envy the rottenness of the bones.” “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

The Baptist commentator John Gill, remarking on this, said: “A man that envies the happiness and prosperity of others, this preys upon his own spirits. It not only wastes his flesh, but weakens and consumes the stronger parts of his body, the bones. It consumes even to the bone.”

Now, there may be a sense in which that is literally true—where such is the feeling of envy, it devours the very health of the person—but at the very least, it is true of even the strongest characteristics of a person may be destroyed by unchecked envy in the soul.

So we want to look at this. I trust the Lord will help us, as I say, as we consider this subject of envy. And we’re following the same outline we have been over the months prior with the other subjects.

Thinking first of the character of envy—the character of envy. We want to see what envy is. What is it? What are we thinking about here? I’ve touched on it already a little, but Webster’s Dictionary defines envy as “painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.”

It is, therefore, a kind of grief at another’s good. It’s not simply wanting what another has, but resenting that they have it. And it differs from jealousy, because jealousy fears losing what is mine, while envy begrudges what is yours. It begins in the heart before it bursts into words and actions. We’re told there in James, he addresses, “if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts”—he’s trying to check it in the heart before it manifests all sorts of wickedness.

So that’s what envy is. Spoken briefly, but what are the categories? How do we categorize envy and understanding its character and other aspects of it? What are the categories of envy we may see?

Well, there are many examples of envy in Scripture. Biblically, as we read through the narratives, you see it all through, right from the beginning. You can think of Cain and Abel. You can think of Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and Aaron. Saul before David, Ahab and Naboth, Haman, Mordecai. These are just some. There are other examples on the envy undergirding a spirit of one party toward another.

And across these examples, we discover, again, different ways in which they are brought about, the different contexts in which we may see them.

For example, one: envy of temporal goods—envy of temporal goods, the material, envying at their wealth, their possessions, their worldly success. James in James 4 verse 2 says, “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.” And so at its heart, you see the Tenth Commandment being broken, where covetousness produces this spirit that cannot see the good of others—not simply wanting what they have, but driving energy that is destructive in its character.

Envy of temporal goods. Envy of natural gifts—envying beauty, intelligence, skill, things of this nature, things that are maybe inherent in someone and manifest in various ways. And we look at them and we measure ourselves against another, measuring ourselves against their body, against their mind, against their abilities. We resent their advantage. And it is really the seed and product of envy that we look at this and we despise what it is we see.

In Numbers 12 verse 2, Miriam and Aaron envied Moses for his prophetic gift. It says, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?” And they begrudged his spiritual superiority.

You can think also of the envy that Rachel had of Leah’s fertility. Again, it’s a sense of—you put it down to a natural gift, something they possess inherently under God, and they look at that and they see it, and there’s… You see there in Genesis 30 verse 1, it says it explicitly: “when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister.”

So envy of temporal goods, envy of natural gifts, envy of spiritual graces. You see, the graces of others—their gifting before God, their experiences before God, their usefulness in the church, their apparent growth and holiness. It’s an amazing thing. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone being envious of the spiritual growth of another person. Something you say to yourself, “Is it possible?” And then you see it.

Paul addresses the envy of the Corinthians. I don’t think it’s by chance—he’s not just speaking generally when he says in 1 Corinthians 13, that “charity envieth not.” That was directed to some people. “Charity envieth not.” Maybe it was tied in to that partisan spirit that’s addressed in the first chapter.

Whatever the case, he addresses it. He also spoke of preachers. Preachers—they didn’t like him. It says of them in Philippians 1:15, “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife.” They preach Christ from a posture of envy.

Envy of temporal goods, of natural gifts, of spiritual graces, of honor and reputation. In the order of life, as natural course, some men or women are preferred. They are lifted up, they are given position—positions that not everyone can possess. Saul envied David when the women sang his praises in 1 Samuel 18. That drove him nuts with envy.

Pilate was aware that the Jewish rulers envied Christ, Matthew 27:18. “He knew that for envy they had delivered him,” is what the record says. He saw right through it. That shrewd Roman governor saw right through their masquerade. He said, “I know—I know what’s driving this: envy.”

In John 12:19, the record is given: “The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.” That was the problem. The honor that Christ was receiving, the recognition, the reputation.

And finally, envy in office or ministry. When one resents another’s role in leadership—again this ties into maybe spiritual graces and even reputation, but it’s very specific. You think of Korah and Dathan and Abiram gathering others—many others—to challenge Moses and Aaron. “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” “Why do you do this?” Numbers 16. Of course, it was to exalt themselves. It was an envy at the office and ministry of Moses and Aaron.

So these are some of the ways, some of the categories you see as you go through Scripture, and it comes up over and over and over again. The Spirit of God wants you, as you read through your Bible, repeatedly to see this issue. Why do you think that is? Because it’s not an uncommon problem. It’s not a rare revelation of the heart of man.

So what does it do? What does envy do?

Well, it rots the soul. “Envy is the rottenness of the bones.” You think of it—destroys the individual who possesses this feeling. Rots—rots them.

It breeds, of course, strife. It results often in slander. It creates division. Again, you go through the examples that I give of the various times we see it—Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers. There’s no harmony. Envy can’t be there and there also be harmony. There’s always the outworking of division, strife, slander, and so on.

But it also offends not only the neighbor, not only destroys others around you and yourself, but it’s an offense to God. It resents providence, despising the good that comes upon others. And when it is allowed to fully grow and mature, it may result in sins like murder, as you see in Cain and Abel, as you see in Saul and what he tried to do to David.

So what are the causes of envy? We’ve seen the character of it here in brief. What are the causes of it?

Well, again, to quote Aristotle, he says, “We envy those who are near us in time, place, age, or reputation.” “We envy those who are near us in time, place, age, or reputation.” And there’s truth to that.

And it reminded me of something I read by J.C. Ryle. J.C. Ryle said this—oh, how this hits home—”When a man can see no beauty in living saints, but much in dead ones, his soul is in a very rotten state. The Lord Jesus has pronounced his condemnation. He is a hypocrite in the sight of God.”

I’ll tell you, beloved, in our quarters of the church, that applies with a frightening amount of consistency and frequency. Oh, we look at Luther, Calvin, and go back to Knox, and we herald these saints of the past, even give space for church fathers, and so on and so forth. But as soon as someone is living in the same time or place, or there’s any kind of proximity—as Aristotle said, “we envy those who are nearest in time, place, age, or reputation”—we don’t tend to envy the dead. Why is that?

So what are its causes? Why is this something that is in the heart of man? I’ve been asked—some have given feedback: “Hey, are you gonna deal with this or that or the other?” And some of those comments have been helpful. And I invite them—that’s fine, as long as you allow me to reserve the right to follow what you’re saying or not, to decide.

But one of them, of course, someone said, “Are you not gonna deal with pride?” Pride is in all of them. Pride is in every single thing we have addressed, every one, and that’s the first cause of envy. Pride.

The root of envy is pride. Pride loves to be uppermost. If another is praised, pride feels displaced. It measures worth by comparison and it produces then envy, but pride is at the root.

I think it then makes sense when Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 that he ties envy with pride. “Charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”

So pride—do you have a problem with pride? Then envy’s always a danger. If you’re gonna eliminate pride from your heart, believer, you’ll never have a problem with envy. But you can’t—not here, not in this life. And so while pride is a danger to you, so is this, which we call envy.

Unbelief is also a cause of envy. Envy murmurs against providence. I mentioned that already. It doubts that God has dealt wisely or kindly with us, questions what He has bestowed or not. It resents what we have received or what God has withheld. It’s unbelief. It’s unbelief.

“No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “All things work together for good to them that love God.” And unbelief says those verses, that kind of language of Scripture, encouragement of what I have, doesn’t apply because of what I see in my life. And so we’re riddled with unbelief.

There’s also idolatry. Envy reveals what we worship. If wealth is your idol, then you’re gonna envy those who attain it. Again, especially in relation to proximity. You may not really envy—I mean, if envy’s really taking hold, I guess you can be upset at Bill Gates and Elon Musk and people like that, but generally speaking, the average person kinda just watches that and says it is what it is.

But when you’re around people, when people are close to you—maybe even a sibling—and they prosper, they advance, they go forward, you see them doing better, having the things that you would love to possess, and you make measurements again of comparison that you believe you’re smarter than they are, you’ve worked harder than they have, but you don’t have the end product that they possess—again, it shows idolatry. If wealth is your idol, then you will envy those who attain it.

You see these individuals, you think, “How come? Why don’t I have it?” If ministry is your idol, then you’ll envy those who have the form of ministry that you have, or perhaps as more often the case, the fruitfulness. You’ll envy the fruitfulness that you perceive they possess or have enjoyed that you have not. And it shows idolatry in the heart.

Envy discloses a rival God in the heart. It shows that your God is not the true living God. It’s this other thing—wealth, recognition, position, whatever. So, idolatry is there.

Fear and insecurity. Envy thrives on the lie of scarcity. You think of the thought of the socialist. In a free market economy, wealth is not a fixed pie. The idea is, in a truly free market economy—of course, there’s nothing perfect, but generally speaking, in a free market economy, the economy will continue to grow and make space for everyone. That’s generally understood to be the case.

But socialist thinking, of course—they’re envious. They believe there’s not enough to go around. The only way to help the have-nots is to forcefully take from the haves. Envy’s driving them. The fears, the insecurity.

Rivalry and religious zeal. Envy festers where there are comparisons, especially among those who are closest, like I’ve said—siblings, colleagues, fellow believers. The brothers envied Joseph. That’s what we’re told.

It’s an awful thing that religious envy is a thing, that perhaps one of the least checked or confessed sins in the church is envy among the religious. And this is what James is addressing—without turning to it, where they tried to mask their zeal. “This wisdom descendeth not from above.” He says it is “earthly, sensual, devilish.” He’s addressing the church—a kind of zeal within their heart that they tried to justify. And James pulls back the curtain and shows them the true character of it.

So what’s the cure for it? What’s the cure for envy? Its character, its causes, and its cure.

Well, no doubt temperament can play a part. There are things that are provoked, that provoke certain people more than others. And sometimes depending on how we’ve been raised, it’s been observed or this kind of spirit has not been properly addressed. And so again, some people will struggle with it more and it may go to nature and environment of their childhood and so on.

But it’s so dangerous. So how do you cure it? How do you cure it? How do you prevent slander and malice and all the evil fruits that it will produce eventually?

Well, first, repentance. You have to identify and repent of it. You will never get deliverance from something you’re not willing to acknowledge. This is so often a problem. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” That text that is quoted a number of times, taken from the Old Testament, quoted in the New Testament a couple of occasions, I think—I think it’s Peter and James. It undergirds so much of the problems that people face.

“He resisteth the proud.” Well, what does pride do? Pride defends, makes excuses, finds arguments to say, “It doesn’t apply to me.” When the Holy Spirit’s pointing His finger at a matter and it comes close to home, it finds some way of saying, “It doesn’t apply to me.” You know what that does? It leaves you on your own. “God resisteth the proud.” You’re on your own.

“But he giveth grace to the humble.” He pours it in. The individual who says, “I have a problem with this. I have felt this. I have looked across in the place of my employment. I’ve seen those who have been elevated faster. I’ve observed how they have progressed in ways that I think should be true of me.”

You think of the world in which we live, the power of the visuals that are at play in our world. I mean, there was a time when you would live in a community and you would never see in your entire life the things that you see daily today. And how the marketers know—they play on forms of visual perfection, what’s perceived to be perfect, calls people to long after things that destroy their soul, make young women again look and say, “That’s what beauty is and I have to conform to that.” They’re playing on the pride that is there within humanity and will manifest in envy as they look and say, “I want that. That product will help me attain it. That surgery will help me acquire it,” or whatever it might be.

The same for young men. You hear young men talk, speak sometimes, and I think, “You know, if Absalom was around, you would have gone after him. His flowing locks, his ability to steal the heart—he would have stole yours.” You see, this is why I aspire to be—”Look, everyone loves him. I want to be loved like that.” Longing for—even in a way that produces can result not just to a form of greed, but even expressions of envy in the heart.

So there has to be repentance. When Peter writes in 1 Peter 2, he says in verse 1, “laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies.” “Lay them aside. Lay aside your hypocrisy. Lay aside your malice. Lay aside your envies.”

You have to lay them aside. And that’s what repentance is. It is an intelligent and deliberate confession of something you know to violate the law of God that is not in conformity to God’s will, is not glorifying to God, is not Christ-like.

You say, “Well, it’s just ambition.” Is it? Is that all it is? “It’s just something that helps me to be motivated.” Is that all it is? You need to have that feeling in your heart to be motivated? What is the chief end of man? “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” If that doesn’t motivate you, you’re off track.

Beloved, name it a sin. I fear some people harbor envy for years. Name it a sin, confess it. Confess it, truly, from the heart. Think of it—you think of it in that sense of it’s not just how you relate to the person, it’s how you’re relating to God. You’re thinking that God has gotten it wrong. Repent. Repent.

There’s repentance. There’s mortification. Envy is the work of the flesh. It needs to be mortified—put to death. That’s the sense of mortification. Put it to death. Not just putting off, but put it to death. Yes, repentance, naming it, acknowledging it, but putting it to death. Crushing it, not allowing it to live.

And you put it to death, of course, it leaves a vacuum. What are you to fill that vacuum with? Love. Love. “Charity envieth not.” And where envy is, it needs to be turned out, and love needs to be put right there. Love.

Love for God: “No matter what you bestow upon me, O God, I will be content. I will appreciate it. I will receive it as a gift from your hand.”

Contentment. Repentance, mortification, contentment. We are to be content. It’s an expression of our faith. Isn’t it? That’s what it is. God says, “I will provide. Not a sparrow falls, but he knows. The hairs of your head are numbered.” And faith rises up and says, “God is in control of everything.” So, in that knowledge of his absolute control and his perfect sovereignty, there is, bred within the heart of the Christian, a spirit of contentment.

So, whenever the envy of temporal goods arises, what’s the answer? Hebrews 13 verse 5: “Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee.” We’ll get to that in due course—that’s Hebrews 13. Eventually we’ll get to Hebrews 13, God willing. But “content with such things as you have.”

You think of the language he brings in alongside contentment with material stuff. What is it? The promise of his presence—not the promise of gain. There are verses in the Old Testament that Paul could have quoted to give them a sense of he’s going to prosper us materially. That’s not what he says. “Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee.”

In other words, listen, the possession of all possessions is God. You have God. “Be content with such things as ye have.” Ye have God.

When we envy natural gifts, what are we doing? Just throwing aside the fact that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139: you’re “fearfully and wonderfully made.” You—you are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Oh, to think of it, the dignity of every human being made in the image of God. It’s a wonderful thing. It drives all our ethics, all the laws toward one another—the dignity of every human being, including ourselves. So let us not be envious of natural gifts. To be able to see someone who’s gifted and appreciate it.

The envy of spiritual graces—what are we to do? To rejoice in the diversity of gifts of the body. I’m not going to take the time to go to 1 Corinthians 12. We see the body, the many members, the diversity of gifts in that body. We are to appreciate and value all of that because—what is the point?

Imagine your foot took a will for itself and decided, “I resent being a foot. I want to be a nose. I like the idea of smelling things,” whatever. It’s like, you know, it’s ridiculous. But this is the way the church operates when it looks at the other members and says, “I want to be that.” When God has already said, “This is what you are. I’ve gifted you here.” And that nose would be utterly useless at walking. So you stay in your place because that’s what you’re designed to do. Walk.

The envy of honor—seeing the honor that others receive. Just go to Philippians chapter 2. Go there and see the mind of Christ, our Savior willing to humble himself and become “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” “Let this mind be in you.” “Let the same mind be in you.”

Envy in ministry. All these things—there should be a contentment. You think of some of the things Moses went through when he was attacked in this way. I imagine at times he could have turned and said, “You know not what you ask for.”

Contentment. Repentance, mortification, contentment. Humility. Humility.

The cross of Christ, rightly understood by the believer, is the death of envy. How can you stand at the cross? How can any of us stand at the cross and know that one of the key driving expressions of the wickedness of the human heart that put Jesus Christ on the cross was envy? Envy put the precious Lamb of God, the precious Son of God, the precious Redeemer on the cross. Envy did that.

The Christian ought to be horrified at its existence in the heart. And yet Christ there, having experienced envy putting him there, looks upon those around him and says, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

And then put on Christ. Take humility, take the humility of Christ, and then put on Christ. Romans 13, we’re told: “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Walk honestly as in the day, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Put on Christ. Envy will not exist. It can’t. It has no part in Him, no existence within Him. So daily we put on Christ. We clothe ourselves with Christ. Intentionally, we say, “Lord, I put on Christ. Let the Spirit of Christ govern me today.”

I think what I’ve already said is the driving cure for this problem. I’ve mentioned several things, breaking them down—repentance, mortification, contentment, humility, putting on Christ.

But seeing that envy stands at the heart of man’s rejection of Jesus Christ, that it is the sin that crucified the Lord of glory, it ought to drive it so far from us. It ought to have no place in us because it is an enemy of our Savior and put Him on the cross.

It’s not a small blemish. It’s not something for you to say, “I have a little bit of envy here. It’s not a big problem.” It is a big problem. It rots the soul. Read here: “envy the rottenness of the bones.”

How many men who began so well the Christian life, how many women who seemed so on fire for God have been destroyed by letting envy fester? They were overlooked. Someone else was asked to take the Sunday school class. Someone else got married when you wanted to get married. Someone else got the job you aspired to. Someone else managed to pass that exam that allows them to continue in that course of professional life.

However—however it creeps up in the heart—there is no, there ought to be no minimizing of its horror and wickedness. It rots the soul. It is devilish. As I say, it always brings division wherever it is.

You’ve seen it in children—had to check it in them. It destroys peace. It reflects atheism. It despises God. It pulls down others.

And yet think of Christ. Think of Christ. What did He seek here on earth to do? To serve others. To make you fit for glory. He saw you in your lost condition. He saw you in your plight. And He took the responsibility to come here, divest Himself of the glory that was there and rightly His in glory itself, and take our nature, be “despised and rejected of men,” and walk among us, serving us, that He might go to the cross for what end? To be able to clothe you with glory, to clothe you with a righteousness that sees you justified before the living God.

He gave up His glory so you might attain glory, and in so doing is exalted to glory. That pattern is what God honors. When we desire to serve the ends and benefits of others, God sees that. And that’s what he honors.

Envy militates against that. It’s all about self. And until you destroy it, you will never know the freedom of serving with a spirit of genuine contentment, rejoicing in your own state, as well as rejoicing in the state and condition of others.

Seek the love of Christ. Where the love of Christ lives, envy dies. That is the need.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

As we wait before the Lord, let me just be a little more direct to the young people here, the young adults. It’s not exclusive to your stage of life, but it is definitely a predominant challenge—a sense of comparison, striving to be better than others, looking at what they have, seeing what you don’t have, constantly living in this flux. And all it produces is misery.

Go against the general spirit that you see. Value your peers. Seek to encourage those who are struggling, maybe in a class that you take, or in the place of your employment. Seek also to appreciate those who are the best around you. It can be a lonely thing to be number one in some context—you see that. Learn to appreciate the status, gifting, and condition of others. And thank God for your state as well.

Lord, we pray, deliver us. Deliver us from that which Pilate saw in those religious leaders. “He knew that for envy they had delivered him.” We pray that thou wilt be pleased to eradicate all envy from us. We’ve seen families destroyed because of envy, siblings striving against one another, have seen churches destroyed by envy. Please, O God, grant that it will not be named once among us.

Give us a true contentment in all we receive in your providence. Help us to know that we have the possession of all possessions—that God is our God and He will be our guide even unto death.

So we thank thee for thy Word. We thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to put Him on every day. Have mercy on those without Him. Have mercy on those in the darkness of their sin. Draw them to thyself.

Bless our time of fellowship. Equip us for the week that lies ahead. Make us a positive testimony in our homes and in our community. Fill us with the Spirit of God. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God now and evermore. Amen.