The description of envy is “a resentful, dissatisfied longing for another’s possessions, position, fortune, achievements, or success.”
Envy is an emotion that manifests in individuals as a result of their comparison.
“Ate up with jealousy”.
It involves where someone feels inferior to the other.
Envy makes a person feel inferior to those they are envious of.
Envy is a form of resentful contemplation.
Focusing on things you don’t have means you’re looking at the world’s ways to achieve your goals and you lose a very beautiful attitude called gratitude.
Studies have shown that gratitude makes us happier. Being thankful helps us 👀focus on all the good in our lives.
The Bible says this about envy
“Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Galatians 5:26. “But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.”
James 3:14. “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”
Envy is an act of the flesh
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19–21; see also Romans 1:29; 1 Peter 2:1–2).
Crucify the Flesh
Galatians 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Crucifying the flesh is not something done to the believer, but by the believer: “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.”
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20 and
Galatians 5:24, it is the believer who has taken action. Crucify the flesh describes a deliberate putting to death of the old sin nature.
2 Corinthians say’s we become New
2Co 5:17 – Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Envy destroys from the inside
The Bible paints a vivid very clear picture of envy’s devastating effects. If left to fester /grow in one’s heart, envy will lead to spiritual, emotional, and physical death: “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30).
But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
James 3:14. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
But if you harbor bitter envy …
Bitter envy and self-seeking: These are the opposite of the meekness of wisdom mentioned in James 3:13. These words actually refer to someone who has a critical, contentious, fight-provoking manner. Who will do whatever it takes to get what they want?
If your heart is one that bleeds dark streams of jealousy and selfishness, do not be so proud that you ignore your depraved state.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
James 3:16
Confusion (disorder, instability, turmoil) and every evil thing: This is the fruit of human, earthly wisdom. I say “Check the fruit basket for rotten fruit or a bunch of fruit flies will show up”
The wisdom of the world, the flesh, and the devil may be able to accomplish things, but always with the ultimate fruit of confusion and every evil thing.
Envy stinks! You’ll detect it with your nose “smells rotten”
Envy is bad not only on its own but also for the company it keeps: For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:3).
The problems a person has in human relationships most generally show that something is wrong in their relationship with God or lack of a relationship with His word.
It was a result of carnality, of a fleshly way of thinking and living.
Carnal – governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God
God wants to deliver us from envy: For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another(Titus 3:3).
Our gratitude for how God changed us.
Remembering where we once showed us that the fallen nature is not so far from us, and we need constant reminding to stay where we should be in the Lord.
Envy is no small sin. It put Jesus on the cross: For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy (Matthew 27:18).
For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy: Pilate saw through the manipulative words of the religious leaders. He knew their motive was envy, not any other concern.
A great way to help kids understand envy let them
Watch this video of VeggieTales: Larryboy And the Emperor of Envy
What will LarryBoy do? Will he conquer his envy?
