LOVE IS NOT ENVIOUS
1 Corinthians 13:4
Envy is the desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable things belonging to someone else. Envy is marked by covetousness and resentment. Envy is ultimately destructive. Job 5:2 puts it plainly: “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.” (Philippians 2:4).
For every human being, resentment is like a disease that eats up the person. Christians, most especially, must never be envious. Envy will draw you away from God and stunt your spiritual growth, making you a spiritual infant in the kingdom of God. Paul told the believers at Corinth (1 Cor. 3:1-3): “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ.… For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”
Apart from drawing you away from God, envy makes you miserable. When you’re envious, you fail to appreciate what God has done for you or his goodness in others, and you are not thankful for his blessings. Envy steals your joy and robs God of his glory, and that’s a big problem because God will never share his glory with another person. Envy also leads to other sins. James 3:16 says: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” When you are envious of other people, you tend to become desperate to acquire what they have and desperation will lead you to do just anything, whether right or wrong, to get that thing.
Envy got Satan thrown out of heaven, and envy will also keep many people from entering the kingdom of heaven. “The acts of the sinful nature 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). Guard your heart will due diligence. Don’t allow envy to rob you of the good things God has in stock for you. Instead, allow love to prevail in your life. LOVE DOES NOT ENVY. Be genuinely happy for people and God will turn to you and it will become your own turn.
PRAYER: May envy never take hold of my life in Jesus’ name.
