Envy Defined

Envy is wanting what another person has and feeling badly that I don’t have it. Envy is disliking God’s goodness to someone else and dismissing God’s goodness to me. Envy is desire plus resentment. Envy is anticommunity. Paul said that we are to “rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Envy causes me to mourn when others rejoice and rejoice when others mourn.

Envy is dangerous because it is opposed to other people. Sins like greed and lust are simply about the gratification of my desires. Envy not only seeks self-gratification, but it seeks to diminish the one I…