Envy

In the past several weeks we have at times we have looked at the "seven daily sins" study we are doing at church right now. Today I wan to continue that and look at ENVY. We see envy in the very front part of the bible:



Genesis 4:2-8

2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother;[a] and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.



Wow! Among other things we see here that Cain was envious of Able that God accepted his offering and not Cains. It made Cain so mad that he killed his brother over it. I hope and pray our envy will never lead us to that! But envy can cause us much harm if we do not keep it under control.



Envy is dangerous to us because it is a direct disobedience to God's command "to love our neighbors as ourselves".



Matthew 22:39

And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’



We are also told in the Word that "love does not envy!"



1 Corinthians 13:4

4 ; love does not envy



So let me sum all this up for you. You see when we envy it is selfish! What I want, how I want it, and when I want it. We resent others for what they have and we are at odds with their good. Godly love on the other hand is being selfless, sharing, giving, wanting others to have good before yourself!



So this morning, does envy have control of you or do you have control of envy? If envy has a hold on you this is what you have to look forward too:



James 3:16

16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.



Tom