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Love Inconsistent with an Envious Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:4) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. I'm your host and I'm looking
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forward to walking through another text of you.
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Today we're taking a stack of sources, articles, historical
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documents, theological treatises and trying to extract the most
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vital Nuggets of truth. Today we are opening up a
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document that I suspect will be quite uncomfortable for many of
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us. I know it was for me.
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To help me parse through this, I have our resident expert here.
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It's good to be here. I always appreciate the chance
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to sit down and really work through these older texts.
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They often have a way of cutting through the noise of our modern
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lives. That is certainly true of the
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author we're looking at today. We are focusing on a sermon, or
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really a treatise by Jonathan Edwards.
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The title is Love Inconsistent with an Envious Spirit.
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It's an exposition of First Corinthians 13.4, specifically
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that little phrase charity envies.
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Not now. I think when most people hear
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the name Jonathan Edwards, they have a very, very specific image
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in mind. They usually do.
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Yeah. The immediate association is
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sinners in the hands of an angry God.
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People picture a man obsessed with fire and judgment, perhaps
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shouting from a pulpit, dangling his congregation over the pit of
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hell. And while Edward certainly
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believed in judgment and preached on it, that caricature
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misses the vast majority of who he was.
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It really does. He was a brilliant analyst of
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the human heart. He understood human affections
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and emotions with a level of precision that is just rare in
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any era. That's what struck me reading
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this source material. This doesn't feel like an angry
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rant. It feels like a surgical
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procedure. He's taking a scalpel to the
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human ego. That's a great way to put.
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It But before we get into The Anatomy of Envy, I think we
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should set the stage regarding the theological perspective
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here. We call this show Reform
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thinking for a reason. Edwards is writing from a
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specific framework. He is, and it's a framework
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that's essential to understanding what he's doing.
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We're operating under the assumptions of classic Reformed
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theology. One of the primary things to
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keep in mind here is the doctrine of indwelling sin.
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Edwards is not writing to people he assumes are perfect.
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He's writing to Christians who, while justified by faith, still
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contend with the corruption of their old nature.
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So he's not talking to them, the people out there, he's talking
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to us. He's talking to us.
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The Westminster Confession speaks of this corruption
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remaining even in those who are regenerated.
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So when we talk about envy today, we're not talking about a
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problem out there for the wicked.
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We're talking about a battle that takes place inside the
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believer. That's a really important
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distinction. We're assuming that the Holy
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Spirit is necessary for any real change, but that the raw
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material of our hearts still has this tendency toward, well,
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toward rot. Yes, the fight is real.
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So our mission in this deep dive is to look at this specific rot
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envy, understand why Edwards sees it as completely
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incompatible with a Christian spirit, and then go through his
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diagnostic tests. It's a worthy mission, though
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likely a painful one for anyone listening, honestly.
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I think so. Let's start with the definition.
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We use the word envy a lot in casual conversation.
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Oh, I envy your car or I envy your vacation.
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But Edwards is getting at something much, much more
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specific than just wanting nice things.
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How does he define it? He is very precise.
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He defines envy as a spirit of dissatisfaction with and
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opposition to the prosperity and happiness of others.
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OK, as compared with our own? The comparison that that seems
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to be the operative mechanism. There it is, the hinge upon
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which the whole sin turns. You can be dissatisfied because
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you're in pain. If you break your leg, you're
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unhappy. That's not envy, That's just
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suffering, right? Makes.
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It can be dissatisfied because you're poor and can't feed your
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family. That's not envy.
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That's legitimate want. Envy is a distress that arises
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solely because someone else has something that you do not, or
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has more of it than you do. So if I'm sitting in a room and
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I'm reasonably content, maybe even happy with my lot, but then
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someone walks in who is, I don't know, happier, wealthier, or
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more respected than I am, and suddenly my contentment
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vanishes. That's envy.
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Precisely. The other person's happiness
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becomes your misery. Their gain feels like your loss,
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even if nothing has actually been taken from you.
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Wow. Edwards points out that this is
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intrinsic to the natural man. In our fallen state, human
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beings have a driving desire to be, in His words, uppermost.
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Uppermost. We want to be at the top of the
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hierarchy, we want to be distinguished.
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We want to feel special, superior.
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We want to be the alpha. We do, and because we want to be
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superior, we view the elevation of others as a direct threat to
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our own standing. If you go up, I relatively go
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down, even if my actual circumstances haven't changed at
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all. It's a 0 sum game of status.
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Edwards brings up a nuance here that I found really
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counterintuitive at first, but the more I thought about it,
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incredibly accurate. He talks about who we tend to
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envy. We don't usually envy people who
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are vastly superior to us. No, we envy our equals.
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That's his singularity principle.
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It's brilliant. We want to be unique in our
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eminence. If someone is vastly above us,
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let's say a king, or in our modern context, A billionaire
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celebrity, we rarely feel a burning personal envy toward
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them. They're in a different
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stratosphere. Their success doesn't reflect
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poorly on us because we're not in the same category.
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We're not competing in the same race.
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I don't lose sleep over the fact that I'm not Jeff Bezos.
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It doesn't even register. But if your neighbor, the one
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who lives in a similar house, drives a similar car and works a
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similar job, if he suddenly gets a massive promotion or his kid
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gets into Harvard and yours didn't.
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Oh, that stings that. Stings.
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Why? Because he's a peer.
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His success highlights your lack of success.
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He is a mirror, showing you what you could have been or what you
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think you should have been. We can tolerate a distant
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superior, but we cannot bear a rival.
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We want to be the only one standing on our particular
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pedestal. That proximity is what makes it
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burn. It explains so much, you know,
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office politics, academic rivalries, even family dynamics.
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Sibling rivalry is such a common theme in literature and history
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for this very reason. It's the people closest to us
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who trigger this the most. And Edwards uses biblical
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history to prove this point. He goes through several case
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studies of envy in Scripture, and they almost all involve
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close proximity or family relations.
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It's a pattern. Let's look at those.
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He mentions Moses and Joshua. This is from Numbers Chapter 11.
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I found some really interesting. This is a fascinating instance
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because it shows envy appearing even in a righteous person like
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Joshua, though he was, you know, younger at the time, right?
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The context is that God had taken some of the Spirit that
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was on Moses and put it on 70 elders to help him lead.
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But two of them, a couple of guys named Eldad and Maydad,
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remained in the camp and started prophesying there.
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And Joshua's reaction was immediate.
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He runs to Moses and says, My Lord Moses forbid them, stop
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them. Joshua was envious, but notice
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the twist. He was envious for Moses's sake.
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He wasn't saying I should be prophesying.
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He was saying only Moses should be prophesying.
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He's trying to protect Moses Brand, so to speak.
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Yes, he felt that if these other men were prophesying, it
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diminished Moses's authority and uniqueness.
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He thought Moses is the leader. He should be the only one with
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this Direct Line to God. This makes him look less
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special. And Moses's response is one of
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the high points of his character in the whole Old Testament, I
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think. It is.
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It's incredible, Moses says, envious.
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Thou for my sake would God that all the Lord's people were
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prophets, and that the Lord will put his Spirit upon them.
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Just a complete lack of ego. A total largeness of heart.
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He wasn't worried about his comparative status.
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He cared about the glory of God and the good of the people.
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If everyone prophecies, God is glorified.
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Moses was secure in his calling. Joshua at that moment was
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trapped in that comparative 0 sum mindset.
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Then Edwards moves to a much darker example, Joseph's
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brothers. This is the classic story of
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family dysfunction. It is the archetype of envy.
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Genesis 37. Now we often think the brothers
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hated Joseph because their father Jacob favored him.
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The code of many colors and all that.
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And that was certainly part of it, a big part.
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But Edwards highlights that the specific trigger for their
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hatred was the dreams. The dreams about the sheaves of
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wheat bowing down, and the sun, moon and stars.
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Dominion. The dreams implied purely that
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Joseph would be superior to them, that they would bow to
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him. It wasn't just that Joseph was
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loved, it was that Joseph was going to rule.
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That prospect of inferiority drove them to a murderous rage.
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It's one thing for your brother to be the favorite.
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It's another thing for him to tell you that one day you'll be
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his servant. Exactly.
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And the text says something so telling they could not speak
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peaceably unto him. That phrase always sticks with
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me. It wasn't just that, they
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argued. It was that the envy had so
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corroded the relationship that a normal, peaceful human
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interaction was impossible. They couldn't even say hello or
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pass assault without the bile rising up.
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That is what envy does. It destroys the capacity for a
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relationship. You cannot truly relate to
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someone you view as a rival to be destroyed.
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They cease to be a person and become an obstacle.
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Speaking of rivals to be destroyed, Edwards brings up
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Haman from the book of Esther. I think this is perhaps the most
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vivid illustration of the psychology of envy in the entire
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Bible. Haman is the perfect case study.
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He's almost a lab specimen of pure envy.
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Let's just look at his balance sheet for a moment, OK?
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He is the Grand Vizier of Persia, the second most powerful
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man in the known world. He has immense wealth.
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He has ten sons, which was a huge sign of blessing.
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He has the King's complete trust and favor.
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He even gets invited to private banquets with the King and
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Queen. He has everything a person in
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that world could possibly want. In terms of worldly success,
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he's at the absolute pinnacle. He is, and he knows it.
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He gathers his friends and his wife, Zoresh, and he recounts
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all his glory. He literally lists his assets.
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It's like he's reading his resume to them, but then he says
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this incredible thing. Yet all this avails me.
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Nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jews sitting in the
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King's gate. The math of that is just
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staggering. Everything he possesses, wealth,
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power, family status counts for zero.
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It avails me nothing. Why?
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Because one man, a minor official, refuses to bow to him.
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That is the insanity of envy. It negates your own blessings.
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It hollows out your entire life. You could be eating the finest
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food in the Empire, but if you are envious, it tastes like ash.
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Heyman had enslaved his entire happiness to the behavior of 1
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rival because he could not be the absolute, undisputed object
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of worship. He felt he had nothing.
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It really paints envy as a form of self torture.
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Heyman was the one suffering. Mordecai was just sitting at the
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gate doing his job. Heyman was the one going home
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miserable every night. That's why Edwards emphasizes
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that envy is a self-destructive spirit.
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It's a fire that burns the vessel that holds it.
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It hurts you far more than it ever hurts the person you envy.
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So we have defined the feeling. It's this comparative misery.
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But Edwards also breaks down how this spirit manifests outwardly.
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It's not just a static emotion. It has a progression, a life
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cycle. He lists several stages.
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It usually begins with what he calls uneasiness.
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This is that internal discomfort.
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When you hear of another's prosperity, it's a lack of
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peace. That feeling in the pit of your
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stomach, yeah. Exactly.
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You hear someone got a raise or got married or their book got
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published, and your spirit just sinks a little.
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It's a quiet grief over someone else's good fortune.
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I think most of us, if we're being honest, have felt that
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it's the why not me reflex. It's almost involuntary.
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And from there, if it's not checked, it often evolves into
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schadenfreude. This is a German term that fits
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Edward's description perfectly. It's a secret gladness when the
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prosperous person meets with some misfortune.
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Taking pleasure in someone else's pain.
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Yes. When Heyman sees Mordecai in
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danger, he is thrilled. When we see the person we envy
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stumble, lose money or get criticized, there's a part of us
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that feels a sense of relief. We think, good.
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They're being brought down to my level.
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It's a dark kind of justice in our minds.
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We feel the scales are finally balancing.
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But it doesn't start that passive enjoyment of their
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failure. It moves to active opposition.
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This is where slander comes in. Edwards points out that because
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we often can't strip a person of their actual success, we can't
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take their money or their talent.
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We try to strip them of their reputation.
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We want to lower them in the esteem of others.
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So we gossip. We hint a character flaws, we
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minimize their achievements. Oh, he only got that job because
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he knows the boss. She's successful, but you know,
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she neglects her family. We use our words to level the
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playing field. We can't build ourselves up, so
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we try to tear them down. And finally, Edward says, this
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matures into settled hatred. This is where Joseph's brothers
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ended up. They didn't just resent the
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dreams. They threw him in a pit and sold
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him into slavery. Envy is not a harmless emotion.
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It's a seed that grows into murder, either literal murder or
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the murder of a reputation and a relationship.
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That is a heavy, heavy diagnosis.
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OK, so we see the anatomy of the disease.
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Now we need to look at the healthy alternative.
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Section two of our discussion covers the Christian antithesis.
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Edwards argues that a Christian spirit is the direct opposite of
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this envious spirit. He breaks the Christian response
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down into two categories which are really helpful, the negative
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and the positive, or to use his theological terms restraint and
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mortification. Let's discuss restraint first.
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What does that look like in practice?
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Restraint is the immediate tactical response.
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It's what you do in the moment. It's what you do when you feel
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that flash of envy rise up, because again, we have
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indwelling sins. So the flash will happen.
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The thought will pop into your head.
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So the goal isn't to never feel it.
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No, not initially. The goal of restraint is to not
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obey it. It is the act of disallowing
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that feeling to take control. You refuse to let it express
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itself. You bite your tongue when you
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want to make the snide comment. You refuse to click on the
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gossip article. You refuse to act on the impulse
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to sabotage. So it's treating the envy like a
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dangerous beast that must be caged immediately.
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You recognize it, name it, and lock it down.
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Yes, you catch it, you recognize it as sin, and you stop it from
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acting. But Edwards would say that is
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not enough. Christianity is not just
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behavior modification. It's about a change of nature
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that brings us to mortification. That is a strong word.
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It sounds, I don't know, medieval.
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It comes from the Latin for death.
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It means putting to death. Colossians 3.5 says Mortify
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therefore your members which are upon the earth.
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The Christian spirit seeks to kill the root of envy, not just
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trim the branches. It seeks to subdue the very
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principle of competitiveness and pride in the heart.
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So restraint is damage control, but mortification is trying to
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solve the problem at its source. That's a great way of putting
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it, and Edwards ties this directly to the theology of
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contentment. This is where it gets very
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practical. This is where the reformed view
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of Providence becomes so important.
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Incredibly practical. Edwards argues that a Christian
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is content with their station because they believe God has
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allotted it to them. He has sovereignly placed them
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there. He cites Philippians 4.11.
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I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be
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content. The logic is this.
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If you believe that God is sovereign, wise and good, then
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you must believe that the position you are in right now is
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the post He has assigned to you. Whether you are a CEO or a
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janitor, whether you are famous or obscure, that is your
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assignment from the commander in chief.
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So to envy someone else's post is, in effect, to quarrel with
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God. It is.
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It's telling the general that he made a mistake in where he
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deployed his troops. It's a form of rebellion against
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his wisdom and goodness. That reframes the whole issue.
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It stops being about me versus is my neighbor and starts being
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about me versus God's wisdom. It's a vertical problem, not a
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horizontal 1. It is.
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Edwards uses the example of the body from first Corinthians 12.
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If you are a hand, you do not envy the eye.
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You are content to be a hand because that is where the
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Creator placed you. Whether one is an Angel in
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heaven or a beggar like Lazarus at the gate, the Christian
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spirit bows to the sovereignty of God.
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You find your dignity in being God's creature, not in being
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better than the guy next to you. But Edwards doesn't just leave
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us in a state of, you know, stoic acceptance.
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Grit your teeth and accept your lot.
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He pushes for something much more dynamic.
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He calls for active rejoicing. This is the high bar of
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Christian love. This is where the gospel really
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shines. Romans 12.15 commands us to
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rejoice with them that do rejoice.
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This is the offensive weapon against envy.
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True benevolence adopts the neighbors prosperity as one's
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own. I love this concept because it
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completely flips the math we talked about with Haman.
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It does. It shatters it.
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Think about a healthy family. If your child wins a gold medal,
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do you envy them? Of course not.
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You are ecstatic. You might be even happier than
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they are. Their victory is my victory.
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Exactly why? Because you love them.
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Their identity is tied up with yours.
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Edwards is saying that in the body of Christ we are called to
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that same organic connection. We are one body.
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A blessing to the hand is a blessing to the whole body.
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O if I truly love my neighbor in the church, when they get a
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blessing, I get a blessing too, just by witnessing it and
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rejoicing in it. You brought in your capacity for
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joy exponentially. If I can only be happy when I
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succeed, my opportunities for happiness are very limited.
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But if I can be happy when you succeed and when she succeeds,
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and when he succeeds, then my sources of joy or multiply.
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I have access to the aggregate happiness of the entire church.
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Envy locks you in a solitary confinement of misery.
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Love gives you the keys to the whole Kingdom.
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That leads us perfectly into the third section of our discussion,
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the gospel argument. Edwards moves from the practical
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and psychological to the intensely theological.
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He argues that envy is contrary to the very nature of God and
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the gospel. He starts by looking at the
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precepts of the New Testament. The Bible does not treat envy as
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a minor flaw or a personality quirk.
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It's not a small thing. It lists it in Galatians 5
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alongside murder, drunkenness, and witchcraft.
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It's a work of the flesh that, if it characterizes your life,
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bars you from the Kingdom of God.
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And James 3 describes it in those three chilling words,
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earthly, sensual, devilish. And he takes that word devilish
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quite literally. But before we get to the devil,
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let's look at the nature of God the Father and God the Son.
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This is a powerful contrast. Edwards points out that God the
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Father is the definition of generosity.
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He did not begrudge humanity his own son.
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He gave his most precious treasure.
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He poured out the greatest treasure of heaven for us.
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He is a giving God, not a hoarding God.
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If we are his children, we should bear the family
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resemblance. We should be generous with our
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spirit, not stingy and resentful of others.
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Good. And then there is the example of
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Jesus. Edwards spends a good amount of
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time looking at how Jesus handled rivals or potential
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rivals. The relationship between Jesus
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and John the Baptist is a prime example.
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John was a celebrity in his own right.
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All of Judea was going out to him.
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He had the crowds. He was the man of the hour.
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Right then Jesus the Messiah, the Lord of glory, comes onto
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the scene. He doesn't dismiss John.
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He doesn't try to undercut him or steal his followers.
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He goes to John to be baptized. He honors John.
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He submits to the order of things to fulfill all
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righteousness. He elevates John and later when
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the crowds tried to force Jesus to be a king after he fed the
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5000, he just withdrew. He didn't grasp at worldly
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status. No.
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And then there's that remarkable moment in the upper room in John
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14, where Jesus tells his disciples, he that believeth on
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me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than
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these shall he do. That is mind blowing when you
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stop to think about it. A teacher usually wants his
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students to be good, but he rarely wants them to be better
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than him. He wants to remain the master.
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But Jesus says, I am going to the Father and I'm sending the
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Spirit so that you can do works that are even greater in scope
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and extent than what I did during my earthly ministry.
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He's empowering them to eclipse him in terms of the spread of
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the gospel across the. Globe, He holds nothing back.
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Nothing. He wants him to share his
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throne. That is the absolute antithesis
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of envy. It is pure self giving other
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centered love. So to love is to imitate Christ.
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But Edwards draws this incredibly sharp contrast.
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To envy is to imitate the devil. This is where he unpacks the
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devilish nature of the sin. Edwards identifies envy as the
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specific driving motivation of the fall.
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Why did Satan come into the Garden of Eden?
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Why did he tempt Eve? It wasn't because he was hungry
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for the fruit he couldn't eat. No, he was a fallen spirit.
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He was utterly miserable. And he saw these new creatures,
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Adam and Eve, walking in paradise, beloved by God,
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enjoying a perfect happiness that he had forfeited, and he
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hated it. He envied their bliss.
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He could not stand to see them happy.
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So he set out to destroy them. That is chilling.
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It means that when we envy, when we see someone happy and we feel
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that desire to tear them down or see them fail, we are reenacting
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the fall. We are playing the part of the
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serpent in the garden. That is the theological weight
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of it. You cannot claim to be a
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follower of Christ while harboring the spirit of the
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devil. The 2 are mutually exclusive.
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You are either working for the restoration of joy in the world
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like Jesus, or for the destruction of joy like Satan.
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There's no middle ground. That brings us to the root
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cause. If this is such a terrible,
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devilish thing, why is it it's so natural to us?
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Why is it our default setting? Edwards has one word answer.
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Pride. In Edwards theology, pride is
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almost always the root of sin. It's the master sin, he argues,
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that we envy because we have an inflated view of our own worth.
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I look at myself and I say I am excellent, I am wise, I am
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deserving. Then I look at you getting the
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reward and I say that's unjust, that should be mine.
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It's a feeling of entitlement. I deserve better than this.
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I deserve what they have. Exactly.
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If I were truly humble, if I saw myself as Edward sees the
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Sinner, as a person who has rebelled against God and
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deserves nothing but judgment, then I wouldn't be angry when
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someone else gets a gift. I'd be shocked that I got
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anything at all. A humble man is surprised by
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mercy. A proud man is offended by the
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mercy shown to others. So the only cure for envy has to
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be love. It's the only thing that can
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displace that pride. Love is the only thing strong
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enough to kill pride, Edwards says.
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Love works in two ways, the direct tendency and the indirect
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tendency. The direct tendency is what we
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talked about earlier, seeking the good of the neighbor,
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rejoicing with those who rejoice.
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Right. If I love you, I want you to be
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happy. It is psychologically impossible
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to hate the success of someone you genuinely cherish.
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It's a contradiction in terms. But the indirect tendency is the
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one that really deals with the pride.
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This is about our love for God. Yes, this is the ultimate cure.
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Edwards argues that when the soul is truly in love with God,
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it sees his infinite beauty and excellence in the face of that
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vast, stunning glory. Our own little comparisons here
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on Earth shrink to nothing. It puts everything in
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perspective. It does.
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It's like 2 ants arguing over who is taller while standing at
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the foot of Mount Everest. The majesty of God relativizes
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all human status. When you are captivated by God,
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you just don't care as much about whether your neighbor has
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a slightly bigger house. You have God, that is enough.
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Now we arrive at the most practical and probably the most
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uncomfortable part of the treatise.
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Edwards moves from theology to application.
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He calls for a great self examination and I have to say
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this is where I felt the most conviction.
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He asked us to look backward and forward.
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He starts by challenging the listener, challenging you to
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review your past, look at your history in business, in your
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family, in the church. Be honest with yourself.
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When that rival failed, when that competitor went out of
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business, When that popular person in your social circle had
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a scandal, did you feel a secret pleasure?
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Did you feel a little lift in your spirit?
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Or the opposite, has you felt a heaviness when a peer succeeded?
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Just a weight on your chest because someone else is flying
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high and you're not. He then asks about the present.
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Is there an eyesore in your life?
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That is a very evocative term. He really is.
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Is there a person whose mere presence irritates you?
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You see them walk into the room or you see their name pop up on
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your phone and you just bristle and you need to ask yourself
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why. Is it because they are actually
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doing something wrong to you? Or is it because they represent
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a success or a standing that you crave?
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He also brings this directly into the context of the church.
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Do we carry a grudge against someone who sits at the Lord's
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table with us? This is a serious charge for a
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Reformed believer. We are coming to the table to
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partake of the body and blood of Christ, which symbolizes our
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unity in Him. If we are kneeling there while
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secretly wishing I'll upon the brother or sister kneeling next
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to us, we are living a profound contradiction.
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We are tearing apart the body that Christ died to make whole.
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Edwards knows that we are masters of self deception, so he
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spent some time dismantling our excuses.
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I want to walk through these because I have definitely used
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them and I'm sure others have to.
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The first is the unworthiness defense.
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This is the classic. I don't envy him.
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I just, I don't think he's worthy of that honor.
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He's not qualified. He's not a good leader.
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I am just concerned about the standards of the institution.
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It sounds so noble, so objective, we frame it as a
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concern for quality or justice. But Edwards cuts right through
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it. He asks, did Heyman think
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Mordecai was worthy of his position?
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Did Joseph's brothers think Joseph was worthy of those
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dreams? Of course not.
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Envy never thinks the object of envy is worthy.
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That is how it justifies itself. You tell yourself they are a
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fraud so that you can feel righteous in hating their
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success. This leads to the fault finding
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mechanism. We become what he calls fault
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rakers. We become detectives for their
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sin. We rake up the faults of the
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prosperous person to justify or dislike.
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Sure, he got the promotion, but he's arrogant.
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He ignores his kids. He's rude to waiters.
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We create a dossier of their failures.
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And Edwards asks a simple diagnostic question.
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If that person were poor and obscure, would you be so fixated
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on those faults? Right.
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And the answer is almost always no.
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We overlook the sins of people who don't threaten us.
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We generally ignore the flaws of the obscure.
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We only magnify the flaws of the winner that proves that our
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concern about their sin is actually just a cover for our
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envy of their success. Then there is the bad use of
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prosperity defense. This is the I'm doing this for
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their own good excuse. Wealth will ruin him so I want
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him brought down to humble him. It's for his spiritual
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well-being. Edwards has a brilliant litmus
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test for this. He says OK, if you really love
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him and are worried about his character you should grieve his
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calamity. That is the bad character
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traits, not his prosperity. Can you unpack that difference?
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That's a key distinction, sure. If I am a true friend and you
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get a lot of money and start acting arrogant, I should mourn
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the arrogance. I should pray, Lord help him
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handle this money well. Keep him humble.
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Don't let this ruin him. My grief should be directed at
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the sin. Not at the bank account.
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Exactly. I shouldn't pray, Lord, take the
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money away. If my desire is for you to lose
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the blessing, that is envy. If my desire is for you to have
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the blessing and the character to sustain it, that is love.
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If you find yourself secretly glad when they lose the goods,
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you're not a compassionate friend, you are an envious
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rival. That is a piercing distinction.
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There is really no place to hide from that.
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It exposes the motive completely.
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He also touches on spiritual envy, which we mentioned earlier
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with Joshua. This is perhaps the most
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insidious form because it cloaks itself in piety, envying
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spiritual gifts. Why can he pray with such power?
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Why is her ministry growing while mine is shrinking?
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It's the syndrome of the elder brother.
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In the prodigal son story, he was angry that the father was
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gracious to his sinful brother. He envied the grace shown to
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another. And that is a terrible place to
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be angry at the grace of God. When we envy spiritual gifts, we
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are essentially telling the Holy Spirit that He distributed his
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gifts incorrectly. We are questioning the wisdom of
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God Himself. As we wrap up this deep dive,
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let's look at the conclusion of the matter.
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Edwards It gives us a final vision of where this sin leads.
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He quotes Proverbs. Envy is the rottenness of the
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bones. It's a disease, it's a spiritual
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cancer. It corrupts the person from the
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inside out. And he uses a very vivid image
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here, the Caterpillar. Yes, tell us about the
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Caterpillar. That image really stuck with me.
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He says envious persons are like caterpillars that delight in
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devouring the most flourishing plants.
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They look for what is green and beautiful and healthy, and their
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instinct is to eat it and destroy it.
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That is the nature of envy. It cannot create, it can only
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consume and destroy. It sees life and wants to turn
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it into death. And he contrasts the two final
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destinations of the human soul, hell and heaven.
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He paints a picture of what each place is like in its essence.
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This is a powerful vision to end on.
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He describes hell as a world of mutual envy.
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It's a place where everyone hates everyone else's existence.
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Every soul is miserable, and every soul resents the existence
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of every other soul. It is a cacophony of universal,
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unending resentment and bitterness in heaven.
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Heaven is a world of mutual love and rejoicing.
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In heaven, every soul rejoices in the happiness of every other
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soul. So imagine this.
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If there are millions of Saints in heaven, and they are all
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perfectly happy, and I am perfectly happy for all of them,
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then my joy is multiplied millions of times over.
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I don't just have my own joy, I have the aggregate joy of the
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entire redeemed humanity. It's an eternal reverberation of
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delight. That is a stunning thought.
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It suggests that our capacity for joy is directly linked to
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our capacity to love others. The more we love, the more we
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can rejoice. Precisely.
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If we kill envy, we open the door to infinite joy.
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If we cultivate envy, we sentence ourselves to a private
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hell, even here on earth. The call to action, then, is
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repentance. It has to be.
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It is. We cannot just treat this as a
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bad habit to manage. We must confess it as the
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heinous sin that it is. We need to say, Lord, I have
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this earthly, sensual, devilish spirit in me, please kill it.
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Give me your spirit of love. We need to ask the Holy Spirit
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to implant that virtue of charity that envies not.
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This has been a difficult, but I think a really necessary
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conversation. It is the kind of theology that
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hurts before it heals. That is usually the best kind,
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the kind that does real work. So to summarize, envy is not
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just wanting something, it is sorrow at another's good, driven
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by pride and comparison. The Christian antithesis is
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contentment with God's Providence, an active, genuine
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rejoicing in our neighbor's blessing.
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And the ultimate choice is whose image we will bear, the image of
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the envious serpent who hated the joy of Eden, or the image of
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the loving Christ who gave his life to restore it?
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I want to leave you with a final thought, something to chew on as
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you go about your week. If we truly loved our neighbor
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as ourselves, their victories would be our victories.
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Their joy would be our joy. The question I'm asking myself,
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and I hope you ask yourself, is this If you cannot rejoice in
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another success today, whose spirit are you actually
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manifesting? Christ who emptied himself for
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us, or the one who resented Eden and wanted to burn it all down?
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That is the question. Thank you for joining us.
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This has been a deep dive into reformed thinking.
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We will see you next time.