Christian Community, Envy is a feeling of bitterness and irritation caused by the well-being, success or superiority of a neighbor. Envy is a sin, on it what is said in the tenth commandment: "Do not desire your neighbor's house; Do not desire your neighbor's wife, or his female slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, anything that your neighbor has "
(Exodus 20:17).
The envious person thinks that God offended him by giving good to his neighbor. If envy is a sin, then, like other sins, it has consequences and entails the punishment of God.
Even before the creation of the earth, there, in heaven, there existed God and his angels. Among them was the opaque cherub, which in the Bible is called "the son of the dawn," the seal of perfection, the fullness of wisdom and the crown of beauty
(Ezek.28: 13-17; Is.14 : 12-15).With all his perfection, this angel was not satisfied, he became arrogant and envied God, he raised a revolt, he rebelled against the Almighty, he was thrown down to earth by God and he became Satan, bringing evil to the world. Therefore, envy is a characteristic of Satan, and the devil is trying to sow the seeds of envy in the hearts of people, so that these seeds grow later and bear their bitter fruits.
Hatred and even murder become part of the bitter fruits. From this we have biblical examples:
Genesis 4: 3-8 describes the story of the first family: Adam, Eve and their two sons, Cain and Abel. On a certain day, Cain and Abel brought their gifts to God. God liked Abel's gift, which caused a burning envy of his brother. The Lord saw this and asked Cain: "Why are you upset? ... before your door sin lies; he draws you to himself, but you rule over him. "
Cain did not face his envy. She grew in hatred and, ultimately, Cain killed an innocent brother.
Another fruit of envy is betrayal:
In Genesis 37: 11-28, there is a similar story written about Joseph, who almost died at the hands of his own brothers, when they envied that his father loved Joseph more than the rest of his children. As a result, they did not kill Joseph, but sold him into slavery.
The culmination of the expression of this sin was the death of Jesus Christ, who, out of envy, was committed by the priests to death (see Mat.27: 18). The priests and the scribes saw that Jesus Christ is much more successful than them. Crowds of people followed Christ, listened to him, learned from him. The priests envied Jesus and killed him.
Envy also causes persecution:
The book of Acts 13: 44-45.50 describes the story of how the apostles Paul and Barnabas preached the Word of God. Almost the whole city was going to listen to them, but the Jews, seeing the people, were filled with envy, began to slander the apostles, incited the first people of the city, erected persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from Its limits.
Okay, if you're jealous of someone, you're not very comfortable in that person's company. He tries to leave this company as quickly as possible, and if he does not succeed, then he starts telling jokes about his "enemy" so that he leaves, although he may not know why he is so aggressive to him.
Disorder in the house is another fruit of envy:
This was said by the apostle James: "For where there is envy and controversy, there is disorder and all evil" (James 3:16).
My dear brothers, as the Bible shows us, envy and discomfort are in the same line. An envious person is moody and forever upset with everything, even if she is rich. There is nothing worse than looking at a neighbor's house and comparing it to yours. This leads to a career for life, a rivalry in which you will never be the first, because there will always be someone better than you.
A person who is jealous can not rejoice from the heart. The seal of sadness does not leave his face. And the Bible tells us: "Rejoice always."
In Proverbs 14:30 it says: "A soft heart is the life of the body, and envy is the rottenness of the bones."
Because envy is a sin, it leads to physical damage to the body. Most likely we are talking about several diseases that arise when a person is being wasted.
If you are envious, you should know that you have problems not so much with people as with God, who then reflect on relationships with people. Why with God? Because, as we discovered, envy is a sin in which you have to repent, accept the forgiveness of the Lord, forgive yourself for your sin and accept the healing of your body. (Ps.102: 3)