Green With Envy
Have you ever looked over toward your neighbor’s house and wished you had that perfectly manicured lawn with the beautifully landscaped flower beds? You wonder why the grass is always seemingly greener in their yard. It makes you “green with envy.” You look at other people’s social media posts and perhaps feel a little jealous of their “perfect life.” Boy do they ever seem to have it all together. In their posts all you see are well behaved smiling kids, beautiful Caribbean vacation pictures, romantic dinners at five-star restaurants, but in your “picture book” of life all you see are stinky diapers, dirty dishes in the sink, piles of unpaid bills, leaky plumbing, and bags under your eyes. Don’t be fooled by the “perfect lives” you see on social media. I can assure you; those lives are not perfect.
If we are all honest, we do at times feel envious or jealous of someone else. The Bible calls this kind of attitude both harmful and sinful. We find this in Proverbs 14:30, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” In the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he gives us two lists. The first is a list of works of the flesh that can be overcome by walking in unison with the Holy Spirit, while the second is a list of fruit that the Spirit produces in the life of a believer. Included in the sinful acts of the flesh is jealousy. To read this extended passage, Galatians 5:13-26.
To find more about the Sprit-produced fruit, click here to read one of my previous posts.
Did you also know that God calls Himself a jealous God? In the second of the Ten Commandments God says this, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for, I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5). Wait a minute; didn’t you just say that jealousy is a sin?
Let’s look at jealousy in two ways. It is important to understand how this word “jealous” is used. Its use in the passage I just referenced from Exodus to describe God’s jealousy is different from the way in which it is used to describe sinful behavior in Galatians. God is not jealous or envious because someone has something He needs or wants (like your neighbor’s lawn, their well-behaved kids, that promotion, etc.), but rather, God is jealous when we give to someone or something what rightfully belongs to Him – we are to worship God and God alone. The first commandment (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7) is “You shall have no Gods before me.” Jesus says the same thing. In Luke 4:8 He says this, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”
Jealousy is a sin when we desire (envious of) something that is not ours. On the flip side, worship, praise and honor belong to God and God alone, so God is rightly jealous when we give our worship to people or things (idols.) Only God is truly worthy of our praise. In Psalm 145:3 we read these words, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
So, today, I ask you this – Who or what are you envious of? Who or what are worshipping that is making God jealous? God wants all your praise and He is worthy of all your praise! Let go of those things that make you green with envy. Instead, turn your heart and mind to God and worship Him and Him alone! So what if their grass is greener.
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