What does the Bible say about envy?

Use these prefiltered searches to craft sermons and prayers, offer pastoral care, or plan worship services around the theme of envy. 

Cain and Abel

• Genesis 4:1–8, envy leads to murder

This passage marks the start of the history of envy. God favors Abel's offering over Cain's, provoking Cain to anger and then to fratricide. The incident is the first in a biblical pattern in which God surprisingly prefers one person over another—typically the younger over the older—and then has to deal with the loser's envy. Think Jacob and Esau, Leah and Rachel, Isaac and Ishmael, Joseph and his brothers. God may have preferred Abel's offering because it really cost Abel something to give it: he gave the choicest cuts from his most valuable stock while Cain brought garden-variety produce. Or God may have preferred Abel's offering out of the blue. To an envier, it doesn't matter. The other person's advantage is unfair either way. 

Resentment of another's ministry 

• Numbers 11:26–28, Joshua responds with envy

This passage describes Joshua's resentment of Eldad and Medad's prophecy. The two of them hadn't gone to the tent of meeting, where the Spirit had inspired the seventy elders to prophesy. They had stayed home from church that day but started prophesying anyhow, and Joshua didn't appreciate it one bit. See also Mark 9:38, where John complains to Jesus about someone from outside their group who was casting out demons in Jesus' name, saying, in effect, "We're the authorized exorcists, as you can see from our T-shirts." 

Moses and Aaron 

• Numbers 16, a group of Israelites envy Moses and Aaron

The story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (with echoes in Psalm 106:16) tells of God's judgment on those Israelites who envied the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 

Saul and David 

• 1 Samuel 16–31, Saul envies David

These chapters give us the incomparable Saul and David stories. David is a teenager with beautiful eyes who became a giant-killer in his duel with Goliath and therefore a rival to his own sovereign, the stormy King Saul. Saul had been Israel's undisputed war hero. But now a talented rookie is making the crowds roar and the women sing about David's superiority in battle. This made Saul very angry (1 Samuel 18:7–8); in fact, it made him want to kill David. 

Envy poisons 

Several Old Testament texts warn that envy poisons the envier, including: 

• Job 5:2, resentment and envy kill the foolish
• Proverbs 14:30, a peaceful heart gives life, but envy rots the bones

Evildoers 

Several Old Testament texts caution believers against envying the wicked or evildoers: 

• Psalm 37:1, don't be envious of wrongdoers
• Proverbs 24:1, 19, don't envy the wicked

The idea appears to be that envy of the wicked is superfluous. The wicked may appear fat and sassy, but they cannot endure. 

New Testament references

New Testament references to envy are of roughly four sorts: 

1. Vice lists (texts in which envy is an undiscussed item in a list of vices):

   • Romans 13:13
   • 2 Corinthians 12:20
   • Galatians 5:21
   • 1 Timothy 6:4
2. The fruit of worldliness (texts in which envy is an exhibit of worldliness):
   • 1 Corinthians 3:3
   • James 3:14
   • Titus 3:3
3. Envying Jesus and Paul (texts in which envy is the motive for handing over Jesus to the Romans or for opposing Paul's ministry):
   • Matthew 27:18
   • Mark 15:10
   • Acts 17:5
4. Various other texts, including the all-day employees in the vineyard resenting advantages given to the latecomers (Matthew 20:15), or the elder brother resenting the party thrown for his younger brother (Luke 15:28–30) or Martha resenting Mary's sabbatical for study (Luke 10:38–40), or John the Baptist's disciples resenting the crowds Jesus is drawing (John 3:22–26) 

Sermon ideas about envy 

Envy is not jealousy 

Is envy the same as jealousy? Despite ordinary usage and meaning in current English, envy in the seven deadly sins tradition is not the same thing as jealousy, which is the keen desire to keep and protect goods one already has. (God wants people's worship not to drift toward idols: God is a jealous God. A husband wants to keep his wife's love for himself; he is properly jealous of it.) 

Envy is not covetousness 

Neither is envy the same as covetousness, which is an unhealthy desire for the goods of another and thus classically a motive to steal. (In the 1930s, the Japanese cast a covetous eye on the natural resources of Manchuria.) 

Envy is not emulation

Neither is envy emulation—the desire to equal or surpass someone in achievement or quality. ("After hearing Wynton Marsalis, I wanted to go home and practice my trumpet for hours.") 

Envy vs. gratitude 

Envy's opposite is gratitude to God for the genuine goods with which God blesses others. This is a high calling. Church fathers sometimes commented that it's easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. 

Schadenfreude 

How else can a sermon on envy convey the concept? Envy's natural corollary is what the Germans call schadenfreude—the enjoyment of others' misfortune. The envier not only sorrows over another's good fortune and wants it to end; he or she also rejoices in another's misfortune and wants it to persist. 

Pure evil 

Nearly all the other seven deadly sins (pride, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust) have an element of pleasure in them. Not envy. It's pure evil, as sickening to the envier as to everybody else. 

Translation insights 

What can we learn about the meaning of envy in other languages? In Kassem, a language spoken in the African nation of Burkina Faso, the word envy or jealousy is translated wu-guu, which means "inner-being-killer." In the Burkinabé culture, when a person is envious of someone, it hurts his inner being almost to the point of killing him. Envy is more than just wishing to have what the other has; it also means wishing the other person doesn't have it, perhaps leading to violent or destructive behavior.