THE UGLY PICTURE OF “ENVY”
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
“Real change is an inside job. You might alter things a day or two with money and systems, but the heart of the matter is and always will be, the matter of the heart.” (Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado) It’s very unfortunate to know that so many Christians are like the fruit in our illustration- the picture. It looks beautiful and colorful. It’s shiny and looks very clean. It’s actually the ugliest pepper I got from the store. It has dirt at the bottom and the shape of it doesn’t look like red pepper. Christians who lives in envy, strife and jealousy were like that, they look nice and talk nice, but deep inside their heart are those sins that destroy and eat them like a cancer. (Proverbs 14:30) “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.” Evangelist Billy Graham said; “Sin is like a deadly cancer, inexorably bringing suffering and death in its wake.” Envy indeed is an ugly sin in the heart of man that destroys relationships, families, churches and organizations.
This was the sin that caused King Saul to run after David. Envy was the sin that made Joseph’s brothers hated him so much up to the point where they even planned to kill him. (Genesis 37:11; 18) 11- “And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying. 18- And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.”
