Why does “do not covet” make it into the Ten Commandments? To covet is to strongly desire what someone else has. What’s an internal compulsion to want someone else’s stuff doing in a lineup with murder, theft, and perjury?
Did God get to nine and need to bring in a lesser sin to get to an even ten?
Synonyms of coveting include jealousy and envy. What are such lightweight sins doing in a list with orgies and fits of rage?
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21, NIV)
You might go back and reread the last sentence of that quote. Paul literally says that unrepentant lifestyles of jealousy and envy will keep us outside of God’s kingdom. What are nice sins like jealousy and envy doing in such a seedy list?
Any Difference Between Jealousy and Envy?
Is there a difference between jealousy and envy? Often, they’re used interchangeably, as strongly desiring what someone else has. Yet jealousy can sometimes be oriented toward what you yourself have, so that a wife might be jealous when her husband is showing signs of infidelity. In a similar sense, God is said to be jealous for us.
In the Galatians 5 quote above, the word translated jealousy is the Greek word zelos, which always connotes intense feelings. It can either mean positive feelings about something (“zeal”) or negative feelings of jealousy/envy (as seems to be the intended meaning in Galatians 5). By contrast, the word translated “envy” is the Greek word phthonos, which is a covetous resentment toward a person who has something you want. The choice of “jealousy” for zelos and “envy” for phthonos fits with jealousy sometimes having a broader definition than envy as well as with envy sometimes having an added shade of ill-will toward the person (not just covetousness toward what they have).
When it comes to jealousy/envy, it’s hard to say which is scarier to think about: the awful sins whose company they keep—or the depths to which they dissolve, undetected into the human heart. Was there ever an impulse so seamlessly interwoven into everyday life?
“When it comes to jealousy/envy, it’s hard to say which is scarier to think about: the awful sins whose company they keep—or the depths to which they dissolve, undetected into the human heart.”
Everyday Jealousy/Envy
Let’s say it’s been another long day at the office. You wish you had someone else’s job. You walk out to the parking lot. You’re usually tired of seeing your car anyway, but today’s especially annoying because of the brand-new SUV that makes your car look aged and frumpy.
You drive home, passing by the nice part of town on your way to your mediocre neighborhood. It would be so nice to have one of those sprawling houses with the perfect yards and massive garages—each of which holds how many vehicles? Five? Six? That’s the life.
You pull into your driveway after clicking the garage door remote three times as it’s grown increasingly unresponsive the last few months. You go inside, plop down on your worn, stained couch, and veg out on Facebook. With every scroll of the finger, you find yourself wishing for what you see. I wish I could afford to go on that vacation. I wish I were having that dinner. I wish my kids were that talented. I wish I had as many friends as that person. You go ahead and “like” the pic, but you’d only really like it if it were yours.
Every picture, video, and advertisement smiles the same message: don’t you wish this were you? That you could lose that kind of weight? That you could have that level of success? That you could regularly laugh it up for the camera surrounded by friends in expensive restaurants?
Yet God tells us “do not covet” when every walk through the parking lot, drive through town, and scroll through social media reminds us of what we don’t have? Might as well tell us to stop breathing. Why would God forbid something so instinctive?
“Why would God forbid something so instinctive?”
Jealousy & the Fun It Brings
In a minute, we’ll get to why the Bible slaps jealousy/envy with so many warning labels. But before exploring how sinful jealousy is, let’s pause and explore how stupid it is.
Jealousy/envy is the only sin that is absolutely zero fun at all. Robbing a bank might mean money until you get caught. Revenge means at least a second or two of bitter sweetness. Lying to another person can give you a momentary bliss of self-delusion, as you chalk the lie up as success.
Yet when it comes to jealousy/envy, it’s pure misery and zero fun. It’s choosing to lock yourself into a room of resentment. It’s the heart making itself impossible to please. It should absolutely make us question our intuition when we keep returning to a sin that has never once made us happy.
What does the Bible say about jealousy? “It should absolutely make us question our intuition when we keep returning to a sin that has never once made us happy.”
Jealousy and Christian Ethics
As John Whittaker and I describe in our book Following Jesus in a Politically Divided World, Christian ethics are a matter of three C’s: We imitate Christ’s character by obeying his commands, and the results are good consequences (in this life and/or the next). Yes, the consequences for doing what’s right can also be costly. But God promises good consequences as well, such as rewards in heaven for doing acts of righteousness in secret (Matthew 6:1-18) and “that it may go well with you” when you honor your parents (Ephesians 6:3).
When we let our hearts feed on jealousy (i.e., letting jealousy feed on our hearts), we spurn Christ’s character of gratitude and faith, ignore his command not to “worry about your life” (Matthew 6:25), and we reap the consequences:
“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” (Proverbs 14:30, NIV)
“But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (James 3:14-16, NIV)
What’s the result of envy/jealousy? According to James, you get disorder and every evil practice. Wow. Surely that’s hyperbole? Actually . . .
What Happens When We Leave Off #10
Do you ever wonder what would happen if we followed our inclination and x’ed number 10 from the Ten Commandments?
- Honor your father and mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not covet.
There have been eras in which jealousy/envy feels more like virtue than vice in the collective moral framework. A few high-profile examples include anti-Jewish resentment throughout history, the anti-aristocracy resentment of the French Revolution, and the anti-bourgeoise resentment of Communist revolutions. In our own time, we are increasingly conditioned to see society as an interplay of oppressor identities and oppressed identities, with jealousy/envy fueling the fight to “blow the Man down.”
In other words, we don’t have to wonder what happens when jealousy/envy becomes acceptable within the human heart. History gives us more than enough case studies, starting with the very first event that takes place outside the Garden of Eden: Cain and Abel.
What makes jealousy/envy such a scary sin is what it does to other sins. That is, affirming jealousy/envy as acceptable is the crucial step in making other vices seem acceptable too. When left off the vice list, the newly liberated jealousy/envy becomes a false savior, offering justification for the murderer, adulterer, thief, and perjurer alike. Cain felt justified in murdering his brother just as the first-century religious leaders felt justified in gathering false testimony to incriminate Jesus—all thanks to the dark power of jealousy/envy in turning vice into virtue.
What does the Bible say about jealousy? “What makes jealousy/envy such a scary sin is what it does to other sins.”
Jealousy/envy makes less noise than anger and fury as it seethes and strategizes in the shadows, but that just makes it all the scarier when it emerges:
“Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” (Proverbs 27:4, NIV)
An Especially Dangerous Jealousy
Throughout the Bible, history, and personal experience, we see that jealousy/envy causes inner chaos and makes other vices permissible. In addition, there is a particular brand of jealousy/envy which the Bible deems especially dangerous. It’s when the people of God are tempted to envy evil people.
This is when someone who is trying to stay sexually pure starts envying people who sleep around. Or when someone who has tried to stay honest starts envying people who cheat at work and get ahead. This is the person who tries to be peaceable but starts envying people skilled at getting angry and getting even.
Here’s what the book of Proverbs says about this kind of jealousy/envy:
“Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways.” (Proverbs 3:31, NIV)
“Do not envy the wicked, do not desire their company; for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about making trouble.” (Proverbs 24:1-2, NIV)
Thankfully, the Bible doesn’t prohibit without providing. It warns us against this kind of jealousy/envy while inviting us to better, stronger passions:
“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.” (Proverbs 23:17, NIV)
Why are we warned so sternly against envying evil people? Again, Proverbs has the answer:
“Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked, for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.” (Proverbs 24:19-20, NIV)
“Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.” (Psalm 37:1-2, NIV)
What does the Bible say about jealousy? “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither.”
Psalm 37 continues by inviting us into what’s infinitely better for us—emotionally, spiritually, relationally, physiologically, etc.—than giving into jealousy/envy: ““Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away” (Psalm 37:1-4, NIV).
When you play the movie on out, it’s the righteous who ultimately end up having the good time. Sexual immorality might pose as liberation, but it’s actually slavery to agonizing breakups and sexual addiction. Getting ahead by cheating actually gets a person nowhere. A person’s ability to get even is actually an inability to control oneself. There’s no good reason to envy unrighteousness.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
When Does a Desire for Justice Become Jealousy?
Although God through the Bible warns us about the dangers of jealousy/envy, he also calls us to be a conduit of his compassion for people unjustly marginalized. When they saw powerful people mistreating poor and oppressed people, biblical writers called it out, in both Old and New Testaments (e.g., Ezekiel 22:29; James 5:1-6).
That leads me to wonder: when somebody is being oppressed, persecuted, or marginalized, and they want to be treated with dignity and equal rights, is that jealousy/envy? Is it jealousy/envy for the slave to long for freedom or the blind person to wish for sight?
That’s not the picture we get throughout Scripture. We don’t see a karma-based lot in life in which sufferers are suffering exactly what their past lives merited. Rather, we see in suffering echoes of a tragic fallenness which Jesus showed us a distaste toward and a resolve to undo (see John 11:17-44). Jesus didn’t tell the blind person who begged him to restore his sight or the paralyzed man who asked to walk again, “Stop being jealous. Accept your suffering.” Rather, he looked on these people with compassion and healed them.
“We don’t see a karma-based lot in life in which sufferers are suffering exactly what their past lives merited.”
In his parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, Jesus commended the widow who wouldn’t give up pleading to an unjust judge for justice. In the same way, we need to pray to God and not give up asking him for justice, Jesus explained. “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7, NIV).
Jealousy/envy in the Bible seems to be more about wanting what a particular person has—not what humanity is supposed to have in a just, unfallen world. Coveting your neighbor’s house or spouse is putting yourself outside a framework of faith in a good God who provides what you need. By contrast, asking God for justice or freedom or restored health is a way of reaffirming our faith in his goodness and our worth as his image bearers.
All the while, we can’t assume that an unfair life situation makes us immune to the soul-withering that accompanies jealousy/envy. Hatred, resentment, and ill-will can turn victims into villains too. So, even as you pray for things to be made right in your life, don’t leave your heart out of the scope of that prayer.