Envy – Proverbs 14:30-31

Everybody (a, b, c) acknowledges that there is a lower intensity envy that can actually motivate us to improve, but that there is a destructive kind of envy, like that being addressed here in Proverbs.  One says, poetically, “Envy eats away at anybody it can and burns everything to the ground. It kills every living thing and moves as fast as a tsunami. Envy is as destructive to ourselves as it is to others. It’s a feeling that can truly ruin a life.”

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Proverbs 14:30–31, ESV)

There is no peace in the heart of the envious.  They are embittered that they do not have or cannot have the trappings in life that they see others have.  If they are lazy they do nothing about it but stew.  If they are diligent they strive for the goal of getting whatever it is they think will make them happy.  That is the wrong path to begin with, a bone rotting path.

Where does tranquility come from for the envious person?  It will come from ceasing to crave what others have and looking out for what others need.  The envious person will only find rest when he acknowledges that God has made us all and is our source of peace and joy, and when he acknowledges that God has given us the task of loving other people, not using or abusing or envying them.

The envious person does not really change until he becomes the generous person.  Then he has ceased stewing in the lack he feels he has and has begun seeing the genuine lack others have and finds ways to address that.  This is the 180 of true conversion.