Category: Sermons

Subject — Envy
Theme — Collective Envy

Proposition — An examination of institutionalized envy in a culture will help us to understand why Proverbs 27:4 suggests that envy is something that is nigh unto impossible to stand up against.

Purpose — Therefore having looked at collective envy let us seek, by God’s grace, to not be swept up and be participants in this collective envy.

Introduction

We moved to this question of envy because of how it is connected to the sin of murder as mentioned by the Heidelberg catechism.

Question 106. But this commandment seems only to speak of murder?

Answer: In forbidding murder, God teaches us, that he abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, (a) hatred, (b) anger, (c) and desire of revenge; and that he accounts all these as murder. (d)

We pretty much understand hatred, anger, and the desire for revenge but it is my conviction that we don’t really understand envy, and that because it is in the air we breath, culturally speaking.

Last week we set the table for our discussion on envy. We considered some significant Scriptures that teach on envy. We briefly traced out how envy has been spoken about by some of the Early Church Fathers. And we spoke about envy on a personal and individual basis. And then concluded by looking at some solutions to envy.

As we continue now this week we return to the definition that we gave for envy.

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. And the irony, which we will explore more next week, is that envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

Schadenfreude — taking joy or delight in another person’s misfortune.

What we want to ask this morning is what does envy look like when it becomes the norm among a people group and becomes institutionalized among a people and their culture.

Proverbs 27:4 asks rhetorically, “Who is able to stand before envy?”

This morning we want to see why the writer of proverbs views envy as being such a fearsome enemy.

And indeed Envy is a fearsome enemy. In Scripture we find envy stirred up against godliness in others

Daniel 6:3-5 Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. 4 So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”

Envy stirred up against prosperity of others

Ps. 73:3 For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Envy stirred up against who are favored / successful

I Samuel 18:6 Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. 7 So the women sang as they danced, and said:

“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.”

8 Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

And so Proverbs 27:4 asks “Who can stand before envy,” and in the last few examples of envy we saw how it can work on a basis of a individual against another individual but we want to probe this morning what it looks like as a collective culture operates with envy as a foundational starting point for the culture. Surely, if Proverbs 27:4 is correct that envy is a powerful enemy on a personal basis how much more so if envy becomes part of the bowels of a culture?

Organized cultural envy produces two children that we are going to consider this morning. These two children, if nurtured by the allowance of envy to proliferate and spread end up going a long way towards creating a anti-Christian mindset among all who are members of the culture.

I.) Egalitarianism as one offspring of Envy

Since envy is concerned with bringing the successful, prosperous, and superior person down, the long range effect of envy on a culture as a whole is to produce a culture where all are equal — equal in the sense of nobody being allowed to distinguish themselves by way of ability.

A Envious culture will set cultural wide norms that are not to be exceeded. There will be a kind of cultural coercion toward mediocrity and the mediocre will be increasingly defined downward.

This most often reveals itself via the move to insure that all think alike, that all belong to one class only, and that all share a similar heritage and inheritance.

A.) Think Alike (Intellectual Envy)

1.) For example in our Educational Programs we have largely institutionalized envy so those who have the skills to excel in learning are held back in order to insure that those who are slower and perhaps are not as gifted are not left behind. While well intentioned such a program has the effect of doing what envy always does and that is it works to level achievement to the level of the under-achiever. The one who might academically distinguish themselves, if given the opportunity, is retarded in their advancement out of our desire to make sure that that all advance together.

2.) In our culture with its mass media owned by a comparative number of small outlets, what is moved towards is a mass communication that gives people the same information resulting in a group think. This group think makes for a egalitarianism in opinion and goes a long way towards achieving the goal of envy by insuring that there will be protection against originality in thinking, protection against free and unfettered intellectual exchange of ideas, and
protection against superiority in thinking of individuals.

Remember the goal of culturally institutionalized envy is to pull down the superior so that the result is a grand leveling effect. This results in the creation of Mass Man — the herd — where no one distinguishes themselves and all are the same. All think the same, look the same, act the same, and all have the same.

Illustration — Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeson”

“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.”

So begins Vonnegut’s 1961 short story.

Vonnegut goes on to describe the conditions of this equality brought on by the cultural wide presence of envy:

They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

This government enforced equality was achieved by imposing prosthetic technologies on those who were above average; these prosthetics, however, were designed not to enhance, but to diminish. So, for example, ballerinas who might otherwise rise above their peers in grace, elegance and beauty, were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

Then there were those of above average intelligence like the title character’s father, George Bergeron.

[He] had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their intelligence.

Whenever George began to formulate a complex idea, which often involved questioning the status quo, a sharp, piercing noise would shoot in his ear distracting him and derailing his train of thought. Sometimes the noise was like a siren going off, other times “like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer.” Regular and incessant, the distraction overwhelmed and undermined natural intelligence.

3.) Political Correctness

Conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities should be eliminated.

Political correctness has as its goal this leveling conformity where all think alike. Thinking that leads to conclusions that one lifestyle should be preferred above another lifestyle because it is superior is not allowed because those who are living the inferior lifestyle use envy as a tool to make all lifestyles the same.

The envy of the intellectually mediocre establishes a conceptual standardization so that it may denounce and condemn those who don’t conform to the officially approved thinking mode.

B.) All Belong To One Class (Social Envy)

Roosevelt, in the 1936 campaign ran against the “Economic Royalists.” The incipient idea in casting one group of Americans as “Royalists,” over against another group who were not is a classic example of envy being used as a motivating tool. The idea was then to pull the Economic Royalists down so that economic egalitarianism, as fueled by envy, could be established.

But this applies to not only the moneyed but to any class of people who have developed some kind of superiority. Envy works to eliminate categories of superior and inferior so that all can be the same. We see this working itself out in children’s contests where it is insisted that everyone get a medal and that all are winners. Again, this is well intentioned but such a mindset reflects the work of envy which insists that all are the same. The refusal to recognize the achievers does not lift up those who tried but failed, but instead pulls down those who tried and succeeded.

C.) All similar patrimony (Familial Envy)

This is envy working to insure that no family rises above another. Estate taxation and death taxes are the way that our collective envy works to make sure that families which are inter-generationally gifted can not rise above other families.

If Abraham were alive in our time he would be severely faulted for sending his servant back to his own people to find a bride for Isaac. Because of familial envy it is thought that all families are equal and so no consideration should be given to a family background that a potential spouse may come from or that a potential adopted child might come from.

The end result of envy then when embraced collectively by a culture is to migrate ever downward to the lowest common denominator. Cultural envy when institutionalize leads to the constant integration into the void. Institutionalized envy leads to the flattening out of all distinctions and cuts at the roots any ability to distinguish oneself from the herd.

Culturally wide accepted envy forces those who are envied for some distinction that yet remains to avoid the eye of envy by insisting that they are not superior in any sense, that all others are equal to them, that they believe the catechism of envy and egalitarianism is true and that they join with the envious in condemning to exile all who not swear allegiance to the code of equality.

Now just a word about where all this culturally institutionalized envy leads eventually,

Envy intervenes with increasing negativity in several capacities. Envy shunts aside the intelligent, the strong, and the virtuous and does not encourage others to pursue and develop these abilities. Scholarly envy towards the best and most studious produces and promotes academic laziness and loss of interest in critical and analytical thinking skills. Social envy creates obstacles to the public recognition of the best.

In short … the more envy there is in a culture, the less the collective capacity to propel forth great men and women.

So, having considered all this we can better understand why the writer to Proverbs could say, “Who is able to stand before envy?”

And the ironic thing is that after all this work to achieve egalitarianism, the envious still do not have their envy lifted from them for envy poisons the sweetness of all the sources and streams of human enjoyment. Indeed, this is a sin that as the proverbs says rottens the bones.

By way of conclusion let us continue to probe some ways that we might cure envy in ourselves.

Emulation

In Hebrews 11 the writer is encouraging those with a less than adequate faith to emulate the heroes of the faith.

Emulation is a cure to envy. Instead of envying those who are gifted or talented in some way we ought to try and emulate them. I will never be the Theologian that G. K. Beale is but I can admire him and seek to emulate him and even if I never become as talented and gifted as he is I can be as talented and gifted as I can be.

Gratitude

We can be thankful for our betters. Instead of trying to pull them down via envy we can thank God that he has raised them up to be a gift to us.

Mind our own business

It is enough for each of us to seek to be the best that we can be for the Glory of God. This means we haven’t enough time to be envious of others because we are so busy honing the gifts that God has given us. There is no need to preoccupy ourselves with what we don’t have if we preoccupy ourselves w/ improving what God has given us.

Remember our guilt is taken away by Christ

Envy is born of feelings of inadequacy and the resultant guilt. It may be the case that in some endeavor one may be inadequate because they simply don’t have the abilities but there is no need to feel guilty and so use envy to pull down the qualified. Instead, because we know our guilt has been taken away we can acknowledge our inadequacy and be happy for those who are gifted and talented.

We Weep w/ those who Weep and Rejoice w/ those who rejoice

The Christian rejoices with his fellow Christian who is talented above him. He glorifies God that God sovereignly distributed His gifts as he deemed best. Are we willing to say with John the Baptist … “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Text – I Tim. 1:2-5, 3:14-15
Subject—Passing on the Faith
Theme – The place of the family in passing on the faith
Proposition – The place of the family in passing on the faith should make us very careful to raise our children with an eye to covenantal faithfulness on our parts

Purpose – Therefore having seen the place of the family in passing on the faith let us praise God that He has given us the privilege of teaching our children Christ.

Introduction

Spheres – Family Sphere

The importance of the Family Sphere in the work of the Church

I.) Paul Sees The Instrumentality Of His Lineage In His Faith (1:3, Acts 24:14-15)

Literally the inspired Apostle writes here “whom I from my forefathers serve.” What he is communicating is “whom I serve with a faith derived from my forefathers.” Or, “with a faith which had its roots in their religion, and is therefore similar to theirs.”

It should be said immediately so that no confusion is engendered … Paul is not teaching here, and neither am I teaching that we are saved by our families or by our family heritage and connection. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but Reformed people, because of their strong covenantal theology, have always believed that by God’s sovereign ordering, grace runs in familial channels so that a connection can legitimately be made between the grace that comes to us as individuals and the reality that God’s grace includes God’s favor in making us descendents of Godly forefathers and, as we shall see – foremothers.

This truth is important to keep repeating in a culture that wars against the Christian faith by constantly seeking to cut each successive generation from the remnants of its Christian past. Each new generation is mired in the attempt by a faith, that is other than Christianity, to be peeled away from their forefathers.

If your refer back to Acts 24:14-15 you see another place where St. Paul makes this familial faith appeal to his Fathers. There in his defense before Felix he can say,

14 But this I confess unto thee, that according to the Way, which they call heresy, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.

Like here in I Timothy Paul in Acts is providing a significant linkage between His Faith and the Faith of His Fathers. Doubtless, the Fathers he has in mind in both places are the patriarchs. What He believes now is what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed and bequeathed to their seed. He as one of their seed believes the same thing.

Of course we can not miss an important implication here. If Paul is hammering the connection between what he believes and what his forefathers believed there therefore must be significant continuity between what is called the Old and New Testament. In Acts 24 Paul makes the connection between the belief of the Fathers in the resurrection and in his missionary travels the Resurrection becomes, along with the Kingdom of God, a major theme. They looked forward to a coming Messiah, Paul proclaims the same Messiah. They passed the faith along to their children. Lois and Eunice has passed the faith along to their child as well.

Christian Faith expressions that do not think inter-generationally and practice the faith inter-generational will eventually die on the vine.

This way of thinking stands in marked contrast to the last 75 years or more of American Christianity. One of the mottos of evangelical Christianity is that “God has no Grandchildren.” Many of us grew up in Evangelicalism and heard that refrain many, many times. The purpose of that statement was to impress upon young people in particular, but everyone in general, that a person’s religious identity derived from claiming the faith for himself and was not ascribed by birth.

And there is a sense in which that is true BUT there is also a sense in which that is not true. The sense in which it is true is that every individual is called to own the faith for themselves. The sense in which that is not true is that who we are as individuals is connected to the family we were birthed into. It is precisely because we believe that God has Grandchildren that we therefore Baptize our children believing that God will be God to us and to our seed for a thousand generations. To deny that God has Grandchildren in a specific sense is to play havoc with Reformed covenantal theology.

Another thing we want to touch on here is the specific corporeal forefathers that Paul speaks of. When Paul speaks of his forefathers he is not spiritualizing the text. He has in mind the generations before that were blood related to him. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses, Isaiah and the Prophets.

The reason that I bring this up, is because in just a bit Paul invokes the blood relatives of Timothy. Paul could have as easily recalled to Timothy the importance of His Spiritual Forefathers, but instead he invokes for Timothy what he invoked for Himself and that is the faith of his blood relatives.

All of this is to say that who we are, as God has constituted us in our families, is important. No Covenantal Reformed person would ever say otherwise.

II.) Paul Sees The Instrumentality Of Timothy’s Lineage In Timothy’s Faith (1:5, 3:14f)

Paul thanks God for Timothy’s genuine faith. Perhaps Paul lands on the word “genuine” here because he has experienced the spurious faith of other co-workers such as Demas (4:10) and as such the reality of Timothy’s genuine faith gives the Apostle cause to praise God.

Paul then, just as he referenced the importance of his familial legacy references the importance of Timothy’s. He makes mention of his Grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice.

This is the only place in the NT where these two Mothers are named. In Acts 16 we see Eunice but we do not know her by name there.

16:1 — but Then Paul came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain woman who was a Jewess who believed, but whose father was a Greek.

Given that the Father was apparently a pagan it is easy to surmise that Lois would have been the Mother of Timothy’s Mother Eunice. Consistent with Paul’s reasoning in I Cor. 7, by virtue of this believing Mother Timothy would have been a covenant child.

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

And so Timothy is a child of the covenant, who by God’s gracious dealings with him, has had the faith handed down to him in the context of two generations of Godly Mothers.

Let us be very clear here … in God’s ordination and by God’s sovereignty Timothy was who he was, in regards to his Christian faith, as his Mother and Grandmother pointed Him to Christ alone.

And on a day that is set aside to recognize Mothers we should note the tremendous impact that Christ centered women can have on their children – even in homes where the Father’s influence is not what it might be.

Look at what Eunice and Lois did in raising Timothy.

II Tim. 3 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing from whom thou hast learned them,15 and that from childhood thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

As Paul did earlier in his letter to Timothy in chapter 1, so he does again now in Chapter 3. He invokes not only the faith but also from whom the faith came. In doing so God casts linkage between the truth of the Scriptures and the family that taught the Scriptures.

Calvin can speak of this text in a rather arresting way,

“Accordingly he sets before him his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice, by whom he had been educated from his infancy in such a manner that he might have sucked godliness along with milk. By this godly education, therefore, Timothy is admonished not to degenerate from himself and from his ancestors.” “Timothy is admonished not to degenerate from himself and from his godly ancestors.”

1.) Christians who have grown up in a Christ exalting home like Timothy realize that if you ever turn your back on the Christian faith, you at that same moment turn your back on your family so that in the words of Calvin you degenerate from yourself and from your godly ancestors.

2.) Taking a hint from Calvin, we can reverse it to say that Christians who have grown up in Christ exalting homes need to realize that if your ever turn your back on your faithful Godly ancestors, you are at that same moment turning your back on your Christian faith.

There is an inexorable relationship between Christian family and Christian faith. You can distinguish family and faith but you can not separate them. This is part and parcel of covenant theology. If my children abandon my wife and I as we continue in the faith, they abandon the faith. If my children abandon the Christian faith they have, in Calvin’s words, “degenerated from their ancestors.”

From the text in Chapter 3 we must make a few points in the way Eunice and Lois raised Timothy.

1.) Eunice and Lois taught Timothy the Scriptures.

39 “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and it is they which testify of Me.

Of course we need to keep in mind that the Scriptures here referred to are the OT Scriptures which teach Christ, thus again reinforcing the continuity between the covenantal epochs.

2.) In teaching Timothy the Scriptures, Eunice and Lois taught Timothy salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

There was a Christocentric focus. Christ for sinners. Christ as the one in whom, through whom, and by whom is our peace with God.

Of course for both Mothers and Fathers we can not teach what we do not know. And so if we are to teach our Children the Scriptures we must be a student of Scriptures ourselves. I have been encouraged as your Pastor to see many of you do that, through your Bible reading programs and through your resolve to read through Calvin’s Institutes or Matthew Henry, or some other weighty reading, by your attendance on Word & Sacrament.

3.) In teaching Timothy the Scriptures Eunice and Lois were doing Evangelism.

Evangelism begins at home.

There are many joke about how Reformed people only do Evangelism by having children and I suppose we should laugh at ourselves but we need to keep in mind that if we can not keep our children what is our evangelism to those who are not our children? I fear that Reformed people are losing their families at the cost of trying and too often failing to win the world.

They evangelized Timothy From Childhood – The Greek there signifies, a child at birth or of tender years. According to Jewish custom the parent was begin instructing the child in the law when the child reached five years of age.

Note that from this passage and others like it I get the idea that you can not draw out of children what you do not first pour into them. Eunice and Lois trained trained trained Timothy.

The Principle Here Then is,

** Those of you that have been privileged to have been raised yourselves w/ a Christian heritage have a charge to keep from your Forefathers or Foremothers unto the generations that follow you. If the faith dies out in the generations it is not because God has been unfaithful.

Conclusion

Re-cap

Emphasize Christ’s sufficiency again

Encourage those who don’t come from Covenant families that God delights in starting new covenant family heritage.

Question 107. But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?

Answer: No: for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves; to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness, towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and that we do good, even to our enemies.

Whitman’s sampler of Envy in Scripture

Genesis 26:14 for Isaac had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

30:1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

37:11 And Jacob’s brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Psalm 106:16 When they envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron the saint of the Lord,

Isaiah 11:13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

Ecclesiastes 9:6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;
Nevermore will they have a share
In anything done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Proverbs 14:30 A sound heart is life to the body,
But envy is rottenness to the bones.

27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent,
But who is able to stand before envy?

Deutero-Caononical Book — Wisdom of Solomon

2:23 For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness
he made him. 24 But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:

I Corinthians 3:3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Philippians 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:

Matthew 27:18 For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.

Galatians 5:21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. And the irony, which we will explore more next week, is that envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

This vice is executioner to itself so that the envious have their punishment in themselves. However, it is not enough to let it alone at that for as we shall see next week envy will not rest until it pulls down those who are envied that they might be as miserable as the envious. As such Envy curses both those who have it (its subjects) and those it is pointed towards (its objects).

The destructive power of envy in the Scripture

It was the animating action of the Devil in His work against God and man in the fall (Wisdom 2:23-4)

It was there when the first blood was spilled (I John 3:12)

It was the disposition that propelled Jesus enemies to hand Him over to be crucified (Matthew 27:18)

If present in us without repentance it will bar us from the Kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21)

It is present against every person who does skillful work (Ecc. 4:4)

It is a mindset that brings about physical illness (Proverbs 14:30) (Mind body relationship)

As we trace what others have written about “envy” through history (diachronic study) we discover the following.

Church Fathers

Clement —

In his epistle the first 6 chapters are dedicated to “the unjust and impious envy though which death entered the world. He reminds his audience that because of envy Cain killed his brother Abel, Jacob had to take flight, Joseph was sent into slavery, Moses had to leave his people, Aaron was set aside … Saul and David were at war. Clement offers that envy was the cause of the persecution of the Apostles, the sufferings of St. Peter, of the many martyrs under Nero. Clement holds that envy is in sum the root of the most wicked happenings against humans.

Justin — 165 AD (Apologist for the Church)

Following Mt. 27:18 Justin, presents envy as the reason for the supreme crime of Christ’s crucifixion. Justin advises,

“Wash your souls of ire, avarice, envy and hate and your body will stay clean.”

Cyprian — Writes a treatise on envy

To envy according to Cyprian is to “suffer at the joy of others.” Cyprian holds Lucifer guilty of evil envy against God. Cyprian wrote that cosmic evil originates in the feeling of envy, the root of all evil in all of us. Further he wrote that envy is the source of hostility, avarice, ambition, pride, cruelty, perfidy, discord, etc.

Cyprian makes a important point when he writes that the “envy is a hidden vice we carry closed within so that the envious never declare their envy.” This will be important to keep in mind for later considerations.

As a remedy (which we will examine more next week) Cyprian offers as the only antidote Christianity and encourages the Christian virtues of “simplicity of mind, humility, fraternity, love, and charity. His last advice is to “rejoice and be happy at the fact that others are better.”

What is interesting with Cyprian is that he offers that Envy is the Mother lode of evil. Evil is born of envy and all other vices flow out of envy.

Basil Of Caesarea — 4th century

Does a Homily on Envy

“As oxide eats up iron, so envy eats up the soul.”

Basil examines the question if envy may be placated or annulled through favors to the envious by the envied and concludes that contrary to what happens with other hostile feelings that others may have that are diminished through attentions, “the envious become more envious with favors, for the suffering that is caused by the power of their benefactors is greater than the gratitude they feel.”

Basil adds a new wrinkle in the consideration of envy when he probes as to who the envious envy. Do the envious envy those distant to them or those close to them? Basil offers that “We are trapped by envy through familiarity,” and goes on to offer,

“The Sythian does not envy the Egyptian, but those of his own nation, and from among those, he does not envy stranger but those he deals with, in particular and those of the same job.”

Chrysostom — (354-407) Homilies

The “envious enjoys the suffering of others … and considers as his own joy the misfortunes of others.”

Like Cyprian, Chrysostom holds that “no other vice is comparable to envy, for it is the most evil, most perverse, and most abominable of all passions.”

Chrysostom introduces a social element into envy when he notes,

“Envy subverts the Church and causes the whole Universe to shake.”

Here we understand envy in its basic role as a adversary of all hierarchy that comprises social order. Chrysostom gets to how envy begins to get translated into the desire for absolute undifferentiated equality among men in society. For Chrysostom envy is the root that accounts for the impulse towards social leveling.

If for Cyprian envy was the root of all evil, for Chrysostom envy is both the root of all evil and the highest expression of all evil.

Leaning towards cure for envy

Scripture teaches us that we are to,

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Identify the Problem, thank God that in Christ we are forgiven, and then pray God for deliverance

“Deliver us from evil…”

How little we value prayer in the matter of getting rid of all bitterness. If we see ourselves slipping towards envy who better to turn to then our Lord Christ who knows our hearts and can deliver us?

The Problem of comparison

“When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” II Cor. 10:12

The kind of comparison that leads to envy does not help us but only pulls others down.

The Need To Remember Providence

If we must compare ourselves with others it would be helpful to recognize that whatever differences exist (maybe we are not as wealthy, not as polished, not as good-looking, not as smart, not as popular, not as talented, (the list could be endless) those differences exist because of God’s wisdom in distributing His gifts. (I Cor. 4:7 teaches that it is God who makes us to differ.)

God has made us, both individually and in our families, to be precisely what he desires in order to gain glory, reputation and renown through us. We don’t need to be someone else in order to advance what God has created us to advance. When envy strikes at us we must remember God’s providence.

The Need for contentment

Phil. 4:10-12

The Need To Remember All The Benefits We Have In Christ

Ephesians 1:3 teaches that all believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

The Need To Remember That God Uses The Foolish Things Of The World To Confound The Wise

Even if others excel we need not let envy have its way. Those who God has used throughout History have seldom been MENSA candidates or Beauty Queens. Remember in our weakness God is made Strong. II Cor. 12:9

Most importantly the need to remember we are forgiven in Christ

When we see these ugly things about ourselves our motivation for putting these character faults off is gratitude for all that we have been forgiven in Christ. The Gospel is what propels us towards grateful obedience. Because I am forgiven I am free from the condemnation that would frighten me into lethargy. Because I am forgiven I have no need to be so frustrated with the failure of my obedience that I give up the necessity to put off the old man.

I am forgiven in Christ and because of that I can move forward in putting off all bitterness and every form of malice.

Introduction — Background On God’s Law For Social Order Organization

God’s law is the connecting link between the earliest and latest legal systems and has proved itself one of the most influential forces in the evolution of the world’s law.” Law Review Article (1931)

The Scriptures embody fundamental principles that have attained legal effectiveness among nearly all peoples and in remote parts of the earth — principles w/o which human societies can scarcely continue to exist — and it is not unreasonable to suppose that in many instances these principles were borrowed from the Scriptures or were obtained through contact w/ those who observed Biblical law.

For example, much of the common law of England was founded upon Mosaic law. The primitive Saxon codes re-enacted certain precepts taken from the Holy Scriptures, and King Alfred in his Doom (Judgment) Book. Theologian Francis Nigel Lee details how Alfred incorporated the principles of the Mosaic law into his Law Code. Lee then examines how this Code of Alfred became the foundation for the English Common Law, which of course was in turn the foundation of our own legal order.

In his extensive Prologue, Alfred summarized the Mosaic and Christian codes. Another scholar, Michael Treschow, states that the last section of the Alfred’s Prologue not only describes “a tradition of Christian law from which the law code draws but also it grounds secular law upon Scripture, especially upon the principle of mercy”.

The Scriptures have thus been a potent influence upon American law. In the early colonial period, the Bible seems to have been commonly regarded among the people as law. Several of the early colonies even went so far as to formally adopt provisions of the Mosaic law. For example Plymouth Colony in 1636 adopted what was called then, “A Small Body of Laws,” largely based upon the laws of Israel. Likewise, the New Haven colony in 1639 resolved that “the word of God shall be the only rule to be attended to in ordering the affairs of the Government in this plantation,” and then in 1655 adopted a code in which 47 out of 79 topical statues were based on Biblical law.

Appx. 150 years later, in what had recently become These united States of America one could hear a Judge say to a Grand Jury,

“The laws of the Christian system, as embraced in the Bible, must be respected as of high authority in all our courts. And it cannot be though improper for the officers of our government to acknowledge their obligation to be governed by its rules.”

~ Judge Nathaniel Freeman’s Charge to the Grand Jury at the Court of General Sessions of the Peace
Held at Barnstable Mass., March Term, 1802

As late as 1931 one can find in the case United States vs. Macintosh

“It has been recognized in the courts that generally we acknowledge with reverence the duty of obedience to the will of God.”

With all that said as prolegomena (a preliminary discussion) let us turn to the matter at hand.

** Recap of the Previous

We have repeatedly pointed out that the 10 words can be understood as having both vertical and horizontal dimensions. Though we can not absolutize that distinction it is helpful in ordering our thinking about God’s Law. We have noted that the first four commandments are especially though off as Vertical, having a direct relationship to how we are to esteem God.

1.) No other Gods before me 2.) No craven images 3.) Take not His name in vain 4.) Sabbath

** Fifth Commandment

Question 104 — Heidelberg Catechism

Q. What is God’s will for you
in the fifth commandment?

A. That I honor, love, and be loyal

to my father and mother and all those in authority over me; that I submit myself with proper obedience to all their good teaching and discipline;1 and also that I be patient with their failings—2 for through them God chooses to rule us.3

1 Ex. 21:17; Prov. 1:8; 4:1; Rom. 13:1-2; Eph. 5:21-22; 6:1-9; Col. 3:18-4:1
2 Prov. 20:20; 23:22; 1 Pet. 2:18
3 Matt. 22:21; Rom. 13:1-8; Eph. 6:1-9; Col. 3:18

When we come to the 5th commandment we come to a hinge commandment that has a foot both in the vertical orientation of the God’s 10 words and a foot in the horizontal orientation of God’s 10 words

The foot it has in the vertical orientation is found in the reality that those whom we are dealing with in this commandment, who are to be honored, are those who are God’s representatives … they stand in God’s stead. As representatives of God they one can see the vertical dimension of the commandment. The horizontal orientation of this commandment is found in the reality that we are dealing with human relationships … man’s relation to man. As such there is a horizontal dimension.

If you will allow me just a bit of allegory, it is altogether fitting that with the 5th commandment we have this intersection. Of course you know that when two perpendicular lines intersect the consequence is the formation of the Cross.

It could be easily argued that Jesus, by His work on the Cross, healed the breach that Adam had created by His disobedience to Father by dishonoring Him in his disobedience in the Garden. Jesus, quite in contrast to Adam, was obedient to His Father at every turn. In Hebrews 10 we find Jesus saying,

‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”

Elsewhere we read of the Son,

31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.

This is important to keep before us before we examine the import of this text as applied to ourselves. Our Lord Christ, offered up the law’s 5th commandment keeping requirement so that the children of Adam who had failed in “Honoring their Father and Mother,” might have the 5th commandment keeping requirement put to their account, and so be acceptable to God. For those who trust Christ, Jesus and His obedience to His Father is what is received as our obedience to our Father and Mother.

This is important to keep in mind because it could be the case that as the years unwind you may look back and cringe with embarrassment or shame at the way you may have dishonored your parents at points along the way of your minority. If and when those times come we must preach the Gospel to ourselves and remind ourselves that we are forgiven in Christ for our sin against our parents are those in authority over us. The fifth commandment preaches the Gospel.

It also would be pleasing to God, for you to ask forgiveness of your folks if God were to lay anything on your heart. Most parents are more ready to forgive then children are ready to ask for forgiveness.

** Fifth Commandment & Honor

As we come to the commandment we see that it calls for “Honor.” Let us consider first what “Honor” means in a Biblical setting.

Honor = heavy.

Honor is accorded thus to people who have significance, or gravitas. The opposite of honor, of course, is dishonor, and where something or someone weighty or having gravitas is treated as if they were inconsequential.

Honoring parents involves several things:

1. Taking to heart their instruction.

2. Show deference toward them, by language and forms of address.

Even the idea of addressing them as “Dad, & Mom” is showing them deference.

3. Loving them.

4. Being faithful, also providing for them (financially, spiritually) in their old age.

But if we were to get even more precise we might say that the idea of “Honor” includes,

1.) To acknowledge that our Parents are God’s appointment to us as His representatives to us and as our first officers as appointed by God. Accompanied then by the understanding that as we obey them in their lawful word to us so we are at that moment obeying God. This is to give “Honor.”

2.) More than one source I consulted included in the idea of “Honor” the necessity for children to look after parents in their dotage if needs be. The source that is cited for this is Matthew 15:5-6

3.) It includes the idea of speaking with respect to them, and with respect of them. Parents are not perfect people and aggravations can arise in family life between children and parents, but at no point should words be used outside the family that would rip and tear apart God’s ordained representatives to the children.

** Application

You can tell a great deal about a person in both the way they treat their parents and the way they speak of their parents. If a man will disrespect and dishonor his parents in deed or word he will disrespect and dishonor any one.

Young people, let me admonish you now, do not become entangled with those who dishonor their parents and above all do not enter into marriage with someone who dishonors their parents. A man or woman who will dishonor their parents is sure to be a man or woman who will readily dishonor their wife or husband.

** Fifth Commandment & Hierarchy

Obviously the requirement found in the 5th commandment speaks to us of God’s implementation of Hierarchy of relationships. Parents govern children, which implies then that there are other unequal relationships (HC = All in authority over me.)

This simple idea of parents having a hierarchical relationship over their children has been under attack,

A current UN “Children’s Rights” proposal, signed by all member UN Nations except Somalia and US would find,

Parents no longer being able to administer reasonable spankings to their children. (contra Proverbs 13:24)

Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion. (Contra Dt. 32:46, Proverbs 22:6)

The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent’s decision.(Contra Dt. 6)

A child’s “right to be heard” would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.

Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.

Of course all of this is out of accord with the Premise that Children are to honor, love, and obey uniquely their parents, and it is out of accord with God’s principle of hierarchy that we find in the fifth commandment.

** Children & Parents without the Fifth Commandment

It is interesting here that what this UN declaration is seeking for the State is what was in place in primitive pagan law where the Father was regarded not as the steward of the children but as the owner of the children.

In primitive law the Father had absolute control over the children even to the point of dictating life or death. In primitive law the Father could sell children as though they were cattle, or they might be seized and sold by his creditor to satisfy a debt.

So, we see what an improvement God’s law is upon any primitive law that would view Children as property to be owned as opposed to a trust over which we have stewardship for a season.

We have dealt with the idea of what Honor means and have begun to touch on the issue of how the Commandment introduces hierarchy. Of course the idea in the Heidelberg Catechism of “all authority over me,” is within the context of Biblical law. It is various authorities that God has ordained. Not any thing or anybody who merely claims “authority.”

** Examples of Proper Authority Structures That Emanate Out of the Fifth Commandment

These might include the authority of Employers over employees, Magistrates over Citizens, Husbands over wives, Elders over laymen, teachers over students, etc. In all these relationship there is the requirement to render up proper honor, love and fidelty.

However, once again we must note that this honoring is in the context of Biblical law. When those in proper authority over us, clearly, repeatedly, and unambiguously w/ malicious intent violate God’s Word we show proper honor to those authorities by yielding to God rather than man.

I say, “clearly, repeatedly, and unambiguously w/ malicious intent” in order to communicate the requirement that God’s word puts upon us to bear patiently with their weaknesses and shortcomings.