"[Isaac] had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And Abimelech said to Isaac, 'Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.'” (Genesis 26:14-16)

"So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, 'Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?' For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up." (Matthew 27:17-18)

September 9, 2026

Dear friends,

I've been thinking lately about envy. Not how to have it. That's easy enough. But how insidious it is, and how endemic to the human race it is.

God blessed the patriarchs as they lived as exiles in the land of promise (e.g., Gen 26:12-33; Heb 11:9-20). The Philistines of that day -- like anti-Semites today -- hated the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Genesis 26 we learn that Isaac dug four new water-producing wells which the Philistine shepherds wanted to fight over, well by well. They could have, of course, shared the blessings of the wells that God provided. Instead, they fought over each well and filled a number of them with dirt. They envied God's blessings on Isaac and if they couldn't have them, they sought to ruin the good things Isaac had received from God. This behavior tracks all the way back to Cain and Abel (Gen 4:5-8).

Fast forward a couple thousand years. The Jewish authorities of Jesus' day not only disagreed with his teaching, but they resented God's blessing on his life. Our Lord was blessed by God his Father with spiritual authority, healing power, and teaching which gave life to his hearers. Multitudes recognized this, and this was power which the established leadership in Jerusalem did not have. Their deep-seated resentment toward him did not come solely from the fact that they thought he was a false teacher and false messiah -- at least that's how they reasoned it -- but deeper, it was that they were so very angry that God gave this untaught, unlicensed rabbi such amazing power -- power that they themselves did not have. Pilate recognized it. It was envy. They would have to discredit him (fill up the wells with dirt) or kill him (like Cain did Abel).

There is in Christianity, as in Judaism, what we might call a "scandal of particularity". That is, God himself will choose whom and how he will bless. And it will be wise for us to humble ourselves to recognize and accept this. God did not choose Buddha or Muhammad or Confucius or Joseph Smith or any other person as the way of salvation. He chose Jesus Christ, his only beloved Son, as the one way of salvation (Matt 3:17; John 14:6; Acts 4:12). People reject Jesus because they resent God's sovereign and particular choice in the matter, that in their sins and lostness they need the one Savior that God has provided. If they cannot have heaven their own way -- their path, their works, their god(s) -- then they will oppose the particular way of the gospel of God's grace in Jesus.

We as Christians should also see how serious the sin of envy in our own life is. We may become envious of the prosperity that unbelievers may experience in this life (Psalm 73:3ff). Yet, God may choose to give material blessings to those who do not know him, in order to draw them to himself (Lu 6:35-36) or to render them without excuse in the day of judgment (Rom 2:4-5). We are not to get bitter or resentful about that.

We may become envious of other believers, being resentful of the blessing or gifts or opportunities that God has given to them. The Apostle Paul relates this attitude to a life of carnality, not life in the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:25-26). Our envy may be hidden behind smiles and nice-sounding compliments, but our heart is cold and resentful toward the good that others have received. It may be blessings of a good marriage, children, position, promotion, wealth, beauty, or health, but our heart secretly ponders, "why did they get that and not me?" Envy.

Puritan pastor Thomas Manton wrote, "Envy is a rebellion against God himself, and [against] the liberty and pleasure of his dispensations." Further, he said, "Envy is a settled, crooked malice." It is ingratitude toward what God has provided for us, his children, and ill will toward our brothers and sisters for having those blessings. It is resentment toward our own family members and unbelief toward our Father's wise providence.

In his book, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be (Eerdmans, 1995), Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., points out that envy is a posture of anger, of antagonism. Envy is when we think of someone else's good (a blessing) as an injury to ourselves. "The point is pride. The point is personal preeminence. The envier resents another's good because it scuffs his [own] pride. To the envier every good in a rival is a diminishment of himself -- maybe even an intended diminishment." (p. 167) The author goes on to note that where there is envy there will also be gossip, spite, bitterness, and rancor. "Wherever we find envy," he writes, "we find the wreckage of human and Christian community." (p. 171)

So, what we may think of as a small, inward vice -- envy, being perhaps a little bit of jealousy or discontent -- can be a big thing, that angry drive behind Abel's death, that passion behind tribal warfare (or church factions), and even that dark emotional turbulence behind Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. Envy, is that "posture of anger, of scuffed pride, where we find the wreckage of human and Christian community." Not so small a thing!

And that's it for this week!

Sandy

Afterwords is an occasional newsletter on topics of interest to me (Sandy Young) since my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.