Ever Been Annoyed With The Person Whose Bible Is Bigger Than Yours?

1 Peter 2:1

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.

According to the Google, “envy” is “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck.”  It is an unhealthy longing, marked by discontent and/or resentment.  And Peter says we have to get rid of it.  How might we even get it, in the church?

It is a longing for something somebody else has, and, by extension, what we ourselves do not have.  Does this mean a bigger bible?  Or might it be more fundamental than that?  Might envy show up when we compare ourselves to other people that we think of as ‘better’ in the faith, whatever that might mean.  Maybe they find things faster in the bible, maybe they have a more natural way of dealing with people, maybe they are openly and immediately generous in a way that we are not.  Maybe we feel Jesus ‘blessed’ them more.

I am envious of people who can keep organized and to a schedule.  I am envious of people who seem to have that innate ability to strike up a conversation, who are naturally outgoing and vivacious.  In fact, sometimes I hate those people. 

After all, that is where envy leads, to hatred, and hate leads to the Dark Side…

I think that when we expend the energy longing for what we do not have, we are expending energy that could help fulfill us with what we do have.  There is a place for everyone in God’s church.  There is a skill set we all have that uniquely qualifies us to do God’s work.  And that is what Peter is writing about, doing God’s work.  Envy is just going to pull away from its accomplishment and success.