Christian tradition records envy as one of the seven deadly sins, along with lust, greed, pride, gluttony, wrath, and laziness. God warns us, Envy makes the bones rot (Prov 14:30b). This episode examines how King Saul’s envy of David steadily eroded the health of his soul.
Some years ago, I observed one of the mom’s overseeing a home-school soccer game. She said to the kids, “Okay kids, it doesn’t really matter who wins, so we are not going to keep score.” I knew that she had just killed the interest in the game for my two sons, if not for all the boys. Males want to win at everything they do. But we must put a biblical lens over such competitiveness. Isn’t the desire to win driven by pride—wanting to triumph OVER another? Doesn’t Scripture exhort Christians to exalt one another above ourselves, not prevail over them by beating them?
Certainly, the desire to win can be motivated by, and produce sinful pride. But I don’t think men love competition because of their pride or that wanting to win is inherently selfish. Rather, I believe men love competition because they love challenges. Adam was designed to make an impact. He was put in the garden to make a difference—to change it, to accomplish a goal—bringing out its potential. Keeping score in games is just a way of measuring how we are doing in overcoming the challenge we have accepted—defeating whatever the opposition is.
Nevertheless, there is a place where that sense of competition does become sinful rivalry, jealousy, or envy. In fact, after the fall of Adam and Eve, the first sin recorded in human history was caused by envy—Cain’s murder of Abel. Envy is an insidious moral disease. In the words of Rosaria Butterfield, “If you do not deal with envy in the infantile stage, it will devour you. It will eat you from the inside out. Envy transforms a person into a monster” (Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age). Mao Zedong, like all Marxists, appealed to class envy to motivate young devotees of his “Cultural Revolution” to violently overthrow the land and factory owners so their stolen wealth could be redistributed to the laborers. Sixty-five million Chinese were slaughtered by this appeal to class envy of the wealthy in China.
God gives us a sober warning about envy in Proverbs 3:31. Let not your heart envy sinners but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, acknowledged his struggle to obey this admonition. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. As a product of our sinful nature, envy is associated directly in the NT with strife, hatred, dissention, and malice. In our study of the life of David we see sinful jealousy arise in the heart of King Saul after David’s defeat of Goliath, an internal envy that brought destruction in its wake, as envy always does. I Samuel 18:5-16).
David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”
And Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
We must begin this study, as we often must do, with some definitions. Jealousy can describe a virtue that is often used for God’s desire to hold first place in the affections of our heart. This is righteous hostility towards rivals. God is rightly jealous of other idols who would steal away our affections, as any husband would be hostile towards an illicit lover seeking to lure his wife away from faithfulness to him. But jealousy is also used in the sinful sense of hostility towards a rival who experiences some advantage you don’t have. This is unrighteous hostility towards rivals. It angered Saul that David received greater praise than he.
Envy is even more insidious than sinful jealousy. It is painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, joined with a desire to enjoy the same advantage or at least have the advantage taken away from one’s rival. Jealousy says, “I want what my rival has.” Envy says, “I don’t have to have what my rival has; just don’t let him have it.” Envy is evil, ill will towards a rival. Years after the incident we are studying, the wisdom of Solomon was displayed through his recognition of envy in a woman’s heart. You remember the story:
One day two women came to King Solomon, and one of them said: Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us. One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me. In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasn't my son. “No!” the other woman shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!” “The dead baby is yours,” the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive!” They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, until finally he said, “Both of you say this live baby is yours. Someone bring me a sword.” A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, “Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.” “Please don't kill my son,” the baby's mother screamed. “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just don't kill him.” The other woman shouted, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.” Solomon said, “Don't kill the baby.” Then he pointed to the first woman, “She is his real mother. Give the baby to her, (1 Kings 3:16-27).
Solomon saw that a heart filled with envy cannot be filled with love. Envy is self-focused; love is other-focused. Paul puts it bluntly, love does not envy. (I Cor 13:4). Let’s make five observations about Saul’s envy.
A. It is directed towards one within our circle of relationships. Saul had made David the commander of his army who was suddenly hanging out with Saul and the other warriors. Usually, it is with those close to us that we feel competitive. The envy that overpowered Cain was towards his brother, Abel. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of the fact that he was Jacob’s favorite son; so, they sold him into slavery. Sibling rivalry never seems to leave families—whose kids turn out the best, who is the most successful at work, who has the nicest house. At work, it is usually not those way up the management rung from us but peers with whom we may feel competitive. It is not seeing some guy in a commercial who leaves for golf in his Jaguar convertible that generates envy in me. It is my neighbor doing so, while I push my lawnmower and sweat, because I have not been as financially successful as he.
B. Envy surfaces when our rival is exalted over us. It was one thing for David to be popular. Up until verse 7 there is no mention of Saul being anything but pleased with David’s popularity. But as soon as David was exalted OVER Saul, jealousy sprang up in Saul’s heart. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands.” Until then, Saul had been the great warrior in Israel. He was the number one warrior in the people’s eyes, but now he was relegated to number two. In Genesis, to solve the problem of her barrenness when God had promised Abram that he would be the father of a great nation, it was Sarai who suggested to Abram that they follow the local custom of Abram getting her handmaiden Haggar pregnant on her behalf. But when Hagar flaunts her pregnancy with Abram’s child, rivalry kicks in and Sarai treats Hagar harshly.
C. Envy surfaces when others have something we want. Saul wouldn’t have been jealous of the fact that David was getting more attention than he was if Saul didn’t care about attention. But in reality, Saul craved attention. In 1 Samuel 15, as an act of judgement against the Amalekites who practiced infant sacrifice and were likely spreading venereal disease, Saul is explicitly commanded by God to put to death all humans and all sheep, and oxen. Saul didn’t do it. The excuse he gave God for his disobedience is revealing, “I was afraid of the people and gave in to them.” Saul became addicted to popularity. His jealousy was provoked when he saw David experiencing the immense popularity that he craved. In 1 Kings 21 we read the story of how envy consumed King Ahab who wanted the vineyard of Naboth. When Naboth refused to sell it, Ahab’s wife, Jezebell, plotted to murder Naboth so Ahab could have his vineyard. Eny often surfaces first as covetousness.
One of the greatest historical examples of envy is Karl Marx’ “conflict theory” of history. He saw history as the conflict between the wealthy bourgeoisie who controlled the means of production and business, and the proletariat workers who depended on the bourgeoisie for employment and survival. Marxism foments hostility towards the rich bourgeoisie through class envy. Assuming falsely that a society’s economic pie-size is fixed, Marxism enflames envious hostility toward any rich person because, by definition, he has stolen part of the poor person’s pie. Marxism is not only based on a thoroughly wrong understanding of economics, it stirs up the covetous envy of the poor towards the rich, which leads to violence.
Rosaria Butterfield, called to faith in Christ out of radical lesbianism, sees transgenderism as rooted in envy—wanting what the other gender has. "We see how the sin of envy pulses through the concept of transgenderism. People obsessed with having a gender and sex that is not rightly theirs, and people who are willing to mutilate themselves and manipulate others to get this are under the control of envy” (Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age). Eny surfaces when others have something we want.
D. Envy corrupts spiritual perception. One of the most sobering components of Saul’s envy was that it eroded his conscience, causing him to cling to a false narrative to justify his hostility to David. The false narrative is revealed, in I Samuel 18:8 They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and WHAT MORE CAN HE HAVE BUT THE KINGDOM?” Saul rationalized his attempts to kill David and even tried to convince Jonathan to join him by seeing David as a threat to his throne. But, as the rest of 1 Samuel demonstrates in spades, that was false. David had several opportunities to take Saul’s life and was urged to do so, by his men. Yet David steadfastly refused to raise up his hand against God’s anointed; Saul could not have been more wrong.
Consider what envy did to Cain’s conscience. Cain was jealous of Abel because God had regards for Abel’s offering from his flock but not for his offering from the land. If ever envy started out in a good way, this was it. Cain wanted God to be pleased with his offering. Perhaps when God wasn’t, Cain might have pursued God to ask, “why not.” But what galled Cain was that God WAS pleased with Abel’s offering and that wasn’t fair because Cain’s vocation was farming and Abel's was keeping sheep. But what started out as a desire to please God was overtaken by the sin of envy, which dulled his conscience, and filled him with such angry hostility that he overrode that conscience to murder his own brother.
The sin of envy has had a huge impact shaping the most widespread anti-biblical worldview in our culture—critical theory—corrupting its adherent’s sense of right and wrong. Based on Marx’s “conflict theory,” critical theory (aka cultural Marxism) changes the goal of justice, which is receiving what your actions dictate that you deserve to the goal of equity, i.e. equal outcomes. This is a radical descent into evil and radical injustice. As legendary economist Thomas Sowell notes, “This conception of fairness requires that third parties must wield the power to control outcomes overriding rules, standards, or the preferences of other people” (Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines). Pursuing the cultural Marxist goal of equal outcomes destroys human freedom. It is an invitation to totalitarianism—which is exactly what this process of replacing the concept of just equality of opportunity with the concept of equity as equal outcomes has done, producing Mao, Lenin, Stalin and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Class envy in cultural Marxism devolves into the call to steal what rightly belongs to others and to violently overthrow all existing institutions.
Critical theory’s class envy, furthermore, mindlessly accuses every person who is non-poor, male, white, cisgender, American-born, and able-bodied to be an oppressor and labels all who are not, victims. Consider what this class envy has done to the consciences of some politicians who justified burning down cities in protest of racism, who want open borders because the US is the rich oppressor and all immigrants are the poor oppressed (including rapists, Mexican drug cartels, and terrorists), and who unjustly allow men to compete in women’s sports because transgender people are the oppressed and cisgender people are the oppressors. The deterioration of the conscience of those who cling to cultural Marxism’s class warfare envy is apparent, everywhere.
E. Envy leads to virulent hostility towards others. Envy opens Saul’s heart to an evil spirit. The next day a harmful spirit rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall” (1 Sam 18:10-12). The fruit of sowing envy is reaping hate-filled actions. Cain murdered Abel. Ahab murdered Naboth. Sarai sent Hagar away from her home once temporarily and once permanently. But perhaps the expression of envy that was the most wicked of all was the insistence of the chief priests and elders that Jesus be crucified. Mathew tells us that even the pagan ruler, Pilate “knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up” (Matt 27:17). Envy leads to horrific evil. In the 1990’s, scholars documented the total number of those murdered through the Marxist ideology that used class envy to incite the overthrow of government and slaughter of the wealthy. It was between 85-100 million people worldwide. Class envy produced virulent hatred for the rich and we are seeing the same class-warfare hostility today fomented by critical theory advocates.
Attacking Four Roots of Envy in Our Hearts
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (Rom 13:12).
Root #1: PRIDE. Life is about me.
Puff off: exalting ourselves, wanting attention, wanting to be recognized as the best, self-absorption, subtly wanting to impress.
Put on: exalt others, follow Jonathan’s example, focus on hero-making, embrace the upside-down kingdom truth that greatness is serving.
Root #2: LOW SELF-ASSURANCE. Relationships with others shaped by needing others' acceptance.
Put off: doubting God’s love. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (Rom 8:32).
Put on: trust in God’s unconditional love. The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing (Ps 34:10). Trust is a choice—to put off doubt and put on faith in God’s proven love. The righteous shall live by faith. (Rom 1:17)
Root #3: LOW SENSE OF WORTH. Somehow, we feel like we must prove our worth by being better than others.
Put off: doubts about our worth. Jealousy happens because we lack confidence in our own value compared to others. But Paul says, When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise (2 Cor10:12). It is folly to compare ourselves to others because we each run the unique race God has marked out for us.
Put on: confidence in our design. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). We are God’s artwork. Our worth is not based so much on what we look like as WHO painted us.
Root # 4: LOW LEVEL OF CONTENTMENT. Envy has difficulty invading a contented heart just as covetousness has.
Put off: complaining, discontentment, grumbling. Complaining is public disloyalty to God.
Put on: gratefulness. Grow in gratefulness through the discipline of continual thankfulness. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (I Thes 5:18).
Let’s ask God to search our hearts to put his spotlight on any seeds of envy and preempt it by putting off these attitudes of darkness and putting on the amor of light!
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What new observations about competition, jealousy, and envy stood out to you?
- What stands out most to you about the way envy got control of Saul?
- We observed four roots of envy: pride, which wants to be exalted, low self-assurance that you are loved, so you need peer acceptance too much, low self- esteem so you must prove yourself, and discontent, which makes you prone to wanting what others have. Which root concerns you most about your own life?
