Envy

A rookie basketball player earning $104,000 a year is praised, and entertainers making hundreds of thousands are admired. Yet let a small farmer earn $20–30,000 by hard work, or a businessman earn $50,000 by skill, and he is denounced as an exploiter. Why applaud one man’s success but hate another’s? Scripture answers: “Envy is the rottenness of the bones” (Prov. 14:30). Envy drives people to despise the disciplined and productive because their success exposes the sloth and irresponsibility of the envious. As Jesus said, “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Matt. 20:15). The ungodly resent the godly; the unproductive resent the productive; and those who refuse to build character hate those who have it. Our problems begin in sin, and the cure begins with regeneration, not envy.