Love suffers long and is kind; LOVE DOES NOT ENVY; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NKJV).
Envy and Love
Strong's defines the word translated envy in this verse this way: to burn with zeal; to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger; to desire earnestly, pursue.
In the sense that love does NOT do this, the focus here is on the obviously painful negative connotations of burning, heated, boil, hatred, anger. I KNOW people like this, and to the extent that they allow the intensity of their covetousness to reign, they are either scary or mean or vindictive or unpleasant or annoying. Given the depth and volume of this word, envy, I can well understand why it, and agape love, are mutually exclusive. Both are comprehensive and all-consuming. Both fill the available real estate of human will and emotion. To have one means there is no room to have the other.
Agape love does not envy because this kind of love focuses not on self, but on other. Instead of envying or coveting something someone else has but you don't, there is joy and rejoicing on their behalf.
Frankly, I experience this most clearly with my daughters. They have youth and vitality and a view of life unfettered by decades of sin and of living without Christ. They radiate hope. They have their entire lives ahead of them while mine is more that statistically half over. And I honestly rejoice that they are the recipients of God's gracious goodness, and Lord willing, their lives will be more fruitful, joyful, meaningful, and godly than my own. I thank God for this.
On the other hand, I find that I do not love, and therefore have room, to envy certain other people. Especially those who seem to have unlimited time and resources to enjoy those things that I myself enjoy. Health, wealth, strength, a different past, you name it. I can, if I surrender to my flesh, drown in such envy. Drowning is never, ever pleasant, particularly in the initial desperate reflexive phases where nothing is more important than taking that next breath of air. Where every other priority or knowledge or perspective is subsumed in a burning, boiling, desire for that thing which I do not have. Everything else blurs into triviality and insignificance. In the case of physically being unable to breathe, the adrenalin-soaked horror and desperation serves a survival purpose.
Perhaps it is somewhat similar with the initial deafening stages of unrestrained envy. Perhaps it is meant to serve as an irresistible impulse to rise above the suffocating covetousness into the pure life-sustaining air of thankfulness to God. But the difference is that, while it is impossible to live in a state of drowning, one can learn to survive immersed in envy. It is a horrible way to live, because it is a life devoid of room for anything else.
In describing these characteristics of agape love, the Apostle Paul provides not only divinely inspired revelation but a dire warning, as well. To envy is to burn. I believe it is a precursor, a faint shadow, of the everlasting torment of Hell.
The antidote, as always, is Christ…
Envy and Love
Strong's defines the word translated envy in this verse this way: to burn with zeal; to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger; to desire earnestly, pursue.
In the sense that love does NOT do this, the focus here is on the obviously painful negative connotations of burning, heated, boil, hatred, anger. I KNOW people like this, and to the extent that they allow the intensity of their covetousness to reign, they are either scary or mean or vindictive or unpleasant or annoying. Given the depth and volume of this word, envy, I can well understand why it, and agape love, are mutually exclusive. Both are comprehensive and all-consuming. Both fill the available real estate of human will and emotion. To have one means there is no room to have the other.
Agape love does not envy because this kind of love focuses not on self, but on other. Instead of envying or coveting something someone else has but you don't, there is joy and rejoicing on their behalf.
Frankly, I experience this most clearly with my daughters. They have youth and vitality and a view of life unfettered by decades of sin and of living without Christ. They radiate hope. They have their entire lives ahead of them while mine is more that statistically half over. And I honestly rejoice that they are the recipients of God's gracious goodness, and Lord willing, their lives will be more fruitful, joyful, meaningful, and godly than my own. I thank God for this.
On the other hand, I find that I do not love, and therefore have room, to envy certain other people. Especially those who seem to have unlimited time and resources to enjoy those things that I myself enjoy. Health, wealth, strength, a different past, you name it. I can, if I surrender to my flesh, drown in such envy. Drowning is never, ever pleasant, particularly in the initial desperate reflexive phases where nothing is more important than taking that next breath of air. Where every other priority or knowledge or perspective is subsumed in a burning, boiling, desire for that thing which I do not have. Everything else blurs into triviality and insignificance. In the case of physically being unable to breathe, the adrenalin-soaked horror and desperation serves a survival purpose.
Perhaps it is somewhat similar with the initial deafening stages of unrestrained envy. Perhaps it is meant to serve as an irresistible impulse to rise above the suffocating covetousness into the pure life-sustaining air of thankfulness to God. But the difference is that, while it is impossible to live in a state of drowning, one can learn to survive immersed in envy. It is a horrible way to live, because it is a life devoid of room for anything else.
In describing these characteristics of agape love, the Apostle Paul provides not only divinely inspired revelation but a dire warning, as well. To envy is to burn. I believe it is a precursor, a faint shadow, of the everlasting torment of Hell.
The antidote, as always, is Christ…
