3. Envy is behind all spite and gossip.
The old Church Covenant, which we Baptists adopted a century ago and which still hangs prominently inside some church buildings as though it were handed down on Sinai, warns against “backbiting.” It’s an old term that means character accusations, slander, gossip.
Now, gossip can assume pious disguises in church. “Pastor, I knew you would want to know what Mr. Jones is going through….” “You’ll want to be praying for Sister Thompson….” “Hey, you remember that girl that used to come to our church. Well, I just found out that….”
No one gossiping would admit that he/she is envious of the target of their attack. But that is the heart of their slander.
I was the new and very young pastor of a church when the office secretary informed me who was having sin problems within the congregation. It so caught me off guard I did not know how to react. Soon, the secretary announced her husband had been transferred to another state, and they would be moving. The chairman of deacons said, “Preacher, God has just done you a big favor. That woman was the biggest gossip in church.”
Little people envy, and thus little people gossip. Wanting to make others low and themselves look larger, they employ this most unChristian of methods.
4. Pastors too are guilty of envy.
A preacher sat in my office. “The reason I don’t go to the pastors conference is that I get so tired of hearing them brag on how many they’ve baptized, how large their church is, and such.” I said, “You must be talking about some other conference. Our guys don’t do that. In fact, most of them are having a hard time, almost none of them ever mention baptizing anyone.” But I knew what the problem was.
That pastor was suffering from a terminal case of envy. It soon came to light that he was lazy and worldly (if imbibing of alcohol and betting at the casino qualify as worldly), and he was summarily dismissed from the church.
People who know pastors only from a distance might be surprised to learn that some struggle with envying their peers. The most obvious form it takes is when they look askance at the larger “more successful” preachers, the ones who have made the newspaper because of awards received, mission trips taken, new churches built, and such. Listen closely the next time pastors congregate, and chances are you will hear someone speaking negatively toward one of his brothers.
“Sure, he has a doctor’s degree, but his church is really small.”
“He’s taking all these mission trips when I understand his church is hurting financially.”
“He’s started several new churches, but the older members are complaining that he’s neglecting the members he’s got.”
Envy is so ugly on the one displaying it. If a smile brightens a face and blesses a room, envy sours the mouth and uglies the eyes and dampens the joy in any gathering.
5. Envy is all sadness.
Fairlie says, “If all the (seven deadly) sins are loveless, Envy’s eyes are peculiarly so. They seem to find nothing to love in the world, not in the whole of creation, not in anyone else, not even when they are turned up to what is lovely. The other sins have been celebrated, however perversely, in popular song down the ages, but Envy has no song. It does not sing; it … is riddled with fear. This gnawing fear that, if someone else gains something, it must be losing something.”
Faith or fear. Faith produces joy and gladness; fear produces envy and sadness.