Putting Bitterness and Envy to Death

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field (Genesis 3:1). Part of his craftiness is encouraging us to see sin as something that we do rather than the outworking of what we are. If we can avoid this bad behavior, steer clear of that temptation, we seem to think, we’re doing ok. Yes, we do face temptations. But it is our hearts that are desperately wicked. Sin is not just what we do, but is also what we feel. One may be easy to see, the other less so. Which would a crafty serpent tend to encourage?

We often joke about how churches split over issues like the color of the carpet. It’s a sad joke to be sure, but it is also misleading. Churches don’t split over the color of the carpet. They may split over who gets to decide the color of the carpet. That is, our struggles, disputes, tensions, fights, more often than not have nothing to do with the issue and everything to do with standing, who is the top dog, who has the juice.

In like manner, bitterness typically has less to do with the wrong that we believe was done to us, more to do with the fact that it was done to us. When we are treated badly it is a sure sign that we are being judged as less than, that we aren’t being valued as we think we ought to be. This is why we fight for seats of honor. We think too highly of ourselves, and rain bitterness down on those who don’t agree.

Envy is much the same, the other side of the coin. It isn’t an unfair hardship we go through because we are undervalued, but an unfair blessing another goes through because they are overvalued. It isn’t the blessing that gets stuck in our craw, but that we weren’t valued as we think we ought to be.

Are you sensing a pattern here? The way to fight both bitterness and envy is simple enough- we have to cultivate a genuine, heartfelt understanding of our utter unworthiness of any blessing. We are not owed blessings. We are owed judgment. Every blessing we have ever received has been of grace, not works, lest we should boast. Everything we have, not just accolades and blessings but abilities and opportunities, we have because He determined to give them to us, for our good and His glory, not because of the glory of our good.

What we are all called to is gratitude. When we recognize that everything good in our life is a gift from our Lord we are able to recognize that everything good in the lives of others is a gift from our Lord. When we recognize that every sin against us is just a reflection of our sins against others we are able to recognize that our bitterness is at best misdirected.

We are the children of the King. He loves us. We make known His reign as we walk in joy and contentment.