ENVY & JEALOUSY = 2 hideous monsters

The OT portion of my Bible reading this morning was from Psalm 73 & 74. I might as well have stopped at 73:1-3. All the rest is a blur because my heart and mind checked out after reading verses 1-3. Here they are:

“Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.” 

You might be wondering what got me so “worked up.” It was the words “I envied the proud.” My mind then pursued envy, and its kissing cousin, jealousy. They are often confused as the same thing, but are they? Here’s how the dictionary put it: “Envy is the longing to possess something someone else has, while jealousy is the fear of losing something you possess.” Another way to put it is “Envy is wanting what someone else has; jealousy is the fear of losing what you have.” 

I’m not sure I see it that way. In my mind (and that has been questionable at times 🙂 ), I see envy as wishing I had something, while jealousy is wanting something so badly I act…irrationally, of course. Am I correct is saying the envy is a wish and jealousy a want?  Not always is envy wrong IMHO. For example, I have always wanted to be able to sing. My brother, Rob, has a fantastic voice. I have always envied that, but certainly not to the point of wanting to harm or doing something stupid.  But jealousy can drive someone to doing something irrational, like hurting someone to dismantle the voice, or to blunt its influence. 

I may be wrong in my assessment but the writer of the psalm knew it was destructive. His envy did not lead him to do dumb things, only have wrong thoughts. The tragedy is that both envy and jealousy can destroy us. They both can lead us to unnatural thoughts and in some cases, irrational and damaging actions. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON THIS WITH YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE DIFFERENCE.

But in either case, dump envy and jealousy from your character.