The Greatest of These – Part 2c:  Love Does Not Envy

Posted On August 30, 2022

I Corinthians 13: 4

After opening his teaching on love with the virtues, patience and kindness, St. Paul takes a turn in his approach. He began by saying, “Love is … “; now, he opens a longer list of love’s traits by saying, “Love is not …. “. This type of definition is known as the apophatic method. It attempts to describe what something is by telling what it is not. This method has been used in Christian writings primarily with reference to God. That is, realizing that God , in His essence, is unknowable and beyond human comprehension, He can best be understood by saying what He is not.

Therefore, the Apostle continues this teaching with eight apophatic phrases to speak of what love is not – or does not do.

A note here:  in our previous post, I felt that you were subjected more to an academic classroom than to a gathering of fellow Christians studying the Word of God. You can let me know if that was the case. So now, I will try not to burden you with too much vocabulary (although we will not be totally successful) and hope to provide food for the soul.

“Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up” (vs. 4). These three phrases reach into our inner being – generally unseen by those around us until their effects are revealed. In fact, we may not be so aware of their presence ourselves unless we take the time to examine our souls through prayer, reading of Scripture and listening to the counsel of our spiritual guides.

“Envy” is often translated “jealousy” in the scriptures and are frequently interchanged – depending on the biblical author and the translator. Therefore, there are two concepts expressed here. The one, zelos, speaks of an inward, burning desire to have the same sort of thing which another person has. It may be an object, wealth, position, prestige, etc. It does not mean trying to take theirs; only to have as much or more of what they have.

The other, phthonos, refers to a feeling of displeasure produced by seeing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others. Further, this sense of envy desires to take from another what he has.

In short, jealousy or envy can push one to either keep someone from “getting ahead of us” or to “keep him behind us”.

This dangerous enemy, envy/jealousy, can best be understood by examining its effects rather than relying on some definition. For the effects, once unleashed, can indeed be  destructive to ourselves and to those around us. Perhaps some familiar examples from the Scriptures will help:

1. Genesis 4: 1-8 – Cain’s jealousy of his brother’s approval from the Lord aroused anger within him. In time, that burning erupted and he killed his brother.
2. Genesis 37: 3,4 – Joseph’s brothers envied the love their father had for him and a hate formed within them. They could no longer even speak peacefully to him. Again, as time passed, their hate emerged and they sold Joseph into slavery to get rid of him forever.
3. Luke 15: 25-30 – In Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, the older brother became jealous of his brother’s welcome home and forgiveness from their father. He, too, was filled with anger and refused to celebrate with the family. He withdrew from his father because he would not accept his brother’s good fortune.
4. Envy/Jealousy caused King Herod to murder 14,000 innocent children (Matthew 2: 1-3, 16); caused the apostles to be cast into prison (Acts 5: 17,18); and caused the Jews in Thessalonica to form a mob to kill Paul and Silas (Acts 17: 5).
5. St. James warns his people that envy and selfish ambition will lead to confusion and every evil thing (James 3: 16). Further, he rebukes them when they don’t get what they want, so they fight and war (James 4: 2).

Certainly, these are dreadful consequences in anyone’s life; they surely result in unholy and unhealthy souls, minds and bodies.

But love does not do these things!

Let’s suppose for a few moments that those people we listed were “walking in love, as Christ has loved us” (Ephesians 5: 2). How different the stories would have been!

1. Cain would have commended Abel and tried to learn from him how he might be more pleasing to God.
2. Joseph’s brothers would have understood their father’s love for his young son and embraced Joseph as well. They may also have seen more clearly that they, too, would be sharing in Jacob’s promises from God (becoming the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel).
3. The older brother would gladly have joined the celebration of his younger brother’s repentance and return home (just as the angels rejoice in heaven over one sinner who repents – Luke 15:10). He also (thinking clearly) would have realized that, as the first-born son, he would receive a double portion of his father’s inheritance and called to guide his brother in a better way of life.
4. Even if he initially felt threatened, King Herod could have relied on the patience and kindness of love to perceive that this was God’s doing. He would have realized that the new king’s enthronement was yet years away (from a worldly perspective) and, thank God, 14.000 lives would have been saved
5. With love overcoming envy/jealousy, those who then rejected the Gospel preached by the Apostles would have become believers in Christ and receivers of eternal life.

Of course, this is just an exercise in wishful thinking and a hope in what might have been. But it might also serve to inspire us to “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21).

 Fr. Andrew