Proverbs 14:30 reminds us that “A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.”  It is the nature of envy to be willing to suffer, so long as others suffer even more. Yes, even persons of superior prosperity and happiness are willing to suffer when they are consumed by envy.

Jonathan Edwards wrote: “Envy may be defined to be a spirit of dissatisfaction with, and opposition to, the prosperity and happiness of others as compared with our own.”

We usually think of envy as it is expressed by a person who is a comparative inferior. But, envy fills the hearts of those who have superior prosperity and happiness too. Either way, when a person is filled with envy, he is fixated on the gap between himself and the person with whom he compares himself. Such fixation will kill a person.

Proverbs 14:30 reminds us that “A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.”  It is the nature of envy to be willing to suffer, so long as others suffer even more. Yes, even persons of superior prosperity and happiness are willing to suffer when they are consumed by envy.

An older friend of mine once told the story of his college classmate at a small liberal arts college many years ago. His classmate was the smartest person in their class, and everyone knew it. My friend noticed the young man went to all of the extra study sessions that afforded Q&A time with the professors, but he never asked any questions.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article at Gentle Reformation is unavailable and has been removed.]