Envy Loves Sloth

Mike Hosey, An Elder

All truth is God’s truth. In fact, non-believers often stumble onto a piece of God’s truth. For instance, the great but pagan philosopher, Socrates, once argued that “envy was the ulcer of the soul.” Just like how an ulcer burns a hole in one’s stomach, he intimated, envy will burn a hole in the centermost part of a person. The Bible talks a lot about envy, and most of it is negative, and quite a bit of it describes the damage that envy can cause to a person (Proverbs 14:30). There are essentially two kinds of envy.  One kind of envy is neutral, depending on whether or not the person who experiences it, keeps himself or herself in control of it.  This kind of envy can be defined as simply a “desire to have a possession, quality or desirable attribute belonging to someone else.”  Depending on the object of the desire, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that kind of envy. In fact, we Christians frequently capitalize on such envy.  Someone lost in the horror of their sins sees a life changed by Christ, and they want to have the same kind of life, and that desire motivates them to seek the truths of God. Ultimately, we want people to envy the joy that a life lived for Jesus brings.

But the other kind of envy is always bad, and even evil.  This kind of envy can be described as “a resentful longing aroused by someone else’s qualities, possessions, luck, or position in life.” In this kind of envy, simple desire turns to an anger or bitterness.  Envy also, very frequently, attracts other sins.  Envy produces strife, rivalry, murder, dissension and many other terrible things (Romans 1:29, Philippians 1:15, 1 Timothy 6:4, James 3:16 NIV).  It is, after all, out of envy that the religious leaders had Jesus delivered up for trial (Matthew 27:18). Bad envy is causal to many problems.

Interestingly, the sin of sloth, or laziness, can contribute to envy, and all the sins it brings.  Proverbs 13:4 and Proverbs 21:25-26 tells us that a lazy man covets and craves what others have, while he has nothing. The fact that he has not spurred on his own industry has created for himself a state of want.  That state of want makes him very susceptible to envying -- in a bad way -- what others have. In the modern world, some people even resent that others have more than they do, even though they have done nothing to acquire their own status, or material, nor taken the time to enhance their own desirable qualities.

 

The best way to avoid the bad kind of envy, is to work diligently to improve yourself by becoming more like Jesus. When you do that, the Holy Spirit gives you anti-envy attributes (Galatians 5:2-23).

There Are Some Sins We Just Don't Talk About Anymore . . .

Mike Hosey, An Elder

It is likely that you have heard the phrase, “the seven deadly sins,” before.  Given that the modern church has largely shied away from talking about sin, and given that it has also shied away from teaching its own history, it is unlikely that you know what those sins are or where they came from. Pope Gregory the Great, a man that John Calvin called the last good pope, codified them as we now commonly know them, but they began formulating long before even his time.   These sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Because almost any sinful behavior can fall into one of these categories, the medieval church used the list to teach children (and adult congregants) how to classify different kinds of naughtiness. Although all of these sins are certainly in the bible, you won’t find a single verse that touches on all of them, or even that refers to them as the deadly sins.

This might be because all sins are deadly. Only one sin is more deadly than all the others, and that is the sin of rejecting Jesus by refusing to believe how he has offered one a way out from those very sins (and all others). 

 

So let’s take a look at one of those deadly sins, and consider how it affects our lives.

In America, we almost never talk about the sin of gluttony, and I think this is because so much of our culture indulges itself in that particular sin.  In fact, it seems our whole media and advertising community is geared toward inciting us to that very sin.

Most of the time, we think of gluttony as the sin of over eating. No doubt, it is that.  But really, it is over doing anything.  Drinking too much is gluttony.  Facebooking all day long is gluttony. Eating the whole plate of wings, after you finished the plate of pizza at the Super Bowl party is gluttony. That Netflix binge you went on last week is gluttony.  In its purest form, gluttony is a lack of self-awareness, and therefore a lack of self-control. It always leads to some level of self-damage, and it can keep you from serving God in the most effective ways.

Want to Help a Friend with A.N.T.S.? Then REACH, THROW, AND GO

Mike Hosey, An Elder

If you’ve lived in the south for any length of time, you know what mire is.  You may not know it by that name, but you do know what it is.  Mire is mud.  It’s not just any mud though.  It is a mud that is like a soupy, slimy clay.  And it can be very difficult to deal with. In fact, one year I had my septic field repaired and mire was a big problem.  The field had originally been placed in a not-so-good spot in my yard.  It was a bad spot to put a septic field because it was mirey, which keeps water from flowing away from it, which in turn clogs the septic field.  Anyway, the contractor broke his backhoe trying to dig out the old septic field (so that he could put a new one back in the same bad place), and it took him multiple days to do what should have probably only been a few hours. By the way, that field failed a couple of years later --- due to placement. The thing about mire is that you can get stuck in it.  And sometimes the more you struggle against it, the more stuck you get. If you get too deep into it, you almost always need help getting out. This is why David uses it as an illustration in Psalm 69:14-15. He knew that if he didn’t get help from God, he’d be stuck for a long time.

When a person gets Automatic Negative Thinking Syndrome (A.N.T.S.) in their head, those A.N.T.S. will influence a person’s brain and lead him or her right into the mire where they will struggle, and where they will almost certainly need help getting out.  When you see a person struggling in that place, you should do your best to reach out to them.  This is, afterall, what God did for you (John 3:16).  You can REACH out to them with physical help and assistance, and by modeling positivity and a true walk of faith (Matthew 5:16, Ephesians 5:1).  But sometimes that doesn’t work. The person doesn’t want to take your hand, and continues to wallow in the mire.  At this point you need to THROW them a line. You do this because you don’t want to risk getting caught in that mire yourself.  Prayer is an especially good idea here.  You keep your hand on the rope, by keeping them in prayer, so that your mind stays focused on them, and so that you fulfill God’s will that we pray for one another, and for the lost (1 Timothy 2:1-4). You remain ready to pull them in if they decide to take your line.

Sometimes, unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to work either, and the person seems too willing to stay in their negativity, and refuses to see the truth of God. It is here that it might be best to GO (Matthew 10:8-14).  This keeps you from the mire, and allows you to focus your energies elsewhere.

A Few Ways to Get Rid of A.N.T.S.

Mike Hosey, An Elder

If you’ve ever been around a negative person, you know how taxing they can be.  They will drain the life blood right out of your veins, and then complain about how pale you look. You’ve met these people. They whine about everything, and there is always a grievance with someone or something. These are not critical thinkers with a constructive heart. They’re just critical, or they tend to see doom and gloom everywhere. But before you start praising me for spotlighting them, know there’s a bit of them in all of us.  We all can forget our Queen’s English and start jabbering in Whinese, so I thought I’d give you some tips on how to get the positive back in your life.  And don’t complain, it will take work regardless of how big or small a whiner you happen to be.

1).  Take a look at your heart: Negativity is a matter of the heart. Luke 6:45 tells us so.  It also tells us that positivity is a matter of the heart. It is, afterall, out of the heart that the mouth speaks. This means we must daily submit our hearts to both the spotlight and cleansing powers of God. For example, a really good question to ask yourself the next time you feel an urge to complain about something or someone, or to doubt an outcome is, “Is God really in control? (Romans 8:28)”  If your heart is right with God, you can start at Romans 8:28-29 to reorient your mind (Romans 12:2). If it isn’t right with God, then get with fellow positive Christians and recharge your faith.

2).  Taking control of your thoughts will affect your heart:  Philippians 4:8-9 tells us that if we think right thoughts, and behave in right ways, that the God of peace will be with us.  And everyone knows that being around the God of peace changes hearts! Every good Christian demolishes ungodly arguments and pretensions by keeping his or her thoughts captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

3).  Negativity is contagious (and so is positivity): Negativity spreads between people like a disease (1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 22:24-25). In fact, consider the story of Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 13:1-33 and Numbers 14:1-4) to see how that works. The reverse of this is also true (Proverbs 12:20). So show love to negative people, but don’t make them regular company. And if they’re in the way of a plan that God has for you, then, like Joshua and Caleb, move on without them if necessary.