Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Fight Envy | Torah | Exodus 20:17, 23:4-9

Episode Date: June 30, 2022

What makes the tenth commandment different from the others? Is envy really that bad? Where does envy come from? In today's episode, Patrick discusses the danger of envy and how to battle it. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 20:17, 23:4-9 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. I'll never forget the feeling one night when I was sitting there scrolling through Facebook. It was in my second year of grad school, and I scrolled past a photo of a classmate of mine smiling alongside his wife and my favorite professor. And his wife at dinner. And when I saw it, I felt a pit in my stomach, this deep sense of irritation, a sense of dislike

for that classmate. I felt envy. The first fit of envy wasn't so bad, but it didn't stop there. I couldn't help myself when I was in class. When that classmate answered a question wrong, I felt a sense of joy. When he answered a question correctly, I felt terrible inside. Envy isn't merely wanting what someone else has. Envy's a disposition towards other people. It's an inner uneasiness about the prosperity of other people. It's bitterness towards those who have more than us. It's a desire that those who have less than us never quite get the same as us. Do you feel envy? Do you feel discomfited when a coworker gets a promotion? Do you feel a sense of joy when a peer gets, you know, knocked down a notch? A sense of irritation when a family member pulls up in a new car that's nicer than

your car. Do you find yourself judging? They can't afford that. They don't deserve that. Do you find yourself gossiping? You know, you mask it in concern. Oh, I just don't know if they'll be able to handle all that responsibility and that new job. If you've experienced any of this, you've experienced envy. And of course, we all have. Today we're wrapping up the Ten Commandments. And I find two things fascinating about the Ten Commandments in general. Here's the first one. The first Nine Commandments are all external commandments. They're things other people can witness. Other people can confirm because they happen out in the real world. That makes a lot of sense because the Ten Commandments are a law code. But here's the second thing I find interesting.

The 10th commandment is the only one that addresses something no one can see, something that no one can prove. It's the only one that addresses the heart. Exodus 2017 says this, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. That's a strange law. I mean, how would you know someone coveted your house or your wife? Well, you might know if he slept with your wife, then he would know it, right? But that breaks the Seventh Commandment.

So do you really need the 10th commandment? Or how would you know someone covets your property? Well, you know if they stole it, but that breaks the 8th commandment. So why do you need the 10th commandment? I think we need it because it illustrates something implicit in all of the 10 commandments. It's something that Jesus himself expanded on later in the sermon on the mount. Sin starts in the heart. By the time you act externally on a sinful desire,

It was only because you gave into a sinful desire internally. That was just the last domino in a row of dominoes that led you to that moment. And in many cases, that sinful desire that's driving us is covetousness. It's envy. And the reality is that covetousness is a form of idolatry, the very first commandment. Paul wrote in Colossians 3.5, put to death covetousness, which is idolatry. It's the only sin in the entire New Testament. that's called idolatry. The reason why is obvious. We envy what other people have because we don't

believe God's given us everything we need. And today, we live in a society where envy thrives. Social media and the internet give us a constant stream of people to envy. Ethan Cross, he's a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. He studies the impact of Facebook on our mental health. And in a recent publication, he said that envy is being taken to an extreme. That's a quote. And he said that's happening thanks to social media. It makes sense, right? We all give filtered versions of ourself online. None of it's real. None of it's authentic. Scrolling through everyone's photoshopped filtered images. It fills us with envy. And the tiny envy amplification device, we all carry around in our pockets. It's making us miserable. Cross says that it's taking,

quote, a toll on us, the likes of which we have never experienced in the history of our species. And it's not particularly pleasant. I think he's right. Most at least give you brief sensations of happiness. Envy is the only sin that makes you miserable from the start. And this is because love is the key to happiness and envy is the opposite of love. Envy hates seeing others prosper. Love delights in the prospering of others. Envy loves seeing others suffer misfortune. Love suffers misfortune for the sake of others. Envy is the way of hell, the way of Satan. Love is the way of heaven, the way of Jesus. I often, ask people to imagine the renewed heaven and the renewed earth when we're all resurrected with

Jesus. What do you think it'll be like? Can I tell you one of the common answers that I get to that question? A lot of people will say, well, everyone will have equal possessions. No one will have more. No one will have less. And when people say this, I point out to them that in Jesus' parable of the talents, he says that things won't be equal in the renewed creation. He says, some people will have more. Other people will have less. Inequality of possessions is one thing that the resurrection won't change. Now, when I tell people this, they get frustrated with me. They say, but that's not fair. You're misinterpreting Jesus. That would lead to sin. People would get envious. And I point out to them this reality. Our minds are currently so poisoned by

envy that we can't imagine a world where people could have different amounts and no one would feel envy. Do you want to know what the renewed creation will be like? The renewed creation will be a world where people rejoice to see their friends get more than them. A world where you rejoice to see a friend honored more than you are. A world where we take joy in the prosperity of others. And the prosperity of others never steals our joy in what we have. And do you want to know why we'll be able to do that in the renewed creation? It's because we'll have something better than stuff.

We'll have something better than prosperity. We'll all, every single one of us, have Jesus. And having him will be so satisfying that we will be so satisfying that we won't want what other people have. We'll trust that he's given us what we need and what we can handle. Having him will be so satisfying that we can rejoice when others have more. The honor and prosperity they have is a feather compared to the tremendous weight of Christ's love for me. The only way to battle covetousness is to battle idolatry. The 10th and First Commandments, they actually create a loop. If you want to fight envy, you have to be satisfied in God.

So today, bring your envy and covetous desires before him. Confess them. Know that he forgives you. Know that he restores you. And pray this to him. Lord, make me so satisfied in you that I can take joy in the success and possessions of others. Make me so satisfied in you that I want for nothing in this life. Because I mean nothing but your love.

Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email. every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.