Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How To Overcome Envy with Love | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through 1st Corinthians 13, Paul's definition of love. I will never forget the feeling I felt one day scrolling through my Facebook feed. I'm just going along, and then I stop on a picture of a classmate of mine. I was in my second year of grad school, and anyways, he's standing. standing there, smiling with his wife, and standing next to him is my favorite professor and his

Starting point is 00:00:40 wife. And it's obvious that they've been out for dinner together. The minute I see this picture, I feel a pit in my stomach, then this sense of irritation and even dislike for my classmate. When I saw the picture, I felt envy. And as if that first little fit of envy wasn't enough, It didn't stop there. I couldn't help myself when I was in class with this guy. When that classmate answered a question wrong, I felt joy inside. When he answered a question correctly, I felt terrible. You see, envy isn't merely wanting what someone else has.

Starting point is 00:01:24 It includes that, but that's not really what it is. Envy is a disposition toward others. Envy is a inner uneasiness. about the prosperity of others. It's bitterness towards people who have more than us. It's a desire that people who have less than us would never quite get the same. Do you feel envy?

Starting point is 00:01:51 Have you ever felt discomfited when a coworker gets a promotion? Or a sense of joy when a peer gets knocked down a notch? Or irritation when a family member or a friend pulls up in a new car that's nicer than yours? Do you find yourself judging? Oh man, they can't afford that. They don't deserve that. Or gossiping, masking it in concern? I just don't know if they'll be able to handle all that responsibility. If you've experienced any of this, then you've experienced envy. We are continuing our series through 1st Corinthians 13. In this passage,

Starting point is 00:02:32 Paul offers an active definition of what love does and what love doesn't do. In 1 Corinthians 13.4, he writes, love does not envy. Paul had to write this to Corinth because envy was thriving in their little congregation. In 1 Corinthians 133, Paul wrote to them, Since there is envy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? Envy was a problem for Christians in Paul's Day, and it's an issue for Christians today. Ethan Cross, he is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and he studies the

Starting point is 00:03:19 impact of Facebook on our mental health. And in a recent publication, he wrote, and I'm quoting him, that envy is being taken to and extreme thanks to social media. It kind of makes sense, right? We all give filtered versions of ourselves online. We all know none of it's real. We all know that we're scrolling through everyone's photoshopped lives.

Starting point is 00:03:44 And yet it still fills us with envy. The simple reality is every single one of us, we carry around these tiny little envy amplification devices in our pockets, and it's making us miserable. Cross says that according to his research, all of this is taking a toll on us, the likes of which we have never experienced in the history of our species. And it's not particularly pleasant. He's right. Living with envy is a living hell. Why? Because envy comes to us straight from Satan. On the Bible's third page, the serpent tempts Adam and Eve with envy.

Starting point is 00:04:29 He says, look, if you eat this fruit, you will become like God. And Adam and Eve, they buy into the lie. They envy God himself. And because they're envying God, they mistrust Him. They begin to think that maybe God is against them. God isn't for them. And as a result, they reach out and they take the forbidden fruit. You see, envy is the opposite of love.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Envy hates seeing others prosper. Love delights in prospering others. Envy loves seeing others suffer misfortune, but 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 like to ask people to imagine heaven in their minds. And when I ask people to do this, I ask them to describe what they're seeing, what they think.

Starting point is 00:05:32 And a common answer I get is that everybody in heaven has equal possessions. No one has more, no one has less, everyone's just got the same. And when people say this, I sometimes will point out that in Jesus' parable of the talents, he actually says the opposite. He says that things won't be equal. He says that some people will have more and other people will have less. And whenever I say this, people often respond in the same way. But hold on, that's not fair. People would get envious of each other. That doesn't sound like heaven at all. You see, our minds are so poisoned by envy that we can't even imagine a world where people could have different amounts and no one would get envious. Do you want to know what heaven is going to be like?

Starting point is 00:06:25 Heaven will be a world where people rejoice to see their friends get more than them. Heaven will be a world where you rejoice to see a friend honored more than you. Heaven will be a world where we take joy in the prosperity of others. And the prosperity of others never takes our joy. do you know why we're going to be able to do that in heaven well it's because in the new creation we will have something better than stuff something better than honor and prosperity it's because we'll have jesus and having him will be so satisfying that we won't want what other people have we won't need it to be happy having him will be so satisfying that we can rejoice when we see other people have more

Starting point is 00:07:18 the honor and the prosperity that they have. I mean, it's just a feather compared to the tremendous weight of Christ's love for me. Do you know that you can experience that heavenly reality today? That you can be set free from envy and all of its misery today? That you can be satisfied deeply on Jesus today? If you allow your heart to feast on Him, to be fulfilled in him, to say deep down, Jesus, you really are enough. Jesus, you really are all I need.

Starting point is 00:07:57 If you do that, you can be freed from the misery of envy today. And you can because Jesus gives you his love today. Jesus puts his spirit in you today. Today, here's what I want you to ask. I want you to ask Jesus to set you free for. from envy by satisfying you deep down on his love. And then I want you to fight to take joy and the prosperity, the honor, the well-being of others. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast

Starting point is 00:08:39 more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How To Overcome Envy with Love | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

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