1512 Words.

Envy

I. Introduction.
A. Envy is an insidious vice that receives little treatment.
B. Roadmap.
1. Define envy.
2. Consider envy in the contexts of disunity, pride, and jealousy.
3. Relate envy to my own life.
C. Thesis: Envy is driven by the sin of pride, subverts Christian fellowship, and can
only be cured by rooting one’s identity in Christ and walking in faithful
obedience.

II. General Exploration of envy.

A. Definition of envy.
1. Basic definition of envy.
2. Envy is not a mean under Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
3. Envy is distinct from longing because it involves a desire that the other
should not have it.
B. Aquinas’ treatment of envy.
1. Aquinas on the competitive nature of envy.
2. Aquinas on the contexts in which envy arises – communities.
a. We envy those who are similar to us.
b. This fractures Christian community
C. Envy within the Bible.

III. Envy and other virtues and vices.

A. Pride drives envy.
1. Envy is concerned with self-image and pride.
2. C.S. Lewis quote.
B. Jealousy is primarily driven by relationships.

IV. Envy and my own life.

A. Anecdotes about PHC and my own experiences.
B. The antidote to envy.
1. Practical kindness.
2. Finding one’s identity in Christ.

V. Conclusion.
 Envy:

A Biblical and Philosophical Analysis

Box #282

November 30, 2023

PHI203

Word Count: 1512

 Envy is an insidious vice. Historically, the church regarded envy as one of the seven

deadly sins; however, today, books, sermons, and bible studies rarely address the subject. This is

an oversight as envy is ubiquitous – even in Christian families and colleges. In this paper I will

examine the sin of envy through philosophical and biblical lenses. First, I will define envy and

examine Aquinas’ treatment of the vice. Second, I will relate envy to disunity, pride, and

jealousy. Finally, I will consider envy as it applies to my own life and Patrick Henry College’s

culture and propose a spiritual antidote. Ultimately, I conclude that envy is driven by the sin

of pride, subverts Christian fellowship, and can only be cured by rooting one’s identity in

Christ and walking in practical obedience.

Envy is an unrighteous desire for a possession or attribute belonging to another person.

An individual might envy his neighbor’s car, his wife, his job, his GPA, or his skill at moot court.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle notes that envy does not correspond to a virtuous mean

state.1 Instead, it is a wicked passion like theft or murder, both of which are wrong in themselves

regardless of any excess or deficiency. As a sinful passion, envy is distinct from mere longing for

a possession; in fact, it can sometimes be morally proper to observe a good quality in someone

else and long to emulate it. Instead, the envious man is grieved by the fact that his peer possesses

a blessing he does not have. Were it in his power, the envious man would deprive his neighbor of

the possession or quality, just to keep the two of them on an equal footing. St. Thomas Aquinas

emphasizes this competitive aspect of envy in his Summa Theologica.

In the Summa Theologica, Aquinas treats the sin of envy with severity. He argues that it is

a mortal and a capital sin, on level with the vices of pride, avarice, wrath, lust, gluttony, and

sloth. According to Aquinas, rather than rejoice at another’s blessing, the envious man is

1
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terrence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999), 1107a.
sorrowful because he sees the other’s success as endangering his own status.2 Further on, the

philosopher points out that envy is to “grieve over a man's good, in so far as his good surpasses

ours.”3 Aquinas argues that this kind of grief is sinful and warped because a neighbor’s success

should naturally give us joy and cause us to celebrate. This deviance is particularly striking in

light of the kinds of people that one typically envies.

According to Aquinas, men are most envious of those who are closest to them and with

whom they share the most similarities. The philosopher argues that no commoner is envious of a

king; a member of royalty is so far above the peasant that no competition (even of an imaginary

sort) can possibly exist. Likewise, no aristocrat is envious of a mere peasant, as the latter poses

no threat to his status. As Aquinas goes on to write:

Wherefore a man envies not those who are far removed from him, whether in place, time,
or station, but those who are near him, and whom he strives to rival or surpass. For it is
against our will that these should be in better repute than we are, and that gives rise to
sorrow.4

In other words, we are most envious of our neighbors – the very people that Christ commands us

to love. This reveals part of the reason why envy is such a grievous vice. As Christians we are to

love our unsaved acquaintances and enjoy true unity and communion with other believers. Yet,

envy undermines both of these responsibilities by turning our hearts against these people and

causing us to wish evil on them.

Not only does envy contradict centuries of Christian tradition, fracture Christian unity,

and make it impossible to love one’s neighbor, but it is also explicitly forbidden in God’s word.

Job 5:2 says “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.” Similarly, we read in James

2
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province,
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3036.htm#article1 (accessed 11/29/23).
3

Ibid.
4
Ibid.
3:16, “Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil

practice.” Finally, in the books of I Peter, I Timothy, Galatians, and Romans, the apostles Peter

and Paul condemn envy, mentioning it in lists of vices alongside murder, deceit and evil talks.

Envy is driven by and inherently linked to the sin of pride. As is apparent in the above

definition and citations from Aquinas, an envious man is obsessed with how he measures up

against other people. He has been caught in the snare of self-comparison, and his relationships

with others are defined by how they impact his self-image and his appearance in the eyes of

others. It is striking how perfectly C.S. Lewis’ critique of pride from Mere Christianity applies to

the vice of envy:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the
next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they
are not They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If
everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to
be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above
the rest.5

In the above sentences, one could easily substitute the word “pride” for “envy,” and Lewis’

observation would remain equally true. It is this prideful motivation that distinguishes envy from

the related sin of jealousy.

Where envy is motivated by pride and self-image, jealousy is largely driven by

relationships. While colloquial usage of the term “jealousy” varies, philosophers have

traditionally defined jealousy in the context of three people.6 When one is jealous of another,

they typically experience these emotions in reference to a third party – perhaps a lover, or a

friend they are eager to impress. The jealous person is not primarily motivated by pride or self-

image; instead, he is jealous for another person. For example, a husband might be jealous of his
5
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, https://www.samizdat.qc.ca/vc/pdfs/MereChristianity_CSL.pdf (accessed
11/29/23), 66.
6
Justin D’Arms, "Envy," in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017,
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/envy/.
wife’s handsome co-worker. In experiencing this emotion, the husband does not resent the co-

worker because he feels inferior to him in the abstract; instead, the husband is frustrated because

of the way the man’s superior qualities recommend him to a beloved spouse. In this sense,

jealousy is not always a vice. In the Bible, God is sometimes described as jealous for His

children and their affections.

In a close and competitive community like Patrick Henry College, envy can easily get a

foothold. I have frequently fallen into the sin in the context of forensics competitions, like moot

court and mock trial. When I have performed poorly, I can become resentful towards the teams

that do better. I might hope that they lose their rounds, as that will alleviate my sense of

inferiority. Obviously, this sentiment is problematic as it undermines the team spirit that ought to

prevail among debaters representing the same school and serving the same God. I fell into envy

again this last May when I was scrolling through LinkedIn and saw that my classmate had just

started a very competitive internship with a private equity firm. My instant reaction was to think

that I was intellectually better than this brother in Christ and to get angry that he had secured a

good internship while I was unemployed. In that moment, I wished that he had not received this

blessing and that we had remained on the same level. This is yet another painful example of how

envy destroys Christian unity and makes it hard to fulfill Jesus’ command to love the brethren.

The antidote to envy has two parts. First, a Christian should seek to form and guide his

thought life and emotions through practical actions. While our passions might sometimes seem

out of our control, they will usually conform to our lifestyle and day-to-day spiritual activities. In

the context of envy, this means that we should actively show kindness to people we typically see

as our competition. We should encourage them, congratulate them on their successes, and seek to

help them as we are able. Second, we should to kill the root of envy – our pride – by building our
self-image on the firm foundation of the gospel of Christ. When one realizes he is a child of God,

the qualities and possessions he is prone to envy suddenly become insignificant. A child of the

Lord does not need to be in competition with his neighbor because he knows that he is precious

in his Father’s eyes.

Envy corrupts some of God’s greatest blessings. It undermines Christian community,

threatens our witness to non-believers, and gnaws at our hearts – leaving a person with a

perpetual feeling of frustration and ingratitude. Envy finds its root in pride, which is the queen of

vices and the sin by which Satan fell. In order for the Christian to find redemption and healing

from envy, he must reject pride, embrace his identity in Christ, and begin walking in practical,

everyday obedience and love for his neighbor.

 Bibliography

Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Theologiae. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province.
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3036.htm#article1 (accessed 11/29/23).

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Terrence Irwin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999.

D’Arms, Justin. "Envy." In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2017.

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/envy/.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. https://www.samizdat.qc.ca/vc/pdfs/MereChristianity_CSL.pdf

(accessed 11/29/23).