My daughter is at the age where she wants to watch the same movie over and over again. Everyday if she is given the option she will watch the same thing. Because we know this we try not to introduce her to movies that are going to be really annoying for us to watch. No Barney, etc. Lately her favorite has been Disney’s Snow White.
As I was watching Snow White for the who-knows-how-manyith time I realized how good of a movie it actually is. The old Disney films are dated surely (Snow White is from 1937!), but they have great sense of both irony and poetic Justice. I have been doing a study on the seven deadly sins with a small group I lead. There is no better fictional example of envy than the Queen in Snow White.
“Coveting” is when you desire something that someone else has. “Jealousy” is when you feel entitled to what they have. “Envy” is the emotion you feel toward the person who has what you want.* Envy is saying “who are they to have that thing/privilege/skill?” Envy is rooted in pride. It has a sense of entitlement.
The Queen in Snow White cannot stand that there is someone more beautiful in the land. Have you ever thought about how much pride it shows that she has a “magic mirror” that will tell her things (OK, she already has a problem with witchcraft) and all she ever asks it is to tell her that she is the most beautiful in the land.
Envy was at least a partial motive for Cain killing Abel.
Genesis 4:2-8 (NIV) 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
As I was watching Snow White for the who-knows-how-manyith time I realized how good of a movie it actually is. The old Disney films are dated surely (Snow White is from 1937!), but they have great sense of both irony and poetic Justice. I have been doing a study on the seven deadly sins with a small group I lead. There is no better fictional example of envy than the Queen in Snow White.
“Coveting” is when you desire something that someone else has. “Jealousy” is when you feel entitled to what they have. “Envy” is the emotion you feel toward the person who has what you want.* Envy is saying “who are they to have that thing/privilege/skill?” Envy is rooted in pride. It has a sense of entitlement.
The Queen in Snow White cannot stand that there is someone more beautiful in the land. Have you ever thought about how much pride it shows that she has a “magic mirror” that will tell her things (OK, she already has a problem with witchcraft) and all she ever asks it is to tell her that she is the most beautiful in the land.
Envy was at least a partial motive for Cain killing Abel.
Genesis 4:2-8 (NIV) 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Cain could not live with the fact that Abel had been accepted. Envy causes us to want to destroy the person. It doesn’t start out that way. First we may just enjoy hearing gossip about them. We may take pleasure when things go wrong for them. Then we may start to hope worse things happen to them. Next we may help bad things to happen to them and finally we may be tempted to destroy them.*
Ask yourself, Are there people you want to see fail? Do you have trouble being happy for people when they get good news? Why? Do you think they don’t deserve it? Do you think you do?
Later this week we will look more at the effects of Envy on us.
Mark Wallace
* My thinking on Envy has been very influenced by sermons by Sundar Krishnan and bible study material written by Bob Fukumoto based in part on Tony Campolo's book on the 7 deadly sins.
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