The Invitation of Envy
The Bible is not naïve about the brokenness of the world around us. It doesn’t describe life according to our wishful thinking. No, it describes and matches life as it truly is. Proverbs 1:10–19 is a clear example of this.
The passage is blunt, realistic, and disturbing because it shows how evil works—not only through obvious violence, but through social dynamics, recruiting, grievance, and even shared resentment.
I think that’s why the father in Proverbs doesn’t begin by talking to his son about abstract concepts. Instead, he tells him the truth about the kind of world he is entering. He points out that sinners entice and evil always comes with an inviting attitude. Indeed, there’s such a thing as a kind of “reverse-evangelism” where fools don’t just want to sin alone but invite others into their dead-end lives.
“Come with us,” they say. They embrace the language of this kind of shared destruction. The end of that path isn’t always literal murder. Sometimes, it’s deeper and hits closer to home than that.
As I was studying this passage, one writer asked this question: Are you happy when other people succeed, or are you happy when they get their comeuppance?[1]
That’s a good question. Asking ourselves a question like that will reveal a lot about where we are headed. That question reaches beyond typical gang violence and beyond the thinking that someone is going to rob my grandma if I’m not careful.
It reaches into the ordinary poison of the human heart. The text points to pride, envy, greed, jealousy, retaliation, and what is called a kind of “bloodlust” deep in every heart. Violence begins there. It happens before hands ever move or weapons are ever drawn.
The human heart lies in wait for blood.
That is why success can become the unpardonable crime in the eyes of rampant sinners and even in the eyes of people we know.
For example, we can start with the person who writes better, speaks better, works harder, or is more successful than us. To the envious heart, these people seem guilty of every imaginable offense. Its cry is, “Down with him! Get rid of their success at any cost!”
When Another Person’s Success Feels Like a Threat
Think of Cain. Cain could not bear Abel’s acceptance, so he murdered him. Saul could hardly endure David’s praise, so he tried to pin him against the wall. Joseph’s brothers could not tolerate the favor given to him, so they put him in a pit and sold him into slavery. Even the religious leaders grew jealous of Jesus and handed Him over to be crucified. It’s clear then, that human beings don’t simply dislike evil; they often hate excellence, fruitfulness, favor, and blessing in another because their giftings and successes expose what is lacking or disordered in themselves.
For the envious heart, another person’s success can feel like the greatest offense. So they recruit.
Envy Always Wants Company
Sin is always finding people who agree with it. I think this is one of its darkest features. A man rarely stays content with his private resentment and will begin to gather others. His thoughts and feelings creep into all his conversations. We find him becoming increasingly obsessed. He wants allies and company because his grievance enjoys fellowship.
“Throw in your lot among us,” the sinners say (Prov. 1:14). From there, we watch a cause—even a negative cause—provide a context people can belong to, and it feels good. More than that, it feels meaningful. But when men gather around grievance rather than Jesus, that is not community at all. It is what Ray Ortlund calls counterfeit community, even black-market relationships.[2]
This is everywhere we look. Bullies at school, office meetings, divisions in churches, neighbors endlessly gossiping, political movements fueled by retaliation, and the list goes on. These are all variations of the same old invitation:
“Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood.”
Sure, the methods changed and the vocabulary became more respectable, but the call is the same. We build communities that, in one way or another, slit each other’s throats and call it justice and discernment.
So the question is: Is there something better?
Christ Offers a Better Way
Yes, Proverbs gives the son another option. The offer of wisdom in verses 8–9 is beautiful. The father says that wisdom will become a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. In other words, wisdom adorns a person’s life with true beauty. It makes a person attractive in the truest sense of the word. The answer in Proverbs is continually the same: Get wisdom.
Paul’s command to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” captures the same idea (Rom. 13:14). Wisdom is seen in reasonableness, honor, humility, and a life that is not oriented around itself. Wisdom is not just asking for a life of rule-keeping. Wisdom is found in Christ. Wisdom is the attractive glory of Christ beginning to show itself in the human heart.
And the final answer to our bloodlust is peace. Not the world’s peace, but the peace found in Christ. The gospel reminds us that God is not lying in wait for our blood. He gave His own son at the cross. When the peace of Christ rules the heart, a person no longer needs another man’s downfall to feel justified. He can become, by grace, a peacemaker rather than a rival, a life-giver rather than a destroyer.
Do you recognize this attitude in your own life? Do you see it in your friends or your church?
Instead of joining communities built on resentment, become the kind of person who delight in the grace of God wherever it appears. The wisdom of Christ frees us to rejoice in another person’s blessing because our hope is secure in Him.
May we heed the father’s instruction: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent (Prov. 1:10).
[1] Ray Ortlund, Proverbs: Wisdom That Works (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 38–40.
[2] Ortlund, Proverbs, 38–40.