Difference Between Envy And Self Ambition

In James 3:16 it states that: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” That idea that there is a root cause for disorder and evil practice is also reflected in Luke 6:45 which states: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” While many consider Love to be the root of all things good, from the Bible we can draw that Envy and Self ambition is the marker for all things evil. I love how Glittering Vices defined the difference between Envy and Covetousness which stating that “Envy targets the internal qualities of another person, qualities that give another person worth, honor, standing or status (DeYoung, 43).” Envy is a game of comparing ourselves to others that every time we play, we come out the broken down loser. When we come under the influence of envy we try to make ourselves better and we lose who we really are. In Ephesians 4:24 it states: “And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” We are called as new creations …show more content…
The church in many cases has spewed off anger for many things, we have become known for what we are against and not what we are few. We have spewed out anger on what people should dress like, why rock music is of the devil, and why liquor should not be sold on Sundays. As stated in Truth Decay “Truth Decay is the cultural condition in which the idea of absolute, objective, and universal truth in considered impossible (Groothuis, 22).” As Christians if we look through the Bible we can see cases of the “Righteous Anger of God” or even when Jesus flipped the tables in the temple. Instead of leaning on a post modern idea of when it is OK to be angry we can see absolute truths of what righteous anger looks