“Don’t Envy Sinners.”
Proverbs 23:17 NLT
Are you the overtly competitive type or are you more subtle? Unless you’ve given up on life (and I pray that’s NOT the case) you have something that motivates you to get up each day. But do you suspect others are competing with you to claim your prize?
It’s almost laughable, but even the meekest of people can display their competitive streak—you encounter them on busy streets and highways. I know that when even better judgement tells me to stay calm and relax, I get engaged.
You know what I’m talking about. You have your turning blinker on, letting people know you need to get in the other lane, but other drivers cut in or crowd the lane and won’t let you in. More subtly, other drivers don’t bother to signal (maybe they think you’re going to block them out) and without warning, cut in front of you, forcing you to suddenly react.
“Oh,” you think to yourself as you verbally abuse your offending competitor, “if only I could have that space and make all these other drivers go away!”
But driving experiences are only suggestive of jealousy that affects us at school, at work—whether or not you’re trying to climb the corporate ladder, and even among friends or at home among siblings, or sadly among spouses. We have a tendency to label all those who compete with us or cut us off in achieving our goals as “evil so-and-so’s.”
It’s so engrained in our nature, (yes, even in my own false sense of piety), that the Bible addresses this condition and warns us to redirect our competitiveness from that which tears down to that which honors God.
Proverbs 23:17-18 ESV says, “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.”
In other words, don’t be jealous or upset if someone else gets ahead of you, whatever it is you’re pursuing, and don’t imitate or do bad behavior. Instead, imitate God.
How?
Jesus said, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike” (Matthew 5:43-45).
God isn’t in competition with anyone; he blesses the people we like and even the ones we don’t. To imitate God means that you trust him for what is good and necessary for you in life—you work hard but trust him for what you can’t control: future outcomes.
Today, redirect your competitive streak to whatever is positive; start by praying for those who offend you and ask God to bless them. God promises you, “your hope will not be cut off!”
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