CHARITY ENVIETH NOT: chapter III
Understanding that charity does not envy is the backbone of what charity is. Through this study we can wrap our minds around what charity is according to scripture.
To start it is good to understand how envy can creep into our lives even in simple ways. A husband or wife can envy one another and how they do not have the same responsibilities as they do. Or the same freedom. The husband can look at the wife as she gets to stay home while he goes to work and get envious. All the while the wife envy's her husband getting to go out and about, while she is stuck at home.
The same can be said for people in the workforce looking at their superiors thinking ill of them. Either by wanting them gone or desiring their position. Consider the following...
1 Timothy 6:1-2 KJV Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. (2) And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.
..the other end of this is envy..
1 Timothy 6:3-5 KJV If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; (4) He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, (5) Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
..to avoid such envy, be content..
1 Timothy 6:6 KJV But godliness with contentment is great gain.
And just to note that a wife is likened unto a servant in scripture and to be obedient to her own husband.
1 Peter 2:18 KJV Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
1 Peter 3:1 KJV Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
And to the same measure the husband is to love their wife, giving honour unto the weaker vessel, not to despise her being bitter against her.
Colossians 3:19 KJV Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
1 Peter 3:7 KJV Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
A wife may be tempted to be envious of her own husband because he has more time in devoted study in God's word, hours of fellowship with the brethren, doing more for the ministry (i.e. recording videos, evangelizing, answering emails, working on the website). She may desire for herself to spend that time (undistracted) with God but instead, she is given a charge to be a keeper at home. She must make the bed, sweep/mop daily, make meals, change diapers, tend unto the children, etc. It becomes envy when the wife thinks to herself how her husband should use his study time to help her study instead. This is a work of the flesh.
Galatians 5:19-21 KJV Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, (21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:24 KJV And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Galatians 5:26 KJV Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
When the truth is that the wife is called to be her husband's HELP from the very beginning. (Genesis 2:18-24)
She is there to keep the house so that he can serve God in those things. That is what God has for the wife. Envy will only cause rottenness in the bones of the husband and wife (one flesh) (Prov 14:30 Cp. 12:4). She should be content in understanding that it is God's will for her to do these things instead of wishing she could do what her husband does. Which leads into... Envy and bitterness and all that comes along with it.
((This whole thing can go even worse if one spouse is unsaved... where the unsaved wife would want the saved husband to fall away from the faith and be worldly. Turning into a drunkard, being covetous, desiring riches, which all leads in to or is fed by envy.))
And husbands ought to understand their base role as well in being the provider for the home. In providing food, clothing, shelter, safety: rather this is by the sweat of his own brow in farming, hunting, crafting, and his own strength; Or by working for money to provide such things. Either as a free man or a servant unto another in other words.
1 Corinthians 7:22 & 24 KJV For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. (24) Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
..there are many other passages like the following..
1 Corinthians 12:13 KJV For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
So there are those who are free working for themselves and not subject unto any service to a 9-5 job. And then there is those who are bonded to work for another. Sad thing is that their are men that turn the way they provide into a commandment determining rather someone is saved or not. Such a thing is also fueled by envy when those that are bond men envy the free man. But the same Lord who is rich unto that call upon him has saved us all and has made us to each be equal in Christ through salvation, whether we be bond or free. Likewise with a husband and wife as they be made into one flesh, so are all who are in Christ in one body fitly joined together. So, we should not envy what our brother does or does not, if not the same as you, as long as the word of God is what is magnified and obeyed in its simple understanding.
1 Corinthians 12:19-21 KJV And if they were all one member, where were the body? (20) But now are they many members, yet but one body. (21) And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
And so this is just a few less often considered ways envy works in us. May we be more cautious to take heed and walk worthy of our calling in the Lord, to be in the Spirit and not the flesh.
Now lets get to the video Bible study and see what else the word of God has to say on charity envieth not.
