Gene writes in to ask, "Pastor John, how do I handle the envy and jealousy that are eating away at me?" So envy and jealousy are two distinct topics here on the table. Perhaps we can break this into two podcasts and address jealousy next time. So Pastor John, start with envy.

What would you say to Gene? It's not wrong to want something that you don't have. We usually think of envy that way. I want that, something that person has. In fact, we wouldn't even pray if we didn't want things we didn't have. That's what prayer is. In fact, I would say all of life is either thanksgiving for what God has given us or aspiration for something that might be good for us.

So the question is, what makes envy evil? What makes the wanting of something evil? Proverbs 37, "Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers." It seems like people were looking at those who were prospering in their wrongdoing. They had things and they were feeling envious of it.

Or Proverbs 14, "A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot." Or Matthew 27, "For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered Jesus up." So envy is a horrible thing. It resulted in the killing of the Son of God.

That was a motive behind the destruction of Jesus. Or Romans 1, "Since they did not approve to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a debased mind. They were filled with envy, murder, strife." Same thing in 1 Peter 2, "Put away malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." So, clearly, this is a good question.

We don't want to be eaten up by something that crucified the Son of God and that is all tied up with hypocrisy and deceit and slander and evil. So when I try to get at what the essence of it is and how to handle it, it seems to me that those texts have some clues in them.

It seems to be born, envy seems to be born of a restless heart that does not find God satisfying. So we're craving and we're yearning, we're aching toward what somebody else has because God himself is not satisfying our soul. So envy is a wanting something, some gift or some ability or some looks or something that somebody else has with one of two feelings that make it bad.

Either resentment that they have it and you don't and so your heart is irritated, not just that you want it, but that they have it and you don't. And that's loveless. And when we're upset that somebody else has something and we don't have it and it makes us irritated and angry, we know that lovelessness has gripped our soul.

Or a discontent, not just resentment that they have it, but a discontent on our own soul that makes us distrustful of God or angry at God. Why didn't you give me that? Why did they have it and I don't? Why did you withhold this from me? I know Tony, in my teenage years, the fact that I couldn't talk in front of a group came the closest to make me envious.

I'd see these people who could speak so easily in front of groups and I couldn't. Or to this very day, the fact that I read so slowly, I have to constantly go back to God and say, "Lord, I could accomplish so much more, I think. If you had just given me the ability to read as fast as Tony Ranke could read." No, don't start.

And you really have to revisit these things over and over again and lay them down and say, "God, I trust you. You are good." So I think at bottom, the remedy is not that I am speaking of being in need, this is a quote from Philippians, "For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

I know how to be brought low, I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of facing plenty." So there you've got enough. Or hunger. Now you could start feeling envious. "They have more. I want more. I don't have enough. They have plenty." And Paul says there's a secret of trust in the goodness of God that enables you to feel contentment in all that you have.

So I think the key is trust Him with what He has given us, and only ask for things that would honor Him more, and then be content with what God gives us. All right. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org, and you can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of other free books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper.

I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening.