Bible Verses About Envy and Jealousy

“A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

A calm heart is compared to health for the body, while envy is compared to decay in the bones. The proverb treats jealousy as something that wears us down from the inside.

“Wrath is cruel and anger is like a flood, but who can withstand jealousy?”

Anger is cruel and rage overwhelming, yet the writer asks who can stand before jealousy. It is a sober way of saying that envy can be harder to resist than open fury.

“So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD, while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell. “Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.””

Cain sees his brother's offering accepted and his own face falls. God speaks to him before anything happens and warns that sin is crouching at the door, but that he can master it.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.” “Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements. Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.”

Joseph's brothers watch their father favor him and cannot speak a kind word to him. Their envy grows step by step into something none of them would have imagined at the start.

“But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.”

James says bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are not wisdom from above and lead to disorder and every kind of evil. Where envy lives, chaos tends to follow.

“Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong. For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

The psalmist tells us not to fret over those who seem to get ahead and to keep trusting and doing good. Delight in the Lord is offered as the cure for wanting what others have.

“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

Asaph admits that he almost lost his footing because he envied the boastful and their easy lives. It helps to know that a believer wrote this, and that the confession was kept in Scripture.

“When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.”

The puzzle stayed heavy until Asaph went into God's sanctuary and saw things from a longer view. Worship changed what he was looking at.

“Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.”

Paul suggests examining our own work and finding satisfaction there, rather than in how we measure up to a neighbor. A life is meant to be lived, not ranked.

“Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?” When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!””

Peter has just been restored and immediately asks what will happen to another disciple. Jesus answers that this is not his business and tells him to follow.

“I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

Paul says he has learned to be content in plenty and in need. Contentment is described as something learned over time, not a mood we either have or lack.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.”

Paul pairs rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. The first is often the harder of the two, because it asks us to be glad when we feel overlooked.

“For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design.”

The body needs foot, hand, eye and ear, and no part can say it is not needed because it is different. God placed each member as he chose, so someone else's gift is not a verdict on ours.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

Among the marks of love, Paul lists that it does not envy and does not boast. Love and envy cannot live in the same heart for long.

““For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked. ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’ The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’”

In Jesus' story of workers hired at different hours, those who started early resent the owner's generosity to latecomers. The owner asks whether they are envious because he is good.

“Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Peter urges believers to put aside malice, deceit and envy, and to crave spiritual nourishment like newborns. Setting something down is easier when our hands are taking hold of something better.