A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy the rottenness of the bones.
Proverbs sets two inner states side by side and follows each one down into the body. The question is whether our inward attitudes are only private moods, or forces that heal and destroy.
The Heart That Heals
One commentator calls this heart "sound" or "calm," and sets what it does against what its opposite does:
Then again, a sound or calm heart is a general healing power, just as envy rots even the bones — a corroding evil, without doubt.
The proverb speaks about the body. One writer, using an older wording of it, says the same holds even more of the inner life:
"A sound heart is life to the body" (v. 30). We know this is true of the body, and it is much more true of the spirit. Our inner being matters most of all, because it holds up our very existence and controls our actions.
What Envy Is Fighting
The verse sets envy against a sound heart. One writer says envy attacks a contented spirit:
Here envy stands against soundness of heart, because envy fights the simple, healthy principle, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6).
Envy does not stay by itself. One writer shows what it sets in motion:
How often we envy the wealth, or the ability, or the gift, or the holiness of another. This spirit of envy stirs up hostility in my heart against my brother, and a long list of works of the flesh may follow — all started by envy.
Why It Rots
Envy does not stay the size it started at. No one can say where it stops:
No one can say how far envy may lead even a child of God, once he willingly allows this feeling. It grows so fast that we begin by envying another person's success, prosperity and position, and soon we may hate him, and then plot against him.
Envy also brings its own misery, and it can look childish:
We are under trial, and the wicked man seems to be having such an easy time. We cannot bear it! We are like a child in a nursery who pouts and frets because the other child has a bigger apple. And the child with the big apple was the naughty one! Oh, what mischief can envy work in the heart of a saint! And what misery too, it can produce, and what sin!
The Track Record of Envy
Envy has a history, and one moment in it stands above the rest:
We come now to the most terrible thing envy ever did, in Mark 15:10. Envy handed Jesus, the Son of God, over to Pilate. That wretched, miserable feeling had eaten away everything even human in the hearts of the chief priests, who claimed to serve God. Here envy led them to CRUCIFY CHRIST.
So the same writer tells us to stop envy at its first stirring, not at its outcome:
Envy is worse than wrath or anger; no one can stand before it (Prov. 27:4)... To be warned is to be armed. Never give the devil room by letting envy sprout and take root in our hearts. Always check the first stirrings of an envious spirit.
The Cure
The cure turns the heart toward the very people it resents, and toward Christ:
Seek to rejoice in the prosperity of others; seek to be unselfish, for, after all, envy is only a form of selfishness. Seek the good of others, not your own. Consider Christ Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest we confess. He was not envious like Adam (Phil. 2). He emptied Himself, and ended a life of self-denial on the cross.
The test comes where the good is not ours:
Let us look to God for grace to value anything good in another, and all the more when we know we have no claim to that good ourselves. To allow jealousy in ourselves, or to let others plant it, is to give room to the great enemy.
Summary
- Heart first. A calm, sound heart is a general healing power. Our inner being holds up our life and controls what we do.
- Heart hungry. Envy is the rival of a sound heart because it fights the principle that godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Heart spreading. Once allowed, envy grows fast — from resenting another's success, to hating him, to plotting against him.
- Heart's record. Envy is worse than wrath or anger. Its worst work was the cross, where men who claimed to serve God crucified Christ.
- Heart cured. Check envy at its first stirring. Rejoice when others do well. Ask grace to value good in another, above all good we lack.