What does the Bible mean when it refers to emulations?

Both ζῆλος and φθόνος are translated 'envy,' but they are not used indiscriminately. ζῆλος is sometimes used in a good and sometimes in a bad sense, whereas φθόνος is perhaps always used in a bad sense in the New Testament.

In Gal. 5:20-21, both words are among the "works of the flesh," as 'emulations' or 'jealousies' (ζῆ.) and 'envyings' (φθ.).

ζῆλος is used of the Lord in "The 'zeal' of thine house hath eaten me up," John 2:17; a quotation from Ps. 69:9, where the LXX (68:9) has the same word. Paul speaks to the Corinthian saints of the 'zeal' ('fervent mind' A.V.) they had for him, and the 'zeal' they manifested in clearing themselves from the evil amongst them. 2 Cor. 7:7, 11. Afterwards he says he was jealous (ζηλόω, the verb) over them with a godly jealousy (ζῆ.) 2 Cor. 11:2; but in 2 Cor. 12:20, he uses the same word for the 'envyings' or 'jealousies' he feared he might find among them.

"Hatred,"* alas! may lurk and multiply its acts where love's language is familiar to the lips. The carnal mind is full of it, with God as its object who is love itself; and let saints remember that it is operating in their hearts also whenever they accept the friendship of the world (Rom. 8:7; Ps. 4:4). "Variance" (or strifes) (ereis) there must needs be between the children of this world and the children of light, and of the kingdom of God; but the active party in this quarrel is the former, not the latter, whose calling is to peace. Within the Church, contentions grow with the decay of faith and love. "Emulations" of a carnal kind are fatal; but there are others which are a praise to them that strive (Heb. 10:24). The one is born of envy, the other of true love. The first is nursed by ignorance, the last excited and sustained by knowledge. Paul had beyond all others known and proved in his own practice the opposite meanings of this term. Zeal made him, as a Pharisee, a persecutor of the Church; as a Christian, her devoted minister and slave (Phil. 3:6; 1 Cor. 9:19; 2 Cor. 4:5).

Wraths (thumoi), or fits of passion are, in men that profess to know God, most commonly ebullitions of false zeal. Man's anger never works the righteousness of God, but constantly resists it. It was when full of the indignation of rebuked self-righteousness that the men of Nazareth rose up in vain to kill the Lord (Luke 4:28-30). In Gentile as in Jew, we see the same exciting cause producing like effects (Acts 19:28, seq.). Both anger and wrath are to be put off by those who would put on, in their completeness, the garments of salvation and the ornaments of praise (Col. 3:6, seq.). "Party strifes" (eritheiai) stand next upon this dreary list, and are among the commonest, as well as least excusable, of the works of the flesh which show themselves within the Church of God. From the beginning of the gospel this form of evil has defiled and dishonoured the ministry of truth, though, thanks be to God, truth's efficacious power is not in its ministers but in itself. It has infested (Phil. 1:16-18), almost to its utter dissolution, that body which Christ calls His own, from the Corinthian scandals until now. It fades and disappears only before the presence of the cross, when the memory of Him who bore it in His lowly grace for us, and died not to divide but to bind together into one body, with no other mind than His, the children whom the Father gave to Him, is recalled freshly by the Spirit to our hearts (Phil. 2:3, seq.). It is well that those who think lightly of such things, should be reminded that to continue in this disposition to the end is a fatal condition of the human soul (Rom. 2:8).

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 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." (Gal. 5:19-21.)

What a dark catalogue of the works of the flesh which are manifest. There are other workings of the flesh which are not open and palpable, and which can only be judged by those who are spiritual. There is 'the fleshly mind' (Col. 2:18), and 'the flesh' in its religious aspect, in which Paul could have no confidence. (Phil. 3:3-4.) But even in the works of the flesh which are manifest, while some are morally offensive to us, others are not so, but are equally offensive to God. We draw distinctions between these works which the apostle classes together. While outward sensuality and libertinism is reprobated as fearfully evil and injurious to human society; 'variance, emulations, wrath, strife, heresies,' are not regarded in so dark a light; and yet they prove equally, that there is no fear of God as an influential principle, and they equally exclude from 'the kingdom of God.' 'Emulation' is the work of the flesh. It is the principle on which most of us have been educated; but it is in its spirit the most opposite to the Spirit of Him "who did not strive, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street." 'Emulation,' as rivalry, or competition, is the life of the world; it is honoured and respected; but it is but "the potsherd striving with the potsherd of the earth," to the utter forgetfulness of the real condition of man before God, as a lost and ruined sinner, and real greatness in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:1-7.) 'Envyings and murders' are grouped together, even as they came into the world together in Cain. 'Drunkenness and revellings' are found together; and 'such like' comprises all those exciting and refined amusements, for which men are content to pay so dearly. The world is glad to restrain some of the more gross works of the flesh for its own sake, whilst they encourage, as necessary and even advantageous, 'emulations,' 'revellings, and such like.' Herod heard John gladly up to a certain point; but when John plainly touched his conscience, by saying, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife," he put John in prison. 'Seditions and heresies,' party-spirit in the State, and party-spirit in the Church, for such is heresy, may often be found combined together against the truth of God. In this epistle, whilst the apostle presents us with a rich exhibition of the grace of God, he comes in with a most unsparing hand against the flesh, its lusts, its affections, and its works. Stern as the apostle is against the corrupters of the grace of the gospel, he is no less stern in his denunciation of practical ungodliness. "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."

The works of the flesh are solemnly and fully enumerated, and in such a manner as to mark the holy hand of the Spirit of God. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these; adultery], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 19-21). Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list thus? Who but He would have placed wrath, variance, etc. in the same category with such notoriously vile offences as fornication, murders, and drunkenness? Man would have classified them, arranging them in the order in which they appeared heinous in his sight. Offences that are lesser, in human judgment, would have been placed in one class, and bolder sins in another. But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Whether it be murder or strife, sect-making (for such is the meaning of "heresies"), or emulations (which may even happen among brethren), all comes from the flesh, which is incurably evil, whether in the saint or the unregenerate sinner. In like manner the Lord Jesus exposed the heart of man to His disciples in Matt. 15:19. All evil flows thence. The spring being impure, all that flows from it is offensive to God.

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest" — there was no difficulty to discern them — "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Thus you have human corruption and human violence. You have idolatry and witchcraft brought in, and on the other hand, seditions and heresies, which refer to the party-spirit that might be at work even under a christian profession. A child of God might slip into any of these evil things for a time; but there is a solemn sentence pronounced upon them — "Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." He warns them now, as he had while he was with them, "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Whatever the difficulty may be, let us never doubt, but most firmly receive it as from God, that Christ is the power of God to every one that believes. He is the power of God not merely to justification, but to salvation; and salvation, while it includes justification, goes far beyond it, because it takes in all the course of a christian man till he is actually in the resurrection state along with Christ. This is the meaning of the verse, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" — not your own forgiveness, but your own salvation. It is said to those who were already forgiven. Thus, salvation, in the sense spoken of there, implies the whole conflict with the power of evil we are passing through. We know that we have to do with the common enemy; but God is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We know the deep concern and regard which God feels for us, as committed to this conflict. We are fighting under His orders — doing His will in that thing as well as in others. So far is God from leaving us in any way, that He assures our soul He is pledged to see us through to the end; but He will have a solemn sense of the war with Satan in which we are engaged.

Its character is summed up in verse 16. At the root of it lies envy or emulation. This was the original sin of the devil. By aspiring to exalt himself, as envying that which was above him, he fell. When this is found there is bound to be strife, and strife in its turn results in confusion and every kind of evil work. Many of these evil things, perhaps all of them, would be counted as wisdom by fallen men. It looks wise enough to the average man to scheme and fight for oneself — to be always out for "number one" as it is called.

The evidence of their fleshliness was in their emulation, strife, and factions. The spirit of rivalry is how contrary to Him, who, being Himself the Highest, has come amongst us "meek and lowly in heart." And of course the fleshly effort of one to be in a high place will awake the fleshly resentment of another, and strife follows, with its consequent breaking of the people of God into factions.

(Vv. 14, 15). In contrast with the wise man, there are those who allow bitter envy and strife in their hearts. The evil, as ever, commences in the heart; and envy in the heart leads to boasting, and boasting to lying against the truth. How often the envious man will seek to hide his jealousy by protesting that he has no rancour in his heart, but is only resisting evil and standing for the truth. If, under the pretence of exposing some evil and telling a brother the plain truth for his good, we deliberately say things that are offensive, we may be perfectly sure that malice in the heart is behind our offensive words. How often have the most malicious words been excused by quoting the scripture, “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” How few would be able to quote the words that immediately precede, and that would warn us that we should not use this scripture lightly, for they ask the question, “Who is able to stand before envy?” (Prov. 27:4-6).

[4] The fourth point of this new walk is connected with the contrast between the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Here Paul summarizes the works of the flesh. We have many lists of the works of the flesh in the New Testament, Romans 1, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 1 and 2 Timothy 3, for example. Here he gives also a list and we can divide it into four categories. The first category involving fornication, uncleanness and licentiousness has to do with sexual sins. The second category, idolatry and sorcery, has to do with false worship, including witchcraft. The third category contains eight points and has to do with social and personal relationships. These words are difficult to follow, for there are so many different translations of them. Hatred is mentioned here and there, as emphasis on enmity and strife in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, which is peace. The third category is envy, which is a special evidence of the flesh. We have to humble ourselves before the Lord. How easily some of these things are displayed among believers! Contentions are divisions, actions, or disputes, a word that is also used in Romans 16:17, where Paul says, “Consider those who cause division.”It is a work of the flesh, of forming schools of opinion, which is the idea of sects or denominations. These four categories summarize the works of the flesh over against the fruit of the Spirit.

Envy involves both personal selfishness and ill-feeling toward another. Strife therefore accompanies it. This in turn overthrows all proper equilibrium: disorder prevails, and leaves the door open for "every evil work." It is by this means that Satanic activity thrives.