Envy versus Jealousy

Envy and jealousy are often thought of as interchangeable terms that are close enough in meaning.  In truth, they refer to two very different emotions.  Put simply, jealousy is the fear of losing something that we possess to another person where as envy is the pain or frustration caused by another person having something that we do not have.

A basic example of jealousy would involved three parties:
1. The owner
2. The object that is owned
3. The potential new owner of the object

Scripture says that our God is a jealous god.  This would imply that God is the owner, we are the object that is owned, and the jealousy stems from the pain of us being owned by another party (i.e. Satan).

Envy on the other hand, involves at a minimum - only two parties:
1. The one who possesses something
2. The one who doesn’t

The pain of envy stems from the frustration within the person who does not have that is caused by the other person who possesses something.  This is not to say that the person who possesses the object IS the cause.  It is merely the fact that they have something that is perceived to be of value to the person who does not.  An example of envy might be the frustration of other people having beauty, wealth, or some kind of higher social status.

This entry was posted on 17. September 2010 at 17:00 and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.