Lessons from Zone 8
Greed gets the headlines. Envy hides in plain sight.
When you have to fly a lot, there are perks for picking an airline and going all-in on the relationship. Even just a little bit of status can get you free checked bags, lounge access, and (the thing I’m most obsessed with) early boarding so you don’t have to fist fight for overhead bin space.
But last month, I needed a direct flight and couldn’t get one on my favorite airline. So I sucked it up and booked a seat with no status. I know, right? I paid the bag fees, but it was the single digit number on the top right of my boarding pass that had me grumpy:
Boarding Zone 8!
My heart was Grinch-hard as people began lining up to board. Look at those smug first-class passengers glancing down their noses. Even that Zone 5-er thinks she’s better than me! What a bunch of jerk-faces.
It doesn’t take much for the rot in my heart to manifest.
But here’s the twist—we talk about the evils of greed a lot. But I’m not sure we talk enough about the sin of envy.
A greedy person is obsessed with getting more, but envy changes the target. Aristotle gets to the heart of envy pretty well: “Envy is pain at the sight of another’s good fortune.”
Envy is Good at Hiding
I recently wrote about greed and its association with business. It’s easy to see the evil in greed because greed is often associated with power. When we think of greedy people, we normally think of those who exploit, hoard, and abuse power. Greedy people make easy villains, so despising the greedy feels kind of—righteous.
In the Bible, greed is tied to wrong worship—to the sin of idolatry—to worshipping the things of this world. But envy is right there in those same biblical vice-lists. It’s one of the Seven Deadly Sins after all.
While most of us wouldn’t suggest envy is virtuous, we’ve gotten good at repackaging it under some less-hostile pseudonyms.
Envy can hide behind good concepts like sensitivity, fairness, and leveling the playing field. And when directed upward, these things can begin to feel morally justified (even when something more corrosive might be going on in our souls).
Envy is uniquely dangerous because, ultimately, it is relational. It targets people—fellow image bearers—not just possessions.
I’m quick to condemn when I think others have too much. But I might be even quicker to justify my unhealthy want and resentment of what someone else has. That’s worth wrestling with.
Envy forgets the Great Story that we’ve been invited into. It assumes someone else’s boarding zone would be better than the one God has assigned to me.
Let’s search our hearts this week. Where has the sin of envy crept in?
Erik Cooper
Erik began his career in the business world before spending twelve years in full-time ministry, serving on staff at a large suburban church and later as a church planter in downtown Indianapolis. Today, he serves as the President of a family of business-oriented nonprofit organizations that work together to mobilize the marketplace to make Jesus known in the world. He leads The Stone Table, which equips marketplace believers and invests in global mission initiatives, and Community Reinvestment Foundation, a nonprofit real estate company providing high-quality affordable housing in Indiana and directing its profits to missions through The Stone Table.
