Romans 1:29: Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers.
Full of envy is when we look at somebody else’s property, status and position, and begin to envy them. This attitude leads to attempts at undermining the other person’s position or possessions and gaining them for ourselves. Think for a moment of the human capacity for envy, especially when a person is filled with ‘blind ambition’. What happens to the quality of life in your community, in your office, in your church, in your family, when just one member is filled with envy. How it tears apart any possible cohesive power of human relationships. 1
We cannot hate God and love our neighbor. Man’s interpersonal relationships are rooted and grounded ultimately in man’s commitment to God. If that vertical relationship is disturbed or destroyed, then it has radical repercussions on the horizontal level of human relationships. 2
Application
- Are you able to read this list of sins and take personal responsibility for your sins?
- Do you blame others, while hiding under a banner of self-righteousness, never confessing your own sins? Is there a spec in a brothers eye and a log in yours?
Prayer
Lord, I have sinned against You and others. Forgive me. Help me to ask forgiveness from those that I have sinned against. I have been blinded by my pride. I’m sorry.
1. Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
2. Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
