God’s command, “Be holy, I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44) is the purpose of life that God desires for Christians. And the meaning of living holy means living away from the nature of sin. According to tradition, there are seven instincts of human beings that lead us to sin: lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.
Of these, I especially thought about envy and anger. Envy/jealousy is the emotion of coveting other people’s achievements and what they have, which comes from the fear that we have become losers. Anger is a strong emotional reaction and is often linked to the tendency to blame others. Envy/jealousy or anger are negative emotional reactions that cause us to miss out on the life God intended for us.
And through the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, we can learn how these negative emotions lead humans to sin. Cain and Abel normally would have been like any other siblings with a little competition in their brotherly dynamic. Most sibling rivalries are harmless and natural during childhood. However, when God did not receive Cain’s offering but only Abel’s offering, envy and anger developed in Cain’s heart. This anger gradually progressed to the point that Cain could not control it, and as a result, he killed his brother.
In this story, envy/jealousness seemed to be a small seed sown in an individual’s mind, but it soon developed into anger and eventually triggered a crime. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:13-15). In these passages, the apostle James explained that temptation or evil desire drives a Christian to sin, and if it is full grown, it gives birth to death.
Several days ago, my husband and I found that a big tree in our front yard had been blown over, and it missed our house by an inch. The day before, it rained heavily, and we heard a loud sound, but we just thought that it was part of the thunderstorm. We never imagined that the big tree in front of our house had fallen. By God’s grace, there was no damage, but when my husband and I saw the tree, we learned a great lesson.
The outside of the tree looked good and healthy with green leaves, but inside it was hallow because it had become rotten to the core. There was even a squirrel’s nest in the hole inside of the trunk, so was curious. Why does a huge tree decay inside? So I searched online and got an answer. “When a tree is wounded, it allows fungi to penetrate the core of a tree and destroys it. It weakens the structural stability of the tree over a long time and causes the tree’s structural failure.”
The story of the fallen tree also gives us a spiritual lesson as to why many good Christians fail on their spiritual journey. The devil is always looking for someone to devour. He is looking for wounded people. He is waiting for the right timing to make wounded people fall. Sin is crouching at the door of your heart, waiting for you to open the door (Genesis 4:7). If we cannot control our envy and anger and if we don’t get rid of those emotions immediately, our spirit will be damaged. If they fester, they can eventually destroy our spiritual lives.
What should we do to be free from this gradual progression of sin? The solution from Ephesians is this. “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still anger” (Ephesians 4:25-26). Probably the most active and specific solution to keep negative emotions out is to try and release them before the sun goes down.
