Ever catch yourself asking, “why don’t I have better health than her?” In this episode, we uncover more problems with health envy. In the last episode, we covered the first problem with health envy – letting the world (aka those health influencers you follow on Instagram) define what healthiness and healing are and look like. So if you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly recommend doing that first here.
Listen to the episode:
How Does the Bible Define Envy?
The word for “envy” in the New Testament Greek is zēlóō. Interestingly, it is a word that is supposed to imitate the sound of boiling water. According to BibleHub, this word means to burn with zeal for, or to be earnest, to set one’s heart on, to be completely intent upon something. And in the case of health envy, we have set our focus on the perceived good health or fit body of someone on social media (or real life).
There are a few problems with this, however.
One, we are seeking after our own perception of or someone else’s projection of good health.
As we talked about in the last episode, God does not define “health” as the world does.
Two, we have set our sights on something God is the source of – good health – and have taken our focus off God Himself.
Now, when we chase this “good health” it will often cost us a piece (if not all) of our relationship with God (and the person we’re envying). As Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”
Three, when envy takes root, bitterness and resentment against the other person and God often come with it.
“Why don’t I have better heath than __? I work out more; I don’t eat junk food like they do. I actually pay attention to my health and am trying to eat and live healthier…” “It’s not fair.”
At the Expense of Someone Else’s Success
Unfortunately, there is a tendency in the diet/fitness/health realm to want to be the best – whether that’s more fit, more healthy, better looking – at the expense of others and of our contentment. This is often true with guys and fitness, but we, women, can especially turn into a green-eyed monster when another woman has something we don’t.
We, women, want to be beautiful, and that can be a good desire. That is, as long as we let God define what it means to be beautiful. Taking care of our bodies is only part of His definition. He wants us to be beautiful on the inside too (lest we be white-washed tombs). He wants us to have righteous motives. By being zealous for the part of good health that can be seen by others, we risk the part that God cares deeply about – our hearts.
Bible Verses About the Heart
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23
“As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.”
Proverbs 27:19
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21
“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Matthew 15:11, 17-20
Don’t Think You Have an Envy Problem?
I challenge you to scroll through Facebook or Instagram to see if a little bitterness and resentment start to build up towards those who seem to have it all together. Nice car, attractive body, well-organized home (ha!), maybe pregnant or has children who are orderly for pictures. Or, maybe they have the ability to do something you can’t – stay at or work from home with their kids, or the money to see a health professional or take expensive therapies to heal their bodies quickly.
Or, similar to how a pastor I recently listened to put it… What would you do if you could push a button and instantly get 5 times healthier than you are now? Would you push the button? What if not only you get 5 times healthier but the people in your life that seem to have their health together get 10 times healthier? Would you push the button now?
Questions to Consider
Why is it that our success often means another’s failure (or at least plateau)? Why can’t we do our best and be happy for those who may do it “better” than us? And why do we use other women’s health as our measuring stick of how healthy we are? Shouldn’t we just focus on bringing more of our health under the dominion of Christ and let that determine our healthiness? Why can’t we be content with working hard to run the race set before us, all the while encouraging those around us to do the same, regardless of how their external health looks like?
Fighting Envy with the Right Kind of Envy
At the end of the day, we must learn to be content with the hard work set before us in healing our bodies, while being zealous to be more like Christ. We must hold fast to God’s goodness, regardless of the outcome, and praise Him when others succeed in areas we haven’t. We can only do these things through Christ, by asking God to change our hearts and give us the strength to fight and root out the envy embedded deep in our hearts. (Praise God that He has made a way for us to change and that we don’t have to remain the depraved sinner we once were!)
But, Me First.
The first person I’m talking to here is myself. I thought I never struggled in this area, but that’s because I never went looking for the envy hidden in my heart. When I looked, I found it. It just didn’t look like how I defined envy. But as Jeremiah 17:30 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Here’s to defeating the green-eyed monster through the strength of Christ together!
Parting Passage
I’ll leave you with this passage from James 4:1-10…
“What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us’? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.’ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
Other Resources
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Ready to let the Bible guide your health and diet decisions but don’t know where to start? Consider working with me, then, and I will help you do just that!