Lesson for May 1, 2024
Mental Attitude Sins
Envy and Strife
Galatians 5:26, “Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
The Greek word for envy is “phthonos,” meaning the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others. Envy desires to deprive someone of what they possess. Envy is a word closely akin to jealousy in the New Testament.
Philippians 1:15-17, “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”
Some refers to reversionistic believers who were testifying of Christ from the false motivations of envy and strife. Envy often presents itself as selfish ambition which is arrogance. Arrogance becomes the basis of all false motivation among those who are believers in Jesus Christ. Arrogance is often a blind spot in the soul of a believer and especially believers who have been exposed to or are influenced by any form of legalism.
But some also from good will;the latter do it out of love means true motivation comes from Bible doctrine in the soul, i.e. virtue-love. There are two parts to virtue-love as a problem-solving device: personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind. Personal love always emphasizes the object. Impersonal love emphasizes the subject.
Virtue-love is thinking in terms of Bible doctrine, not emotion, and eliminates the mental attitude sin of envy. Paul had taught this principle to the believers in Rome, and some responded to his ministry of defending the Gospel and his teaching, and others opposed him and his teaching of grace.
Knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel, So, there were some false teachers in Rome at this time, proclaiming the Gospel, trying to become “greater” than Paul, wanting to deprive him of his authority from God as an apostle. Paul was great because of his humility and spiritual maturity, not because of a desire to be great and the false teachers were envious of him. This envy was causing divisions (strife) within the body of Christ. These false teachers were deliberate in their attempt to cause distress to Paul while he was in prison.
I Timothy 6:3-5, “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between people of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”
The problem in many regions at that time (as in the world today), was the infiltration of false teachers and evil that followed them. Believers were being influenced and duped into believing the lies of these apostate teachers and it caused division among those in the congregation. Notice that the “prosperity gospel” is nothing new (who suppose that godliness is a means of gain).
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness. The Judaizers encouraged members of the church to openly oppose the teaching of grace. Timothy was teaching accurate, sound Bible doctrine but was being bullied by some members of the church who had believed the lies of the false teachers. Sound words refer to accurate Bible doctrine, which are the words of Jesus Christ. Godliness is the Greek word “eusebeia,” which means having the integrity and virtue of God as a lifestyle. Godliness is the righteousness and justice of God in the soul of a believer that produces integrity and virtue. It is not what you do, but what you think that counts in the Christian Way of Life. If your thinking is doctrinally sound, what you do will also be doctrinally sound.
He is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words. Those who rejected the sound teaching of Timothy were arrogant and envious and had no understanding of accurate Bible doctrine. Blind arrogance is a condition of the soul under the influence of Satan’s evil world system and false satanic doctrine. This arrogance causes false teachers, and the reversionistic believers who follow them, to start doctrinal controversies and endless disputes regarding the truth of grace.
Out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth. All the controversy that was being stirred up by the false teachers led to sins of the tongue and mental attitude sins. The first sin was envy. From what Paul said to Timothy regarding his youth and not allowing anyone to despise it, we can clearly see why some of the older members were envious of Timothy and why they rejected his authority as their pastor. It is God the Holy Spirit Who imparts spiritual gifts, and these gifts should have been respected.
The next sin was strife which is the Greek word “eris,” which means contention and incessant quarrelling. Arrogance leads to a “know it all” attitude and this was the case in Ephesus with these reversionistic believers who were attacking Timothy. And, as Paul already stated, they understood nothing. Abusive language was the next sin listed by Paul. The Greek word for abusive language is “blasphemia,” which means to speak evil against, blaspheme, or to rail against. Because these reversionistic believers had believed the lies of the false teachers, they were blaspheming God by rejecting the truth of God’s Word and by speaking evil of what Timothy had been teaching them.
Evil suspicions comes next in Paul’s list of sins. Evil suspicions is the Greek word “huponoeo,” which means to suppose, to conjecture or to surmise. These believers had no accurate knowledge of God’s Word because they had rejected the teaching of Paul and Timothy. They had been deceived by the Judaizers into believing a lie regarding the purpose of the Law of Moses. They were supposing the false message of these false teachers was true without sound doctrinal evidence to back up their claim.
The summary of Paul’s list of sins was constant friction between men of depraved mind. The Greek word for depraved is “diaphthora,” which means corrupt or destructive. The constant friction of disputes over accurate doctrine caused these reversionistic believers to destroy or corrupt what little accurate doctrine they had in their souls. Evil influence of false satanic teaching always leads to the corruption of the mind whether a person is a believer or an unbeliever.
Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Godliness is the basis for true prosperity, but prosperity does not imply godliness. Because a believer becomes prosperous or successful does not imply that they are godly. God blesses us on the basis of His righteous that resides within us as we develop the capacity to receive it, without becoming arrogant and forgetting the source. We are “godly” when we have developed the integrity and virtue of God and are applying it consistently. The most important type of prosperity is spiritual prosperity, from the accurate Bible doctrine in our souls.
I Peter 2:1-3, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”