“And Saul eyed David from that day on.” 1 Samuel 18:9

It is well known that King Saul was envious of David’s early success. Instead of recognizing and repenting of his envy, Saul leaned into it. The more David succeeded, the more his hatred grew. It turned him away from directing the kingdom to a monomaniacal focus of destroying David. Saul, the king, became envy’s slave.

As I read, I considered how powerful an example Saul is of envy’s danger. For those with eyes to see, here are a few truths about envy worth our consideration.

What Is Envy?

Envy is resenting a rival because of a good they possess. It will help to break this down piece by piece.

Envy is resentment

Saul did not enjoy the praise given to David and murderously despised David for it (1 Samuel 18:8-11). Envy is not a positive emotion. It isn’t a smile, but a frown. As the kids say, it isn’t a good vibe. The eye of envy has a furrowed brow toward its object.

Envy resents a rival

Envy cares only about the goods of someone who exists in their arena. A doctor doesn’t resent the plumber for his successes as a plumber. A homemaker doesn’t get agitated by the accolades of a rocket scientist, but constantly finds herself triggered by the Instagram reels of a mom who seems to be crushing it. Yet, Saul envied David because his success, reputation, and praise he gained as a leader of Israel. To him, David was a threat to his own position and praise as Israel’s king. Envy never arises in our hearts toward people outside our lane, only those deem rivals in an area meaningful to us.

Envy resents a rival’s good

Envy only happens when a rival possesses some kind of good we want for ourselves. No one envies the failure or deficiency of a rival, only the goods they’ve gained through achievement or nature. Envy enjoys the downfall of rivals and it’s pained by their achievements.

Feelings of resentment toward others because of their possessed goods can be experienced as an individual or because we’re associated with a certain group. We can resent the other team because they win the game. We can hate the other political party because they have the public favor we want for our side. At the end of the day, envy is peeved at another (or others) because we see their success as our failure, their praise as our condemnation, and their rise as our fall

What Does Envy Do?

Having identified what envy is, consider now what it does.

Envy hates

Envy begins with mild resentment that, if nourished, matures to hardened hatred. Saul began by being displeased by the songs of David’s praise and quickly becomes devoted to his destruction at any opportunity (1 Sam. 18:10-11, 18:17, 18:20-25, 19:1, 19:9-10, 19:11-17, 19:20-24, 20:30-33, 23:7-8, 23:15-29, 24:1-2, 26:1-2). Envy is a hateful thing.

Envy enslaves

As you can see from the many instances cited above where Saul seeks David’s end, his envy wasn’t a mild irritation he sometimes struggled with, but an enslaving desire that reigned over him more powerfully than he reigned over Israel. Nothing inside Saul – his thoughts, desires, or actions – was untouched by the corrupting vice of envy. Envy is a cancer that spreads everywhere and corrupts everything.

Envy opposes

Once Saul identified David as a rival, he became an enemy to be stopped or diminished. In high school, I remember having the habit of downplaying the victories of my teammates by saying, “That’s only because has an easy weight class.” Even in their absence, I felt a need to demote them in the eyes of others. I turned my own teammates into my opponents. Envy does not celebrate, support, or even tolerate the goods of our rivals; it slights and fights them at every opportunity.

Envy destroys

As we see in Saul’s life, envy seeks to destroy our rivals and, in the process, destroys us. At the end of his reign, Saul was an empty, miserable, and useless man. His envy failed to kill or stop David, but it successfully destroyed him.

Knowing something’s danger is necessary if we’re to protect ourselves from it. Like fleeing a venomous snake, we must actively combat envy to protect our hearts.

How Do We Fight Envy?

Recognizing a sickness is a first step, but it is only that: a first step. How do we avoid and fight the beast of envy once we’ve recognized it? Here are three answers.

Remember the emptiness of successes

The goods we most naturally and foolishly chase after are, after closer examination, unable to deliver what they promise. Money makes you hungry for the money you don’t have and anxious about losing the money you do have. The praise of people is quite the drug whose addiction makes you a miserable slave until the next hit. A legacy that reaches the greatest heights of fame is still unknown by the vast majority of the world and is inevitably forgotten by those who do know. Like the smell of a new car, the achievements we crave cannot grant us the joy we yearn for. Remembering the vanity of earthly treasures will lessen our dislike of those who gain them.

Remember the weakness of yourself

Envy makes us upset that people don’t praise or respect us, but remembering our own weaknesses, shortcomings, sins, vices, and shameful blind spots helps us remember we don’t deserve the hype we crave. Even more, far from making us agitated we’re not celebrated, a sober self-estimation will lead us to praise God we’re not condemned!

Remember the gospel of Jesus Christ

When we see our sin in the light of the cross we gain a humility that won’t hunger for applause or despise others for their successes. When we see God’s grace for our sin in light of the cross we gain a joy that earthly goods could never compete with. The one whose heart has been changed by the gospel is, therefore, too sober-minded to think they deserve praise and too content to seek it.

Those changed by the cross don’t envy others’ success like Saul, but they celebrate them like Jonathan. After David defeated Goliath and became Israel’s new rock star. We read this of Jonathan:

The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul…Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. (1 Samuel 18:1-4)

Jonathan, the expected successor of Saul’s throne, saw David’s victory as a reason not for hate, but love. In the same way, those who live in the shadow of the cross cheerfully celebrate and support others who succeed, even if they’re in their arena, because they’ve been freed by knowing who they are, who God is, and the true good they have in the gospel. They’re not enslaved by envy’s hate, but freed by the gospel’s joy.