“If you harbor bitter
envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the
truth”(James
3:14).
This is a question that begs for
individual reflection. Part of the Christian life is self-awareness and an
honest appraisal of what is in my heart. Both the Old Testament and New
Testament have this in common: certain conditions of the heart are portrayed as
detrimental or destructive to one’s covenant relationship to God. When the
heart is not tended, one’s connection to God can be severed.
As James defines for us what a wise
and understanding life consists of, he also points out what must be avoided.
Harboring bitter envy and self ambition cannot have any positive or
constructive elements to add to any relationship.
Bitter envy and selfish ambition
show their ugly heads in surprising ways. They surface often where the most
damage can be done. And that damage usually is slow, leaving behind “sawdust of
the soul,” evidence that destructive termites of the heart have been
voraciously at work.
Bitter envy sees in others what the
self wants and desires. It seethes and foams because self has not obtained what
the other has. It may be recognition, praise, position, role, accomplishment,
gifts, etc. The list is endless over what bitter envy feeds on. And ironically,
it is the heart filled with bitter envy that ends up feeding on itself!
Selfish ambition is the steam that
drives the engine of desire. It steam
rolls others and situations so that self can be satisfied and inflated. It does
not look out for others, nor does it care and sacrifice for others. Selfish
ambition only uses others for its own stepping stones for the path of success.
When it finally reaches its goal, if it has not self-destructed first, selfish
ambition will be at the finish line standing all alone.
James warns us not to boast about or
deny the fact that both bitter envy and selfish ambition are being harbored in
our hearts and driving us onward. If bitter envy and self ambition are our
motivations in the body of Christ, we will become the source of a spiritual
pathology which will threaten to destroy those relationships.
What is the truth of my heart?
In
Christian love, Curtis
