Envy and selfish ambition
Day 663, Friday, June 5
James Chapter 3 – 4:12
It would be easy to imagine that James had the 2026 U.S. political season in mind when he wrote the verses we read today.
Words surround us. We hear some, we read some, but all of them are endlessly echoed and intensified by systems and devices that value volume over vision and seem to leave us no place to find peace.
Chapter 3 begins with a consideration of the damage done by the tongue. “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
That’s pretty intense language. Imagine how appalled James would be to see how we have not only ignored his warning, but have developed the means to spread venom and vitriol farther, faster and more efficiently.
But the tongue doesn’t work on its own. Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
James speaks the same truth in 3:13-15. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”
The result of that false “wisdom” is inevitable: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
James uses a pairing several times that sheds light on our contemporary situation: envy and selfish ambition. While both of these are sins related to material possession, they are not quite the same. Selfish ambition is the desire to have more; envy is the desire for your neighbor to have less. Selfish ambition is greed and is rooted in desire; envy is the sense that someone else has too much and is rooted in anger.
Both are deadly. And one or the other is the basis of just about every political speech, statement or meme you’ll come across this year.
For people consumed by envy and selfish ambition—and we are all at risk—James offers hope. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Our solution and our task are stated in 3:17-18. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
Friday meditation
Psalms 135:1-12
Praise the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord; praise him, you servants of the Lord, you who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.
I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of people and animals. He sent his signs and wonders into your midst, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings—Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan—and he gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people Israel.
Prayer focus
Let us be peacemakers.
-Rev. Mark Fleming