Envy is the recoil of comparing ourselves with others. We see something beautiful in the life of another person and lament because the good belongs to them, not us. Now, when it comes to identifying a good in someone else’s life, we should always ask an initial question: Does the good that I perceive do anything to amplify the glory of Jesus? Often the answer will be ‘no’. In many cases, envy is built on a covetous desire for something that has little or no spiritual value – or perhaps even negative value. 

We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem (Thomas Watson).

Envy is a weed that readily grows in my heart. If I go on social media, my first look is a casual scroll through pictures and memes shared by friends. But if my eyes alight for more than a second or two, it is usually because I’ve spotted some point of comparison. Like a tilted bottle of water, I feel my emotion shift from a settled disposition of contentment to a sullen mood of disappointment. A sadness ebbs into my heart. It’s a sadness so ugly and shameful that I’m embarrassed to admit the truth in public. Deep down I feel a self-pity that someone else has experienced a dollop of blessing instead of me. Rather than rejoicing in the happiness of a friend, the beauty of her life triggers a bitter taste of disappointment.
My guess is that I’m not alone in needing to combat the sinful passion of envy. Many others will be familiar with the resentful sensation that a neighbour’s slice of cake is bigger and better than ‘mine’.  The question I want to raise is this: What should we do when envy spring up like a thorn in the heart? What steps can we follow to keep unequal scales from spoiling our contentment and joy?
The place to begin is to drill down into the core of the Christian heart. Deep down, regardless of how we feel in a passing moment, the bedrock of the heart of a Christian is a passion for the glory of Christ. We long for Jesus to be made preeminent in everything. On the one hand, the more he is exalted, the less room there is for sin, for suffering, and for death. On the other, anything that detracts or distracts from the glory of Christ is an obstacle to human happiness which needs to be demolished and removed. We need to keep this subterranean love in mind as we grapple with our more superficial passions.
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Written by Jared C. Wilson |
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
In many ways, Haynes could be considered a kind of American Spurgeon—a faithful preacher and pastor, beloved for decades by his church and his family, and concerned to see the implications of the gospel fleshed out in homes and in society.

An Unquestionable Legacy
Lemuel Haynes is perhaps the single most important American figure most Christians have never heard of. Born July 18th in 1753 to a Black man and a White woman, Haynes was abandoned by his parents in the home of a family friend who sold the infant Haynes into indentured servitude. By the providential hand of God, however, young Lemuel was placed into a Christian home, where by all accounts, including his own, he was treated as a member of the family and raised to love the things of God.1
Growing up in colonial Vermont, Haynes worked hard and studied hard, proving himself quite adept at intellectual pursuits despite being largely self-taught. He has affectionately been called a “disciple of the chimney-corner” as that is where he would spend most evenings after work reading and memorizing while other children were out playing or engaging in other diversions.
Haynes’s commitment to theology began in that chimney-corner, and eventually he was born again. Not long after his conversion, he turned his followership of Christ and his intellectual bent into a serious endeavor by writing and preaching. An oft-told anecdote about Haynes concerns a scene of family devotions at the Rose household where he was indentured. Given his adeptness at reading and his deep concern for spiritual matters, the Rose family would often ask Haynes to read a portion of Scripture or a published sermon. One night, Haynes read a homily of his own without credit (apparently the sermon on John 3:3 included in this volume). At the end, members of the family remarked at its quality and wondered, “Was that a Whitefield?” “No,” Haynes is said to have replied, “it was a Haynes.”
The few sermons we have of Lemuel Haynes prove him to be an exceptional expositor in the Puritan tradition, similar to Edwards or Whitefield though simpler than the former and more substantive than the latter. And yet, what Haynes may have lacked in eloquence compared to his contemporaries, he more than made up for in biblicism and applicational insight.
Officially licensed to preach in 1780 by the Congregational Association, Haynes soon after preached his first public sermon (on Psalm 96). He was then ordained in 1785 and would go on to receive an honorary Master of Arts degree from Middlebury College.

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A generation that refuses to apply the political implications of the Gospel to their society will be a generation that quickly watches their nation return to its pagan roots. It’s not a coincidence that we are seeing this happen in our day, because many people have forgotten just how the Gospel affected change in the West. 

For the last two years, more travesties of eisegesis and doctrinal cowardice have been on display than I have ever seen in my life. It reminds me of the Robin Hood movie, Prince of Thieves, where the wealthy Church bishop kowtows before the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. That Bishop cared more about his position than what was right, and what was true and just. This has been true of the Church too often in history, especially when it has had access to large amounts of temporal wealth.
Such is the natural cycle of civilisations, and organisations, times of ease make people soft, and then when hard times come, we must relearn the skills that previous generations used to build the structures which helped our society flourish. This is a cycle that it appears humanity is not able to escape. In times like this, people often reduce what they are willing to speak out for because speaking out costs so much.
One of the most ignorant things people say today is that the Church should not be political, it should just preach the Gospel. This statement shows a complete ignorance of some of the many political applications and implications of the Gospel. So, what I want to do in this piece is highlight just some of those implications. But first, we need to define the Gospel, the message of salvation.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11:
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”
Paul breaks down the Gospel for us into its most basic tenets in this passage:

Christ died, to take the punishment for our sins that we deserved;
Just as the Bible prophesied that he would [ for e.g. Isaiah 52-53, Psalm 22, etc.);
That he was dead three days, showing he truly was dead;
He rose from the grave, proving he was God, defeating death and achieving the eternal salvation of all who trust in him;
This Gospel is powerful, changing people through the grace of God, which is not without effect.

The Gospel at its core is the message of salvation that Jesus achieved for all those who would believe in him. We could expand greatly on these Gospel foundations, as Paul does in Romans 1-8, but for now, we have scripturally defined the core message of the Gospel: forgiveness for sins for those who trust in the Lord who died for their sins.
The implications for personal salvation are immediately obvious. You must place your trust in Jesus. He is the only one who has defeated sin. But this message also has far-reaching implications for every aspect of our lives, including politics, and we shall examine them now.
Christ is Lord
The Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Lord of lords. He is the King of kings. This means that no other man, or woman, no other human ruler is the true Lord. Whether Emperors, or Caesars, or Kings, Presidents, or Prime Ministers, all human leaders must recognize that they will have to give an account to the King of kings,
“Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:7)
“Now, therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:10-12)
God has instituted human rulers and they have the authority to rule and make decrees in this life. But their decrees must be consistent with the will of the King of kings. “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression…” (Isaiah 10:1). The West is a rule of law civilisation, that is the concept that there is a higher law that all human laws should submit to and be consistent with, and all rulers should be judged by. The source of our highest law is the King of kings, and this concept has embedded itself in our rule of law society.
He is the Creator
God has authority over all, and rules over all because he is the creator of all things. Nothing exists except by his will. All things that were made, were made by the Father, through the Son. This is why God has the power and authority to defeat death and the devil, because he is the author of life. Jesus was able to rise from the dead because he is the Lord of lords and the source of all that exists, death cannot keep him down. His humanity is real and genuine, but it is united with the divine in the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation as the God-man. The eternal nature of the Son concealed in the flesh of a human being.
Because God is the source of all life, this means he knows what is best for all of life, and this includes how we should structure and maintain our societies. When Jesus preached a powerful message that drove away many of his followers he turned to the twelve disciples and asked them this:
“After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)
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