How one ancient sin empowers wokeness, socialism, and cancel culture

Here’s a chilling truth about human nature: Envy is the animating force of all conflict. It is also the driving energy behind all achievement.

Let’s back up a bit. Does that sound like hyperbole? I don’t think it is, and I will explain why.

Let’s start with James 4:1-2, which says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.”

This text confronts us with a raw, unflinching look at the human heart, telling us that passions, desires, and covetousness are the engine of all fights and quarrels. James is referring to the 10th commandment that prohibits coveting. The Hebrew word for “covet” in the 10th commandment doesn’t always mean a bad desire. Thus, coveting can refer to a good desire that is desired for the wrong reason.

The circumstance of the desire is what makes it forbidden.

Anatomy of sinful desire

Coveting is a sneaky sin. It isn’t sinful to desire a house or a wife. Homes and marriages are blessings of God. Coveting forbids desiring your neighbor’s house or your neighbor’s wife. So if your neighbor is selling his house, would it be coveting to desire it and consider purchasing it? Not necessarily.

But at what point does a desire turn covetous? That’s the sneaky part. A desire becomes covetous if we desire it simply because it belongs to someone else. Humans are social creatures, and we desire things for social reasons more than we realize.

Once we understand this simple dynamic at work, it’s hard not to see it everywhere.

This is what fashion trends are all about. If the popular boys at school are wearing the latest Nike shoe, that shoe is no longer mere footwear. That shoe has become a status marker, a social currency that distinguishes the cool kids from the ordinary kids. Kids who don’t have that shoe will think they must have that shoe, not because they lack footwear, but because they covet the social status of the popular boys.

So it isn’t sinful to want shoes. It isn’t necessarily sinful to like your friend’s high-quality shoes and for you to order a pair for yourself. The desire becomes sinful when mere shoes become an avatar of inner discontent and envy. The only reason you want those shoes is because he owns them and you don’t. When you compare yourself to him, you come up short, and so you want what he has to close the gap.

Comparison produces discontent

The 10th commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). Notice the key feature of the 10th commandment is not the listed objects of desire, but the fact that your neighbor already possesses them.

In other words, your discontent is derived by comparing yourself to someone else.

This is a basic, human phenomena. Much of our discontentment in life is a product of comparing ourselves to other people. For example, suppose you have an ordinary car that gets you where you need to go. You may be perfectly content with your car. But then your neighbor pulls into his driveway with a brand new Mercedes. His new car introduces a new point of reference that, by comparison, suddenly makes you feel less pleased with your ordinary car.

Another example: A man may think his wife is the most beautiful woman in the world. But then he meets his friend’s wife, and she’s gorgeous! The presence of his friend’s wife makes his own wife seem plain and less attractive by comparison.

The worth we assign to almost everything in our lives is derived by comparison. Most often, we value things by social consensus. We want something simply because other people have it, not because of its inherent worth. These covetous desires can become violently intense. We feel we absolutely must have something, and we will do anything to get it. We might even feel entitled to it. If everyone else has it, why don’t I have it? We may resent other people who do have it. We may blame them, as though they are preventing us from having it. They’ve wronged me. They cheated me. It’s their fault.

Coveting other people's accomplishments

Coveting isn’t limited to physical possessions. We can also desire other people’s appearance, abilities, or accomplishments.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 says, “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor.” That’s a stunning statement. But the truth of it is plain enough if we’re willing to see it. Mankind’s greatest accomplishments stem from envy.

In the workplace, a man may strive to be the best at something because he envies someone else who might be better at it. A Christian may strive for excellence for social reasons as much as spiritual ones. He wants to look good and be respected in comparison to his peers. His job satisfaction is derived by comparing himself to how everyone else is doing.

Once we understand this simple dynamic at work, it’s hard not to see it everywhere. Charles C. Colton once said, “For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.” Not only do we covet others, we are also the object of other peoples’ coveting.

Coveting works in reverse, too. François de La Rochefoucauld once said, “In the misfortune of our best friends, we often find something that is not displeasing.” I find that quote quite disturbing, not because I think it’s wrong, but because I find it profoundly true.

We covet people we perceive to be ahead of us in some way. But there can be a sick pleasure in the misfortune of others because it reduces whatever advantage they formerly had. We can do this even with people we love. Coveting is not limited to our enemies. In fact, we’re more likely to covet our friends precisely because we like them.

We compare ourselves to others, producing discontentment in us and envy toward others. So we covet their possessions or accomplishments and resent them for having them. When coveting comes into its full flowering, it produces fights, quarrels, and even murder.

This simple fact of human nature fractures relationships, kills marriages, estranges friendships, splits churches, and even triggers wars.

René Girard observed that the 10th commandment is positioned last in the Decalogue for a reason. He said, “If the Decalogue devotes its final commandment to prohibiting desire for whatever belongs to the neighbor, it is because it lucidly recognizes in that desire the key to the violence prohibited in the four commandments that precede it. If we ceased to desire the goods of our neighbor, we would never commit murder or adultery or theft or false witness. If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous.”

3 destructive examples of coveting

Coveting another’s marriage: Coveting can turn ordinary marriage problems into a major crisis. How so? Because one couple compares their problems to the problems of another couple, concluding that the other couple must be superior to them. Even though their own problems are relatively manageable, the comparison to another couple is what makes their own problems seem unbearable.

We may know other couples at church who seem to have it all together, while our own problems seem far worse than theirs. Of course, no one knows the real story of the other marriage because everyone presents the best version of themselves in public. Inevitably, we compare our blooper reel to their highlight reel. We only see the best parts of their lives, but we’re intimately familiar with the worst parts of ours.

By coveting another woman’s husband, a woman says, “If only you led our family better like the other men at church, we wouldn’t be having these problems.” And her covetous husband responds, “Those men have an easier job leading because their wives don’t nag as much as you do.”

Coveting another church: Coveting triggers discontent when other churches have cool ministries that make your church seem lame by comparison. There may not be anything wrong with your church. It’s an ordinary church with ordinary problems. But when the other church starts doing cool outreaches, has unique kids’ programs and innovative music, and their rapid growth has caused a lot of buzz, it triggers discontent. Why? Not because your ordinary church is doing anything wrong. It may be simply because you covet the slick programming of some other church.

The other church gives you a new point of reference to unfavorably compare your own church, though you would have probably been content with it if you knew nothing of the other church. The mere existence of your neighbor’s church and its exciting programming suddenly triggers feelings of discontent and envy within you.

Now, you find yourself thinking, “How can I disciple my kids without better programming? How can I worship without better music? How can I grow in Christ without better preaching?”

Of course, most people won’t honestly admit their discontent with their church is actually covetous. They may not even be aware of it. And so they send the pastor an email highlighting their “concerns” about his church’s kids' ministry, worship music, and preaching. They might even toss in a jab at him for his poor leadership before moving on to greener pastures — or so they think.

Buzz phrases like 'white privilege' make the sin of envy and covetousness nakedly obvious, meant to make white people feel ashamed of themselves.

Coveting other people groups: Winston Churchill once said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” Undeniably, socialism is creeping its way through our society aided by an undercurrent of Marxism, which is simply covetousness built into a political philosophy.

In this way, coveting is the animating force behind things like wokeness, cancel culture, geopolitical wars, and violent revolutions.

Here’s how it works: Covetous desire can inhabit larger groups of people, who find solidarity in the discontent of shared grievances and the brotherhood in blaming a common villain. In other words, entire groups of people covet the possessions or accomplishments of other groups of people based on their belonging to that particular group.

For example, “the poor” as a group may covet the success or wealth of “the rich.” Of course, what is considered “poor” or “rich” are relative conditions, determined not on absolute terms but always in comparison to others. The poor in America by modern standards might be considered rich by global standards or in comparison to prior generations. But those comparisons don’t serve the purposes of envy. So they only compare themselves to people who have more than they do, covetously declaring themselves poor by comparison, and blaming those who have more for somehow holding them back.

Similarly, “whiteness” has become a boogeyman in our society. “Whiteness” is invoked to blame one group of people for any and every social ill, thereby allowing individual people to avoid personal responsibility. Buzz phrases like “white privilege” make the sin of envy and covetousness nakedly obvious, meant to make white people feel ashamed of themselves. By calling it a “privilege,” it strips non-whites of personal responsibility and gives them an omni-villain to blame for all their problems, stoking the fires of anger and resentment toward an entire class of people.

Conclusion

In light of all this, it’s easy to see why James spoke the way he did. What causes quarrels among us? What causes fights among us? Is it not this, that our passions are at war within us? We desire and do not have, so we murder. We covet and cannot obtain, so we fight and quarrel.

Once we recognize that our desires are largely formed by social consensus, and that social consensus prompts sins of discontent, envy, and covetousness, we can repent with more honesty and humility. We can thank God for what He has given us. And our standard of contentment can be God’s generosity toward us, not the blessings of our neighbors.

After all, every Christian is blessed far beyond comprehension. We can thank God that He treats us according to His lavish grace, not according to what our sins deserve.

This inner contentment can make us more at peace with God, more content with our lives, more grateful for God’s generosity toward us, and less entitled to what others have.

And, of course, this would lead to less conflict, too.