What is the difference between envy and jealousy? There isn’t much difference, but there is some difference. Envy, strictly speaking, describes the pain we feel because we haven't got something that someone else has. Envy describes that caldron within. ‘I ought to have that. I should have that. That should be my lot.’ That is envy. It's an inner pain. Jealousy, strictly speaking, is when it turns into hostility against the person who has what we want, and we speak against them, and denigrate them, and gossip against them, because they have some benefit, or gift, or influence or position. They have some praise that we don't have, and we hate them for it. Envy is the pain within; jealousy is the lashing out.
Is there envy or jealousy in us? What is envy? Envy and jealousy have an engine, and it is pride. ‘I deserve it; I am entitled to it; I should have it, not them, not them.’ So I've got to put them down. It's also prayerlessness. Does not the Scripture say, ‘You have not, because you ask not’ (James 4:2). It's also faithlessness, discontent. ‘Be content with such things as you have’ – that’s our calling – ‘because I have said, I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). We have the very best in Christ, in God, in heaven, in spiritual life, in wisdom and understanding from the Scriptures. Envy and jealousy are just marks of a backslidden state within us.