Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

• Job 5:2

I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God.

• Ezekiel 31:9

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

If you intend to read this book, the following may give away the mystery

But not much of one this time.

“Hand in hand with Covetousness goes its close companion – Invidia or Envy, which hates to see other men happy. The names by which it offers itself to the world’s applause are Right and Justice, and it makes a great parade of these austere virtues. It begins by asking, plausibly: ‘Why should not I enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding: ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’ Envy is the great leveller: if it cannot level things up, it will level them down; and the words constantly in its mouth are: ‘My Rights’ and ‘My Wrongs.’ At its best, Envy is a climber and a snob; at its worst, it is a destroyer – rather than have anybody happier than itself, it will see us all miserable together.
“In love, Envy is cruel, jealous, and possessive. My friend and my married partner must be wholly wrapped up in me, and must find no interests outside me. That is my right. No person, no work, no hobby must rob me of any part of that right. If we cannot be happy together, we will be unhappy together – but there must be no escape into pleasures that I cannot share. If my husband’s work means more to him than I do, I will see him ruined rather than preoccupied; if my wife is so abandoned as to enjoy Beethoven or dancing, or anything else which I do not appreciate, I will so nag and insult her that she will no longer be able to indulge these tastes with a mind at ease. If my neighbours are able to take pleasure in intellectual interests which are above my head, I will sneer at them and call them by derisive names, because they make me feel inferior, and that is a thing I cannot bear. All men have equal rights – and if these people were born with any sort of privilege, I will see to it that that privilege shall be made worthless – if I can, and by any means I can devise. Let justice be done to me, though the heavens fall and the earth be shot to pieces.
“If Avarice is the sin of the Haves against the Have-nots, Envy is the sin of the Have-nots against the Haves. …”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Creed or Chaos?, Essay title: The Other Six Deadly Sins

Boilerplate

In this mini-series, I will fulfill a promise.  Some time ago, published 14 January 2025, I wrote a brief synopsis of the book, Subversive by Crystal Downing.  The post is called A Subversive Christian.  In that book, I talked about the three books in the photo above.  And I especially wanted to do a mini-series on the book on the right, The Gospel in Dorothey L. Sayers.

Note that the title uses the preposition “in.”  Dorothy L. Sayers did not write a fifth gospel.  She did not write as if inspired directly by God.  The canon of Scripture is complete.

But in stating what this is not, then what is it?  All Christians have the Holy Spirit within them, guiding them.  When being a Christian is something you have inside you and through you, then your life will reflect that.  This book is how you can see various aspects of the Christian life in the works of Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery novels, plays, letters, and essays.

After the Introduction, it starts with Whose Body?  The editor’s attribute of a Christian that she focuses on is “Conscience.” Whose Body? is her first detective fiction novel featuring her main character, Lord Peter Wimsey.  Then in Death Must Advertise, we find Lord Peter has a couple of middle names.  His full name is Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.

But we will stay in the Introduction for more than a week.  There are at least a half dozen quotes just in the introduction that look interesting.  I am not in a hurry to speed through this book.  I was not in a hurry to start it with me being over a year since I promised to make it into a mini-series.

But I would hope people could read my short stories and see the gospel being acted out in the characters in my fictional stories.  Deviled Yeggs grew up in a family of safe crackers, robbing from others.  He set out as a policeman, and then homicide detective, to redeem the family name but learning each person must have Christ redeem them individually.  Deviled’s wife, Trinity Naomi Tesla (TNT) Yeggs, was nicknamed “Nitroglycerin” (Glyce for short) by her parents because she was explosive when shaken.  But she found calm and peace in her husband’s arms, and eventually she found the same comfort and peace in the arms of Jesus as she faced “shaky” experiences.

Even when not writing about Jesus directly, the Good News (Gospel) appears in many ways in what a Christian writes.  Let’s enjoy this journey with possibly my favorite author (outside the Bible with C.S. Lewis in a tie with her), Dorothy L. Sayers.

Discussion

The editor used a portion of Gaudy Night to illustrate how envy can lead to resentment (reminiscent of Job 5:2).  The quote from the book was too much of a spoiler.

But Ms. Sayers shows what envy can become if not dealt with quickly.  You might look at the possessiveness or vindictiveness in her examples and say, “That is not me.”

But then we add to the envious with the resentful because we do not have power to act upon our envy.  What Ms. Sayers described might be what we would do, if we just had the power to do it.  And who has the power?  In some cases, it is another person that holds sway over us.  But ultimately it is God.

Yes, envy, jealousy, covetousness, and their cousins all come back to the fact that I rely on God to give me what I need.  Someone else has it.  I want it.  God let me down.

Now, you say that Ms. Sayers went too far and now I am going too far.

As I was going through the quizzes on the Seven Deadly Sins, I noticed how they were so easily related to one another.  And at the root of all of them is that God did not let me have cake.  But what the Lord’s Prayer asks for is for God to give me my daily bread.  We asked for cake, and God gave us the bread that we needed.

God has not let us down.  We have gotten greedy because we envied what someone else has.  But maybe the reason we do not have what they have is gluttony.  Gluttony for more food than we need, gluttony for more video games.  It is greed that buys video games we cannot afford.  It is gluttony that plays those video games when other things need doing.  And it is sloth that thinks it is okay to play video games all day.  And it can all be blamed on God, if we succumb to the temptation of wanting the seven deadly sins over serving God.

Sometimes God allows that other person to have the new shiny car.  Sometimes the neighbor with the new shiny car cheated on their taxes.  But maybe the neighbor with the shiny car worked two jobs just to get the car.  All those ‘what ifs’ are between our neighbor and God.  We need not get involved in the conversation, not even in our thoughts, wants, and wishes.  I wanted a shiny German-made luxury car once, but even if I could afford to buy one, the repair parts in the USA are far beyond my ability to pay for them.  When I came to that realization, I have not even wanted one since then.

Let us stay in our lane.  Let us keep our eyes on Jesus.  And then if we see the shiny car at all, we see that our neighbor has been blessed, and we glorify God without seeing the shabby car in our driveway.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  We see green grass on the other side of the fence, and we are envious of our neighbor.  It never dawns on us that someone has to mow that lawn.  We see a fancy sports car down the street, and we wonder what it would be like to have one.  But if we are of a certain age, it is hard bending down to get into the car, and once we arrive at our destination, will we need assistance to get back up again?  Thank you, Lord, for the SUV.  My wife was bumping her head getting into our compact car, and my back and knees could not fold and unfold as easily as when I got the vehicle.  But when we see anything shiny, we are envious without seeing what goes with it.  Help us, Oh Lord, to keep our eyes on You.  In doing so, we do not even notice what the neighbors have and we do not.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.