The email came at 8:47 on a Monday morning. Nasiru was at his desk in the network operations centre in Abuja, a cup of tea going cold beside his keyboard, when it dropped into his inbox with the subject line Organisational Announcement. He opened it expecting a policy update.
It was a promotion. With effect from the first of the month, Okey would become Team Lead, Network Operations, North-Central.
Nasiru read it three times. He had been with the company for nine years. Okey had joined three years ago, fresh from his master’s degree, and had been assigned to sit beside Nasiru for his first six months. Nasiru had taught him how the monitoring systems actually worked, as opposed to how the manuals said they worked. He had shown him which field engineers could be trusted at two in the morning and which ones would switch off their phones. When Okey made his first serious mistake, a configuration error that took down service across three local governments in Niger State for forty minutes, it was Nasiru who stayed with him until dawn and helped him write the incident report.
Now Okey was going to be his supervisor.
The team’s group chat began to fill with congratulations. Nasiru typed “Congrats bro! Well deserved” and added a thumbs-up. Then he got up, walked out to the car park and sat in his car with the engine off for twenty minutes.
Over the following weeks he noticed things about himself that he did not like. He found he was keeping a mental list of Okey’s mistakes. When the regional director praised Okey in a meeting, Nasiru felt something tighten in his stomach. When the team began preparing a major network upgrade in Kaduna, the first big project under Okey’s leadership, Nasiru caught himself hoping, just a little, that it would go badly. And one afternoon, standing by the water dispenser with a colleague, he heard himself say, “Well, we all know he is very close to the director.” He did not say anything more. He did not need to.
He told me later that the worst part was that he was a deacon in his church. “I teach the youth on Saturdays,” he said. “I tell them to rejoice with those who rejoice. And there I was, waiting for my friend to fail.”
What a colleague’s success exposes
Envy is one of the oldest sins in the world. It was envy that led Cain to murder his brother, and envy that sold Joseph into slavery: “his brethren envied him” (Genesis 37:11). But perhaps the clearest picture of how envy grows inside a person who once had every reason for gratitude is the story of King Saul and David.
David had just killed Goliath. Saul had every reason to be grateful. A young shepherd had saved his army and his kingdom. Then this happened:
And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick. And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
The women were celebrating the victory, and they made up a song. “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” It was a victory song, the kind of thing people sing at a celebration. It is not even clear that they meant to compare the two men unfavourably. But Saul heard it as a ranking. “They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands.”
Then comes the line that reveals the root: “and what can he have more but the kingdom?” Saul’s mind leapt from a song to a threat. Another man’s success became, in his imagination, a danger to his own position. And the chapter ends its account of that day with a chilling sentence: “And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.” He began to watch him. To keep score. To wait.
That is what envy does. It takes another person’s success and turns it into our grievance. Nothing had been taken from Saul. He was still king. The victory was his army’s victory. But the comparison poisoned his ability to enjoy anything that was his.
The Preacher in Ecclesiastes saw how deeply this runs in working life: “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour” (Ecclesiastes 4:4). He noticed that a great deal of human labour is driven by rivalry, by the desire to outdo the neighbour, and that good work itself can become the occasion for envy. And Proverbs warns where it leads: “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Envy rots the one who carries it.
A colleague’s promotion does not create envy. It exposes it. It reveals the comparison that was already governing our ambition. Nasiru had not thought of himself as an envious man. But when Okey’s name appeared in that email, the thing that had been quietly running in the background of his working life came into view.
The labourers who were paid the same
Jesus told a parable about a landowner who hired workers for his vineyard at different hours of the day. Some started at dawn. Others were hired at nine, at noon, at three. The last group was hired at five in the afternoon, with only an hour of daylight left. When evening came, the landowner paid them all the same amount, a penny, the usual wage for a full day’s work. Listen to what happened:
But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it , they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is , and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
“They supposed that they should have received more.” The workers who had started at dawn had agreed to a penny. They received a penny. They were paid exactly what they had been promised. Nothing had been taken from them. But when they saw what the others received, their contentment turned to grievance. “These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.”
The landowner’s reply is gentle and direct. “Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?” Then he asks a piercing question: “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” In the language of the time, an evil eye was a way of describing envy, a jealous, grudging way of looking at what someone else has received. The landowner’s generosity to others had exposed the grudging eye of the early workers.
The parable is first about the kingdom of God, about the grace that receives latecomers on the same terms as those who have served long. But it speaks with real force to the workplace. How often has a colleague’s raise, bonus or promotion turned our own contentment into resentment, even though nothing about our own situation changed? We had been satisfied with our salary until we learned what the new hire was earning. We had been glad of our appraisal until we heard what someone else had received.
The question Jesus puts in the landowner’s mouth is worth asking ourselves: is my eye evil because someone else has received good?
Prove your own work
Paul gives the Galatians a principle that cuts the root of comparison:
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
“Let every man prove his own work.” The word prove means to test, to examine, the way metal is tested to see whether it is genuine. Paul tells each believer to examine his own work, honestly, by the standard of faithfulness to what God has given him. Not by comparing it to anyone else’s.
“And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” The satisfaction that comes from comparison is fragile. If I feel good about my work only because I am doing better than the person beside me, my joy collapses the moment someone does better than me. But if I can look at my own work and see that it has been faithful, careful and honest, that satisfaction does not depend on anyone else’s results. It belongs to me alone.
“For every man shall bear his own burden.” Just three verses earlier, Paul told the same church, “Bear ye one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). Is he contradicting himself? No. The two words are different in Greek. The burden in verse 2 is a heavy weight, the kind of crushing load that no one should carry alone. The burden in verse 5 is a word for an ordinary load, the kind of pack a soldier or traveller was expected to carry himself. We help one another with the crushing weights. But each of us carries our own pack. My calling, my gifts, my responsibilities and my accountability before God are mine. Nobody else can carry them for me, and I do not carry theirs.
This frees us. I am not responsible for Okey’s career. I am responsible for my own work. I will not be asked on the last day why I did not get the promotion someone else received. I will be asked whether I was faithful with what was entrusted to me.
PunchlineAnother person’s success need not become your grievance. Prove your own work, carry your own pack, and let your rejoicing rest on faithfulness rather than comparison.
What is that to thee?
After His resurrection, Jesus met Peter by the Sea of Galilee and restored him. Three times He asked, “Lovest thou me?” Three times He commissioned him, “Feed my sheep.” Then He told Peter, in veiled terms, that he would one day die for his faith. It was a profound moment of restoration and calling. And then Peter turned around:
Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
Peter had just been given his own assignment, and the first thing he did was look at John. “Lord, and what shall this man do?” It is such a human question. What about him? Will his road be easier? Will he suffer as I will? Will his calling be greater than mine?
Jesus’ answer is almost blunt. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” Whatever plans I have for John are My business. Your business is to follow Me.
There is great freedom in those words. A believer in the workplace will constantly be tempted to look sideways. What is she earning? Why was he chosen for the training in South Africa? Why does the director always copy her on the important emails? Some of those questions may need honest answers, as we will see. But much of the time, the Lord’s word to us is the one He spoke to Peter: what is that to thee? Follow Me.
Jesus did not tell Peter that John’s path was none of his concern because John was unimportant. He loved John. He simply refused to let Peter’s calling be shaped by comparison with someone else’s. Your path is your path. It will include its own promotions and its own disappointments, its own seasons of being overlooked and seasons of being honoured. And it will be walked with Christ.
Looking on the things of others
Paul gives the Philippians an instruction that goes beyond simply refraining from envy:
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.” The word translated strife describes selfish ambition, the attitude of someone who is always campaigning for his own advancement. Vainglory means empty glory, the hunger for a reputation that has no substance. Paul says that neither should drive anything we do.
“But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” This does not mean pretending that everyone else is more talented than you, or denying your real gifts. It means treating other people’s interests as genuinely important, giving them the honour and consideration you would naturally want for yourself.
Nugget“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Notice the word also. Paul does not tell us to stop caring about our own careers. He tells us to care about other people’s as well.
Paul goes straight on to describe the mind of Christ, who “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). The Son of God had every right to glory. He laid it aside for our sake. That is the pattern of our life in Him. We are secure in the Father’s love, accepted in the Beloved, and that security frees us to look on the things of others without feeling threatened by their success.
In the workplace, that might mean helping a colleague prepare for an interview for a role you also wanted. It might mean giving genuine credit in a meeting. It might mean offering your experience to a new supervisor who is younger than you, instead of waiting for him to stumble. Paul elsewhere tells us to “Rejoice with them that do rejoice” (Romans 12:15). That is often harder than weeping with those who weep. But it is the fruit of a heart that is secure in Christ.
Two kinds of wisdom
James describes two kinds of wisdom, and he begins with the kind that envy produces:
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is , there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
“If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.” Envy rarely stays inside. It finds its way into our words. And very often, as James implies, it leads us to bend the truth. We hint. We insinuate. We put the most unflattering interpretation on someone’s success. “Well, we all know he is very close to the director.” Nasiru had not told a direct lie. But he had lied against the truth, because he had no evidence for the implication and he knew it.
James is blunt about the source of such thinking. “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” It may feel shrewd. It may feel like seeing through someone. But it comes from below. And it produces exactly what we see in many workplaces: “where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Teams split into camps. Information is withheld. People undermine each other’s projects. The whole organisation suffers.
Then James describes the alternative. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” Every quality in that list is a quality a good colleague needs. Pure in motive. Peaceable rather than combative. Gentle in disagreement. Easy to be intreated, which means open to reason. Full of mercy toward those who make mistakes. Without partiality and without hypocrisy.
That wisdom is a gift of God. James has already told us that God gives wisdom liberally to those who ask (James 1:5). If you find bitter envy in your heart, do not simply try harder to suppress it. Bring it honestly to God, confess it, and ask for the wisdom from above.
When the unfairness is real
None of this means that every complaint about workplace treatment is envy in disguise. Sometimes promotions really are decided by favouritism. Sometimes appraisals are wrong. Sometimes a person is passed over because of their ethnic group, their gender, their religion or their refusal to play along with something dishonest. Scripture does not ask us to pretend that injustice is not happening.
God’s law commanded fairness in judgement: “thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15). Paul himself, when he had been beaten and imprisoned illegally at Philippi, refused to be quietly ushered out of town. He insisted that the magistrates come and acknowledge what they had done (Acts 16:37). There are times when a believer should speak up.
So how do we tell the difference between a genuine grievance and envy wearing the clothes of justice? Here are some honest questions. Would I raise this concern if someone I liked had been treated the same way? Would I raise it if I had been the one promoted? Is my concern about a process, or about a person? Do I have facts, or only suspicions?
If the unfairness is real, address it through the proper channels. Gather the facts calmly. Speak to the right person, in private first, as Jesus taught about addressing a wrong (Matthew 18:15). Put your concern in writing if the matter is serious. Use the grievance procedure if there is one. Do it respectfully, without gossip and without trying to damage the person who benefited. Their promotion is not your enemy. The faulty process is the thing to address.
And then, having raised the matter properly, leave it with God. Psalm 73 describes a man who nearly lost his footing because he was “envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:3). He could not make sense of it “Until I went into the sanctuary of God” (Psalm 73:17). In God’s presence, he saw the whole picture again. Some injustices are corrected quickly. Others are not corrected in this life. Either way, the Judge of all the earth has not stopped seeing.
Faithful work with an open hand
So how do we live day by day in a competitive workplace?
Start by remembering where your gifts came from. “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Your abilities, your opportunities and your progress are gifts. So are your colleague’s. When we remember that, it becomes harder to resent someone else’s portion and harder to boast about our own.
Name envy when you notice it. The moment you find yourself keeping score, hoping someone fails or putting an unflattering spin on their success, stop and name it before God. Envy grows in the dark. It weakens when it is confessed.
Watch your words. If you have said something unfair about a colleague, go back and correct it with the person you said it to. That is humbling, and it is one of the surest ways to break envy’s hold.
Learn from those who succeed. A colleague’s progress can teach you something. What did they do that you did not? What skill could you develop? Competition can be a spur to growth without becoming a source of bitterness.
Keep working faithfully. Do your own work well, whether you are noticed or not. Your Father sees in secret.
And if you are the one who has been promoted, remember that someone else may be sitting in a car park. Be gracious with those who were passed over. Do not flaunt the new title or the new office. Ask for their help, credit their experience and give them room to process their disappointment without treating it as disloyalty. The wisdom from above is “without partiality,” and a new leader who treats the old rival fairly does a great deal to drain the bitterness out of a team.
Nasiru did two things in the weeks that followed.
First, he looked at his own appraisal. While preparing a report, he discovered that his record for the second quarter showed not rated. He had been seconded to a project in Lagos during those months, and nobody had entered his scores. Without that quarter, his annual rating had dropped to meets expectations, and that rating had been one of the factors in the promotion decision. It was a real error, and it had a real effect. He wrote a calm email to Human Resources, attached the project lead’s commendation from Lagos and asked for the record to be reviewed. Three weeks later it was corrected. He was told he would be considered in the next cycle.
Second, and harder, he went to Okey. He found him in the small meeting room late one evening, poring over the Kaduna rollout plan. Nasiru sat down across from him and said, “I need to tell you something. I said something about you a few weeks ago that was not fair. I have already told the person I said it to that I was wrong. And I want to help you with Kaduna, if you will have me.”
Okey looked at him for a long moment. Then he pushed the plan across the table. “I was hoping you would say that,” he said. “I have been afraid to ask you.”
PunchlineThe Kaduna upgrade went well. At the review meeting, Okey told the regional director that it would not have happened without Nasiru.
The following year, Nasiru was promoted to lead a different team. The announcement came on a Tuesday morning, and the first message in the group chat was from Okey. Nasiru told me he looked at it for a long time. He could not know what was in Okey’s heart as he typed it. But he knew what had changed in his own.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- When did a colleague’s success last expose envy in your heart? How did you respond?
- In the parable of the labourers, nothing was taken from the early workers. Where have you let someone else’s good turn your contentment into grievance?
- How does Paul’s distinction between bearing one another’s burdens and carrying your own pack help you in your work?
- Can you think of a time when envy led you to “lie against the truth,” even by insinuation? Is there anything you need to correct?
- If you are facing genuine unfairness at work, what would it look like to address it properly while refusing to let envy direct your conduct?
This Week
Think of one colleague whose success you have found difficult to celebrate. This week, do three things. Pray for that person by name each morning, asking God to bless their work. Find one sincere way to honour them, whether by giving credit in a meeting, offering help on a task, or saying a genuine word of congratulation. And examine your own work by Galatians 6:4: write down one area where you can be more faithful with what you have been given. If you have spoken unfairly about that colleague, go back to the person you spoke to and correct it.
A Prayer
Father, You have given me every gift I have, and You have given my colleagues theirs. Forgive me for the times I have looked with an evil eye on what You have given to others, and for the words I have spoken that bent the truth. Root out the bitter envy in my heart and give me the wisdom that is from above, pure, peaceable and full of mercy. Teach me to prove my own work and carry my own pack, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to look on the things of others. Where I have been treated unfairly, give me courage to speak rightly and grace to leave the outcome with You. Help me to hear Your voice above every comparison: follow thou Me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.