What the Bible Says About...Sample

Selfishness - 2

And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

“What comes out of you is what defiles you. For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you.”

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.

Love … does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Related verses: Ec 4:4, Mr 7: 20-23, Pi 2:3-4, 1Jn 3:17-18, Ja 2:15-17, 1Pe 2:1, Pr 23:17, 1Co 13:4