Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

sinister force, bitter envy must surely spell the destruction of oneself and the
annihilation of others (Eph. 4:31; Heb. 12:15)!
Envy is not necessarily an evidence of an unregenerate heart. It is also
possible that it is evidence of the victory of indwelling sin, or of the flesh, in a
Christian (1 Pet. 2:11). This may well be the case in 1 Corinthians 3:3 and 2
Corinthians 12:20. Carnality has taken over! However, Paul aims to find out
in dealing with the problem, whether the root is the unregenerate heart or indwelling
sin. In this regard he is a model for all counselors. His persistent call
to self-examination fits this pattern “perfectly” (2 Cor. 13:5 301 ).
In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul puts on the pressure by informing the
people with bluntness that God has attached the death penalty to their type of
behavior. If they persist in it, they will appear to be unregenerate, but if they
repent--and this is what Paul expects them to do--, they will prove thereby
that they belong to Christ. Paul clearly wields the Word as the Key to the
Kingdom with a view to edification (2 Cor. 12:19). If this would produce
protesting backtalk or belligerent anger (Jam. 1:19), so be it! In such situations,
in which obstinate members of the congregation would continue in their
immoral conduct, he would deal with them under two or three witnesses, and
not spare anyone (2 Cor. 12:20-13:2).
Second, what is selfish ambition? 302 This concept brings “self-seeking
pursuit” into the picture as the accompaniment, if not root, of envy. It is selfish
ambition for “me” to be or become the biggest fish in the pond, to believe
that without “me” everything will go down the drain, to insist that “my” importance
is recognized, to withdraw when “my” contribution does not get the
acclaim I covet. The list is potentially endless. In short, selfish ambition is
any form of self-aggrandizement in heart, thought, will, emotions, word or
deed that is at odds with self-denial in the one-and-many spheres and sacrifice
or submission in the authority structures, as described in Topical Focus # 14
in the context of James 3:1.
We are faced here with the “base,” “self-seeking” desire on the part of
aspiring teachers, as well as congregational members for that matter, to con-
301 I vividly remember how driving home the truth of self-examination, as found in 2 Corinthians
13:5, in a discriminating, that is, in a “mercilessly merciful” fashion, precipitated a
powerful conversion, which in turn, brought about one of the more productive lives that I
have witnessed during the course of my ministry.
302 Early translations speak of “envy and strife (italics added).” However, the latter translation
is based on a confusion of two Greek terms, eris and eritheia. To be sure, eris is strife, but
eritheia is selfish ambition, and this is the term used in the present Greek text. While envy is,
indeed, the mother of strife (Grosheide, 1955, 389), the proper translation of the twin package
in the present text is “envy and selfish ambition (italics added)!”
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