25 Bible Verses About Comparison, Jealousy and Envy

Her photo went up an hour ago. The ring, the baby, the new title, the dress that looks easy. You liked it. Your chest stayed tight.

These verses are for that hour. A song that counts someone else’s victories higher. A sister who has the child. A wage that looks unfair because someone else worked less of the day.

If the ache is what she has, 30 Bible verses about envy is the longer list. A shorter page on measuring your life against someone else’s is 15 Bible verses about not comparing yourself to others. When the measuring lands on your body, 12 Bible verses about body image sits beside this one.

Bible Verses About Comparison, Jealousy and Envy

1. 2 Corinthians 10:12 — Measuring by Someone Else

For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.

They were numbering their own circle against people who already thought well of themselves. Her follower count works like a ruler that was never handed to you. Close the app when you start numbering.

2. Galatians 6:4-5 — Examine What Is Yours

But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. For each man will bear his own burden.

The lines just before this one warn against thinking you are something when you are nothing. The boast is what is left after you have looked at your own life, and it is kept off of someone else. Look at what is yours before God today, and leave her life out of the measuring.

3. John 21:21-22 — What About This Man?

Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”

Peter turned and made the other disciple the subject. Jesus sent him back to his own following. Ask it over the life you keep checking.

4. 1 Samuel 18:8-9 — Thousands and Ten Thousands

Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have credited David with ten thousands, and they have only credited me with thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?” Saul watched David from that day and forward.

The women had given David the larger number, and Saul heard it as a threat to the kingdom. From that day he kept David in view. A chorus can start a watch. Put the phone in another room when the song starts counting.

5. Genesis 4:4-7 — Cain’s Face Fell

Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. The LORD respected Abel and his offering, but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

Abel brought the firstborn, and the LORD received that offering. Cain’s face fell, and sin was already crouching at the door. When your face falls at her news, you’re at that door. Rule over it before it takes the afternoon.

6. Luke 15:28-32 — Outside the Party

But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

He stayed in the yard and counted his years of service against his brother’s welcome. He had wanted a goat with his friends. The father left the music and came out to him. A ledger like that can keep you outside a joy that was already yours. Go in.

7. Matthew 20:11-15 — The Same Denarius

When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’ “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’

They had worked through the heat of the day, and the ones hired late received the same wage. The complaint was that the master had made the hours equal. Take what was agreed, and leave her wage with the one who owns it.

8. Numbers 12:2 — Has He Spoken Only with Moses?

They said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And the LORD heard it.

Miriam and Aaron asked why Moses should be the only one the LORD spoke with. He heard it. A role in a family or a church can turn into that question. Say it to God before you say it about her.

9. Genesis 30:1 — Rachel and Her Sister

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”

She had no child, and she envied the sister who did. The sentence she gave Jacob was desperate. If the comparison is a child, a wedding, or a body, bring it to God before you hand it to her.

10. Genesis 37:11 — One Dream, Two Answers

His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.

The brothers envied the dream. The father turned it over in his mind. Same house, two answers. Envy in a family can make a brother into a rival before anyone says it out loud.

11. 1 Corinthians 12:17-18 — If the Whole Body Were an Eye

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.

God set different members in the Body of Christ, each one as He desired. If everyone did the same work, other work would go undone. We need each other. Her gift is for you, and yours is for her.

12. 1 Corinthians 4:7 — What You Didn’t Receive

For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Whatever you have came to you. The boast treats it as if you had produced it. The thing in her life arrived the same way. Thank Him for what is in your hands.

13. Romans 12:3 — The Measure You Were Given

For I say through the grace that was given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

God has given each person a measure of faith, and the call is to think with a sound mind inside it. The woman who prays easily out loud has hers. Yours is the one in your hands.

14. 1 Samuel 16:7 — Face, Height, Heart

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Samuel was weighing a face and a height. People still do that with a photo. The LORD is on the heart. God is already there while you’re stuck on the picture.

15. Luke 18:11-12 — A Prayer That Uses Someone Else

The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

The Pharisee stood apart and thanked God he was better than the tax collector, then offered his fasting and his tithes as proof. Pride can pray. It uses another person to feel righteous. Comparison can kneel and still be comparison.

16. James 3:14-16 — Jealousy in the Room

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.

Jealousy and selfish ambition in the same heart leave a room confused, and the damage spreads. A team, a group chat, a church kitchen. Where it sits, people stop trusting one another. Close the thread you keep reopening.

17. Proverbs 27:4 — Who Can Stand Before It?

Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy?

Wrath is harsh and anger is heavy, and jealousy is the one that is hard to stand in front of. It outlasts the argument. Leave the room before the sentence you can’t take back.

18. Psalm 73:2-3 — Feet Almost Gone

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

His steps nearly slipped because he was watching how well the arrogant seemed to be doing. A feed full of people who seem to get away with it can do that to a walk. Tell God the envy before the next step.

19. Exodus 20:17 — Anything That Is Your Neighbor’s

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The command moves from a house and a wife to servants, an ox, a donkey, and then to anything that belongs to your neighbor. It reaches the apartment, the husband, the ease, the trip. Name the specific thing out loud to God.

20. Ecclesiastes 4:4 — Labor Aimed at the Neighbor

Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

He looked at labor that existed so a neighbor would envy it, and he called that striving wind. The work got pointed at the person next door. Close the laptop when her reaction has become the point of the task.

21. James 4:2 — You Covet, and Can’t Obtain

You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

Wanting what you can’t get turns into fights. Murder and war sit in that same hunger, and the asking never happened. The fight with her may be a request still sitting unasked. Bring the thing to God before you take it up with her.

22. Proverbs 14:30 — Down in the Bones

The life of the body is a heart at peace, but envy rots the bones.

A heart at peace gives the body its life. Envy works the other direction, down in the bones. You can feel it in a tight jaw when her post comes up. Unclench it.

23. Philippians 4:11-12 — Learned, Full and Hungry

Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

He had learned contentment in a low state and in plenty, at a full table and an empty one. Both tables are in the lesson. Practice it on the ordinary Tuesday when her news is the good news.

24. Romans 12:15 — Rejoice with Her

Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

When she is glad, be glad with her. When she is weeping, stay in it with her. Send the text that celebrates her. Stay when it’s her turn to cry.

25. Numbers 11:29 — Jealous for My Sake?

Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Joshua wanted the prophesying in the camp shut down, as if Moses’ place needed guarding. Moses wished the Spirit on all the LORD’s people. You can want the Spirit’s work on her, in the place you were guarding.

When Her News Lands

Say John 21:22 out loud when you open her page. What is that to you? You follow me.

Examine one piece of your own work today, the way Galatians 6:4 says.

Send one text that rejoices with her. Romans 12:15 is two short lines. Use the first one.

Ask God for the thing you’ve been coveting. James 4:2 ends on the asking.

If the ache has settled into a longer hunger for a life that feels like enough, 35 Bible verses about contentment is the next page.

A Prayer When You Want Her Life

Father, the person reading this has someone else’s life in front of them. You look at the heart. Jesus, You told Peter to follow You, and You asked what the other man was to him. Holy Spirit, meet the jealousy at the door. Teach contentment on the ordinary day, and give a true joy when she rejoices. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I do when I compare myself to her?

Put the phone in another room. Look at one piece of work that is yours before you open her page again. If your hand is still on it, use Jesus’ answer to Peter, then follow Him.

What does jealousy look like next to envy?

Saul watched David after the women sang ten thousands. Rachel envied Leah because Leah had the children. James 3:16 puts jealousy and selfish ambition together, and confusion comes with them. Proverbs 14:30 says envy rots the bones.

How can I celebrate someone when it hurts?

Romans 12:15 says rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. The older son in Luke 15 stayed outside while the calf was killed for his brother. Tell God about the ache, then send the glad text.

What if it’s my body, my marriage, or a baby?

1 Samuel 16:7 says man looks at the outward appearance, and the LORD looks at the heart. Genesis 30:1 is Rachel envying her sister because she bore Jacob no children. Exodus 20:17 forbids coveting anything that is your neighbor’s, including a wife and a house.

How do I learn contentment when her life looks easier?

Philippians 4:11 says contentment was learned, filled and hungry. James 4:2 says you don’t have, because you don’t ask. Numbers 11:29 has Moses wishing the Spirit on all the LORD’s people, including the men Joshua wanted stopped.

Scripture quotations in this article are from the World English Bible Protestant Edition (WEBP), a public-domain translation.