Charity And Its Fruits Notes - Chapter 6

Chapter/sermon 6 is called "Charity Disposes Us To Do Good" and goes into more detail on the "Love does not envy" part of 1 Corinthians 13:4.

As Edwards points out, this sermon is the negative side of the previous sermon because envy is the opposite of good will.

Edwards starts his sermon on the nature of envy, starting with a definition. For Edwards, envy is:

"A spirit of dissatisfaction with, and opposition to, the prosperity and happiness of others as compared with our own."

It is envy to be displeased with another's honor or prosperity when it exceeds our own.

According to Edwards envy stems from our need to be uppermost. Not only do we not want others to be equal to us, we don't even want them to be a close second.

The signs of envy are:

1. We are troubled by the prosperity of others.


2. We rejoice at anything that happens to diminish the honor and comfort of others. (We might even do things that cause this to happen.)


3. We begin to dislike, or even hate, a person because of his prosperity.

A Christian spirit is against envy because:

1. We see it as contrary to the will and character of God, therefore we hate it.


2. A Christian spirit disposes us to be content with our own condition.


3. A Christian spirit disposes us to rejoice in the prosperity of others.

Edwards sees the following applications for his sermon:
We should examine ourselves for any sign of an envious spirit.
We are exhorted to disallow and put away everything approaching to an envious spirit.