Sometimes these proverbs can really skewer you! They are often called “pithy” sayings. I think that means that when we hear them/read them it is hard to forget them. They kind of stick in our minds and are hard to get rid of. They cause us to think deeper and make us more self-scrutinizing than we are normally comfortable with. 14:30 is one of those pithy sayings.
“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” What a contrast! A heart at peace or an envious heart? Lifegiving or rotting? Once again, it is not hard to identify the part we would LIKE to be. But this proverbs deals with deep character issues. The person whose heart is full of peace, who has deeply rooted reasons for being peaceful and feeling content, that person will be healthy and full of life. But the person whose heart is full of envy, who has deeply rooted greed and is never satisfied with what they have, that person will be sick and their life will be empty. When we are envious we often direct our envy at others. We dislike or even hate others because they have what we want. We despise them for all sorts of reasons, but the underlying one is envy and greed. The problem is our envy does not hurt them at all! It hurts us! Our sinful discontent actually harms us physically. There are studies that bear this out. Contentedness is difficult for us. No matter how much we have we always think we would be happier–more at peace–if we had just a little more. So it begs the question, “How much is enough?” Judging by Western-American standards enough is never enough. There is no such thing as enough. So we must work hard and by God’s Spirit and by God’s truth retrain our character to be content with whatever we have–at peace–because we believe that God will take care of us and help us to fill our lives with good things that are not dependent on how much we have. Peaceful or rotten? Not much of a choice!