Envy is a desire to possess what others have, whether material objects, like cars, or character traits, like a positive outlook or patience. According to Christian tradition, envying others results in failing to be happy for them. Aquinas wrote that envy "...is contrary to charity, whence the soul derives its spiritual life... Charity rejoices in our neighbor's good, while envy grieves over it." Non-Christian philosophers like Aristotle and Plato argued that envy leads to a desire to destroy those who are envied so they can be stopped from possessing anything at all. Envy is thus treated as a form of resentment.
Making envy a sin has the drawback of encouraging Christians to be satisfied with what they have rather than objecting to others' unjust power or seeking to gain what others have. It is possible for at least some states of envy to be due to how some possess or lack things unjustly. Envy could, therefore, become the basis for fighting injustice. Although there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about resentment, there is probably more unjust inequality than unjust resentment in the world.
Focusing on the feelings of envy and condemning them rather than the injustice causing those feelings allows injustice to continue unchallenged. Why should we rejoice in someone obtaining power or possessions which they shouldn't have? Why shouldn't we grieve over someone benefiting from injustice? For some reason, injustice itself is not considered a deadly sin. Even if resentment were arguably as bad as unjust inequality, it says a lot about Christianity that the former came to be labeled a sin while the former was not.
Envious people, those guilty of committing the deadly sin of envy, will be punished in hell by being immersed in freezing water for all eternity. It's unclear what sort of connection exists between punishing envy and enduring freezing water. Is the cold supposed to teach them why it's wrong to desire what others have? Is it supposed to chill their desires?
This image appeared in 1496 in Le grant kalendrier des Bergiers, published by Nicolas le Rouge in Troyes, France. It depicts a bunch of people suffering in the icy water of hell.
Further Reading: Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins, by Joseph Epstein
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