‘Schadenfruede’ is a German word that, thankfully, has no English equivalent. It means: joy at the suffering of another. Journalist and author Henrie Fairlie called this “The Revenge of Failure”. He claimed that taking pleasure in a gifted person’s demise is the disease of our time. If we cannot paint well or write well – or preach well – then we take great pleasure when others, who do these things well, fail. The gossip column and the grocery store tabloid have become the symbols of our envious age.

We Christians must separate ourselves from this worldly practice. We should rejoice when our brother/sister rejoices and weep when our brother/sister weeps. Perhaps this is called “bearing one another’s burdens”.

Tags: jealousy, vengeance