I. Holy Scripture is full of warnings against this fatal form of envy, for indeed in this form came the first temptation to our mother Eve. Why did she look towards the fatal tree, and reach out her hand, and touch the fruit, and take it, and taste it but because the tempter had contrived to put it into her weak and foolish heart that by so doing she would become as a god; that is, as an angel, as the tempter himself? Holy Scripture could hardly say more against our envying sinners than that by it came the fall of man, and by it the captivity and ruin of the Jewish people.
II. God's Holy Spirit, thus proclaiming the mischief, in His love proclaims also the remedy. The way not to let one's "heart envy sinners" is to "be in the fear of the Lord all the day long;" to keep up a regular, habitual, serious sense that God is here, the great and good God; to turn towards Him instinctively in all temptations, as children in trouble run for shelter to their parents. One who in earnest has this in his mind cannot possibly envy sinners.
III. We are almost sure to begin to wish ourselves like the wicked if we willingly abide in their company. Therefore doth the wise man especially caution us that if we would not be "envious towards evil men," we must not "desire to be with them." Remember the end of these men; then you will leave off envying them, and you will begin to pity them and pray for them.
J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity,Part I., p. 53.