Potpourri - "On Jealousy"

Over the course of this Summer I am doing a series of teachings based off of our fellowship's requests.  I asked people in our fellowship to let me know what topics, passages, themes they wanted me to teach on.  Hence, "Potpourri" - a smattering of this and that - topics, passages, issues from various places.  It's been fun so far and I look forward to the future teachings - about 7 more left this Summer.

This last week I spoke on an issue that was submitted to me:  "What do we do with jealousy?"

Here's the beginning of my take on this very human emotion.

I  called this teaching - Jealousy, The Silent Torment.  

It was once referred to as one of the “seven deadly sins” – jealousy, or sometimes called envy or covetous.  It is probably one of the world's oldest emotions because it's been around since the beginning of time.

When we use the word “jealous,” we use it in a sense of being envious of someone who has something we do not have.  In a world of Facebook and Twitter It is easy to fall into jealousy as we see others' lives and compare our own.  We can't help but be affected by the advertisers and advances of our materialistic society.  The mantra of culture is to be to keep up with the Jones’ and it can affect us also.

Is it crucial to see and deal with?  Think about this, it is listed in the original ten commandments:

Exodus 20:17 (ESV)
¹⁷  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Let’s understand it and see it both biblically and practically:

Jealousy Can Destroy Relationships

Jealousy is the reason for the first Murder

Genesis 4:3-8 (ESV)
³  In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground,
⁴  and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,
⁵  but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
⁶  The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
⁷  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
⁸  Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Why did Cain kill Abel?  He was jealous that Abel’s offering was acceptable to God, and his wasn’t.  That was the first time jealousy reared it’s ugly head – and it led to the first murder.  But, it wasn’t the only time it appeared…there are several classic stories in which jealousy surfaces:

There is the story of Joseph and his brothers:

Genesis 37:3-8 (ESV)
³  Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
⁴  But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
⁵  Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.
⁶  He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:
⁷  Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
⁸  His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

This was the beginning of a couple of encounters that eventually led to the brothers kidnapping Joseph, and selling him into slavery.  Why?  They were jealous of his privileged position.

There was another story of jealousy that is well known and it involved  David with King Saul:

1 Samuel 18:6-11 (NIV)
⁶  When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes.
⁷  As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."
⁸  Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?"
⁹  And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
¹⁰  The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul…

Isn't it significant that the scripture connects Saul’s jealous spirit to an evil spirit?  What does it say about the power of jealousy?

Here's the reality of Jealousy:  Jealousy feeds the fleshly self.  The flesh is that part of us that is alienated from God and wants no part of His life.  Jealousy feeds that fleshly part of us and leads us away from our God identity.  

Jealousy is also an emotion that removes reason, a sense of what is the way in which I should respond:

James 4:1-2  What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Contrast that with this:

Proverbs 14:30  A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

When Paul wrote to a divisive Corinthian Church, he spoke of their division as of the “flesh” as shown by their jealousy and fighting…

1 Corinthians 3:3-5 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

That’s why I said it has more to do with what it does to our ability to reason, pray, give things back to God instead of holding on to things in anger.  

The Corinthians were caught up in arguments, power struggles and envy over personalities and Paul calls them out.  Contrast that with what he says about Love a few chapters later:

1 Corinthians 13:4 (ESV)
⁴  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

Is Jealousy serious? 

Ephesians 5:5  “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

This covetousness is actually a form of idolatry.  So, in that sense, we again ask:  Is it serious?

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime…not in quarreling and jealousy.

There are many more examples that I could point to in Scripture. 

Now, I'm going to finish this tomorrow, but let me add at the end:

If we are honest with ourselves, we all get envious or jealous at times.   

Sometimes it may be subtle in our own minds as we wish things were different.  It is at times a fine line.  But, the heart of what happens to us in jealousy is that we lose sight of our identity in God…

That's what we'll go towards tomorrow.

Peace