Monday, July 26, 2010

Godly Jealousy vs Human Jealousy

"I have been the Lord your God
ever since I brought you out of Egypt.
You must acknowledge no God but me,
for there is no other savior.

I took care of you in the wilderness,
in that dry and thirsty land.
But when you had eaten and were satisfied,
you became proud and forgot me." Hosea 13:4-6 NLT

Our God is an AWESOME God! Our God is also a jealous God. He freely admits that throughout the Bible. "What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?" 1 Corinthians 10:22 NLT

Isn't jealousy bad? Isn't that one of the deadly sins that the Lord warns us about? These may be a couple of the questions you are asking. And you would be right.

Noah's International Dictionary defines jealous as: (a.) Disposed to suspect rivalry in matters of interest and affection; apprehensive regarding the motives of possible rivals, or the fidelity of friends; distrustful; having morbid fear of rivalry in love or preference given to another; painfully suspicious of the faithfulness of husband, wife, or lover.

Reading the above, there are two kinds of jealousy. A good kind--like the Lord has for us--and the bad kind--like the kind that makes people do, say or think bad things.

God's jealousy for us is derived from His total and complete love of us. He created us and sacrificed His one and only Son for us. He gave everything He had for us and our salvation. His jealousy has not one ounce of ill wish for us. Not one ounce of selfishness in it. Not one ounce of thinking, saying or doing anything evil to us. His jealousy is one that is wanting to protect us. Protect us from ourselves, from false gods and false teachings.

Paul writes, "I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ. But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things. I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I’m not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way." 2 Corinthians 11:1-6 NLT

Your God loves you so much, that in His love for you, He will jealousy guard and protect you from what Satan is trying to lead you away from--your salvation and your eternity with Him. And if you think about it, those of you that are parents, don't we do that with our kids? Why would our Heavenly Father be any different?

Just a word of caution--you must be very careful of your motives. It is only a thin line between Godly jealousy and human jealousy. Pray carefully over the feeling.

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