____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER ____________________________________________________ "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ January 4, 2004 ____________________________________________________ Love Is Not Jealous by Tom Edwards According to 1 Corinthians 13:4, love "envieth not" (KJV); or, as worded in the New American Standard Bible, love "is not jealous." The Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines "envy" as "1. a feeling of resentful discontent, begrudging admiration, or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, possessions, or attainments; desire for something possessed by another." This particular Greek word, however, is used in both a good and a bad sense in the New Testament. Its dichotomous nature can be seen in its literal definition, as being, "to have warmth of feeling for or against" (Strong); or "to burn with zeal" (Thayer); but these concepts branch off into contrasting applications, such as "to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger"; and "in a good sense, to be zealous in the pursuit of good" (ibid.). Obviously, in our above Scripture, it has reference to ungodly envy or sinful jealousy. The Bible provides us with various examples of this kind. For instance, when the women began singing, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Sam. 18:7), Saul became jealous to the point of an angry rage that led him into several attempts toward taking David's life (vv. 8-16). Unrighteous envy would not allow Saul to rejoice in David's accomplishments and the praise he was receiving for it. Rather, it embittered him. Someone once said that "Envy shoots at others and wounds herself"; and how applicable this is of Saul toward David. For just as we noted in a previous lesson on kindness (to be kind to others is also to be -- indirectly -- kind to oneself), even so, to hate others unjustly is to do harm to oneself. As a result of Saul's sin, the Lord "departed" from him; and if we, as Christians, give ourselves over to unrighteous envy, God will also depart from us. And that is enough reason to not be characterized by it. Jealousy can be a destructive force. It tried to put an end to the preaching of Jesus (Acts 17:2-5). So whereas love seeks to edify, jealousy seeks to harm and destroy. We think, too, of the example of King Ahab and his covetousness (which caused him to be envious) over Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21). This property was in Jezreel, right beside the king's palace for the northern kingdom. When Naboth would not sell, Ahab became greatly disturbed. He was "sullen and vexed" and appears to have acted rather childishly: "he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and ate no food" (v. 4). The wicked queen Jezebel catered to her husband's envy by writing letters in her husband's name and plotting the death of Naboth by having worthless fellows falsely testify that Naboth had "cursed God and the king" (v. 10). This evil scheme was carried out, and Ahab acquired the vineyard he had enviously desired -- though it was at the cost of deceit and the murder of an innocent man's life. Down through time, there are some things that never seem to change. Consider James 4:1,2: "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask." Petrarch wrote, "Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us: ...avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace." Not only Petrarch, but also the Bible shows the need for ridding ourselves of these vices. A mother was trying to teach her young son one day to be generous by giving him two apples and telling him to give the larger one to his sister. He was quiet for a while, but then finally responded by saying, `Look Ma, you give her the apples and ask her to be generous."' This young boy would have had no problem if he weren't concerned with who received the larger apple. In similar manner, how could we ever be envious if we don't care whether others have more than we have or seem better off materially or in any other mundane way? What difference should that make to us, anyway? From these illustrations, there appears to be a connection between jealousy and covetousness or envy and greed. Could we, therefore, be envious if we were truly content -- despite our lot in life? Perhaps one of the first Bible stories we heard as children, in which jealousy had prompted a hate-filled scheme, is that of the brothers of Joseph, who had initially planned to kill him (Gen. 37:20); but Reuben dissuaded them from doing so. For he, actually, wanted to rescue him from their wickedness (vv. 21,22). Judah, too, didn't want to kill Joseph; but came up with the idea to sell him as a slave (vv. 26,27). Acts 7:9 reads, "And the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. And yet God was with him." We are appalled by the cruelty they showed to their own brother, who had been such a godly person at even a young age. What terrible things jealousy can do. Why were they jealous? It appears from the account that it was because their father loved Joseph more than their father loved them, which could be seen in the special favor shown to Joseph in the coat of many colors which their father gave him. In addition, while in his youth, Joseph had told his family of his dreams, which signified a time when they would be bowing down to him. This caused his brothers to turn against him all the more. (Later in life, however, they -- fortunately -- came to realize how wrong they had been in their treatment of him. Perhaps it was also because jealousy was no longer there to blind their eyes toward their cold-hearted actions of long ago.) For jealousy can cause one to act very irrationally. In Acts 5:12,14-18, we read of the miraculous works of the apostles. The sick were being brought to them from miles around, and all were being healed. No one was going away unhealed and disappointed. "But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy; and they laid hands on the apostles, and put them in a public jail" (vv. 17,18). Obviously, the jealous man does not have his heart in the right place. The apostles did nothing but good. They miraculously cured all who were ill, and great multitudes were being won to the Lord. This, however, made the high priest and the Sadducees envious and upset because this good work was drawing the people away from them. Someone once said that "No man is a complete failure until he begins disliking men who succeed." How apropos this statement is toward this particular high priest and those Sadducees who sided with him. Jealousy will slam the door of salvation's opportunity on oneself. In Acts 13:44-46, it states: "And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, `It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles." Jealousy will also obstruct one's spiritual development. Paul said concerning the Corinthians: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men" (1 Cor. 3:1-3)? The Corinthians had abounded in spiritual problems. Their jealousy and strife hindered them from being the spiritual people they should have been. Jealousy can also destroy one physically. I once heard a Grecian story about a man who killed himself because of envy. His community had erected a statue in honor of a celebrated athlete. So strong was the feeling of jealousy in the heart of this hero's rival that it caused him to go to the monument every night to try to destroy it. After attempting repeatedly, this envious one finally was able to move the statue from its pedestal; but, unfortunately, it fell on him -- thus, crushing him to death. It was definitely a death that would have never happened had it not been for his jealousy. Is that not also true of the Lord's death? Matthew 27:18 reads, "For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him up." It was obvious to Pilate why the people wanted Jesus put to death. It certainly wasn't because He was deserving of it -- for Pilate could find no fault with Jesus. But it was because of the people's irrational jealousy and hatred toward Him. Jealousy can give man a distorted view of things. It caused many of the Jewish people of Jesus' day to see Him as being no more better than the most vile of their time -- for that was the kind of person that crucifixion was reserved for. Yet, He was God in the flesh and without sin in His life. As William Shakespeare wrote, "And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not." It was also Shakespeare who referred to jealousy as being "the green-eye monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on." So as we can see from the above, ungodly jealousy is a detriment to one's body and soul. The Bible, therefore, gives us ample warnings about it: "The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts" (Rom. 13:12-14). Unfortunately, not all are willing to put off the evil in order to put on the good. In Romans 1, for example, Paul speaks about the depravity of some individuals and states that they were "filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips" (v. 29). The seriousness of this is seen even more in Galatians 5:19-21: "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Jealousy, therefore, is bad enough to keep one out of heaven! Since ungodly jealousy cannot lead to heaven then it cannot ever lead to anything good. James puts it this way: "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing" (Jms. 3:16). Let it also be pointed out that the word "jealousy," in the previous verse, comes from the same Greek word that is also translated as "zeal" in nine places in the NASB. One such place pertains to the "zeal" that the Lord had concerning the temple (Jn. 2:17). From this connection, we can see that jealousy in a sinful sense is a misguided zeal or a zeal aimed in the wrong direction and with wrong intent. This cannot be said, however, about the zeal that the Lord possessed -- nor of God's jealousy toward His own, which the Bible speaks of (Exod. 20:5). Paul also speaks of himself similarly: "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin" (2 Cor. 11:2). Note here that Paul speaks of this as being a "godly jealousy." Corresponding to that, let us hear Exodus 20:5: "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me" (NASB). God's people have been depicted both in the Old and New Testaments as being the Lord's bride. When His people went astray (through idolatry), they became guilty of a spiritual "adultery." But though there are these examples of jealousy being used in a good sense, our aim in this article was to focus on the kind of jealousy or envy that can lead to the ruin of one's soul; and by which one would, consequently, be condemned by the Lord. May that kind of jealousy never characterize us -- for love "is not jealous," in that sense. ____________________________________________________ MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST 1022 Myrtle Street Denham Springs, LA 70726 (225) 664-8208 Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM Wednesday: 7:00 PM evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520 e-mail: tedwards@onemain.com web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go ____________________________________________________