Jealousy

by G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Category: General | Oct 1977

"Jealousy is cruel as the grave" (Song of Songs 8:6).

"I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy" (2 Cor. 11:2).

That there are two kinds of jealousy is evident from the scriptures quoted. So far as the first is concerned, there are few of us who do not sometimes feel the twinge of carnal jealousy in our nature. For we still have an old nature. Taught by the Spirit of God from the Word of God, we can sometimes detect it in ourselves, as we can also see it in others. It is one of the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:20).

Jealousy is indeed cruel as the grave. It begets hatred, and hatred murder. It has destroyed many lives that might have been used by the divine Spirit but for this sin in the heart. The first murder was caused by this burning sin in the heart of Cain, who slew his godly brother Abel. It has caused countless murders since that dark day.

Jealousy attacks the godly, as well as the carnally-minded. Aaron and Miriam gave way to it in their verbal attack on Moses (Num. 12). It left Miriam a leper shut up outside the camp, where, but for the intercession of Moses, she might have remained until death. Jealousy was the cause. This sad story has an important lesson for us. If we see jealousy in another saint, we must pray earnestly for such a one, as Moses did for Miriam.

When we ourselves are affected by jealousy we must brace ourselves with the girdle of truth (Eph. 6:14), and we must be true to ourselves. We must beseech the Lord to deliver us from this deadly snare. Not only must we pray for ourselves, we must pray for any of whom we are jealous. We must pray the Lord to bless our brother or sister, or any of whom we are jealous. When we pray for them this also brings deliverance to our own souls. Praying for others is well-pleasing to God. we remember how God blessed Job when he prayed for his three friends who had so wrongly assessed the cause of his sufferings (Job 42:10). "Pray one for another" wrote James, "that ye may be healed" (Jas. 5:16). This is a weighty statement indeed. So we must pray tenderly and earnestly for each other, knowing, that we are compassed with infirmity, and apart from the power of the Spirit of God, we cannot prevail in this warfare against the flesh.

But there is a godly jealousy, which we should all long for. This is of God, for He is a jealous God, and His name is Jealous (Ex. 34:14). And so Paul wrote to the Corinthian saints, "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy... that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ". He was jealous over the disciples that they might not be drawn away from Christ. He prayed over them that they might not be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.

Carnal jealousy tears down our lives and turns us away from Christ. But godly jealousy builds us up, and spends itself to save the lives of others for Christ's sake. Are we jealous for Christ's sake over the lives of fellow-saints, even if they do us wrong?

"Oh, give us hearts to love like Thee,

Like Thee, 0 Lord, to grieve

Far more for others' sins, than all

The wrongs that we receive".

Let us covet this godly jealousy that saves the lives of others, and enriches our own lives. The source of this jealousy is the love of Christ, the love which passes knowledge (Eph. 3:19).

Let us think often of that remarkable prayer of Paul's for the saints in Ephesus. When he was leaving them, he knew that some of them would turn aside from Christ. Jealousy would arise even among the elders to whom he was speaking and they would draw away disciples after themselves (Acts 20:30). Paul, now a prisoner at Rome, thinks often of the saints at Ephesus; Ephesus where he had seen such a mighty working of the Spirit of God (Acts 19:20). He is now far away from them, but he bows his knees to the Father, in prayer on their behalf. He was jealous over them for Christ's sake. And so he prayed -

1.That they might be strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inward man.

2.That Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith.

3.That they would know the love of Christ that passes knowledge.

4.That they would be filled to all the fulness of God.

Let us pray in this way for all our fellow-saints, and for ourselves, and the love of Christ will lift us up beyond the reach of all carnal jealousy, to be jealous only with a godly jealousy.

G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Oct 1977
General