The Bible says ‘God is jealous’ and sometimes we take that for granted. Let’s first clarify that God’s jealousy is different from the sin of jealousy that we, human beings, can have and that is described in Galatians 5:20, as our jealousy is being envious of someone who has something we don’t have. My brother, my sister, God’s jealousy is godly turned to your own good and advantage because there is nothing you have that will make God jealous of you… for, everything you have, He is the One who has given it to you. Yet, He is jealous when you are giving another something that rightly belong to Him who created you and who loves you. Most of the time, we are inclined to put any kind of idols before Him: money, appearance, success, reputation, security, friends or even family can become our idols! Now, the Bible says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). And, loving God with all your soul and with all your strength means giving Him back what belongs to Him, worshiping and serving Him alone and we can show that by accepting, serving and honouring the free gift He has given us by the sacrifice of His only son, Jesus Christ. This jealousy is also well described by apostle Paul here: ” I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the snake’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2-5).
Indeed, God is jealous when we reject or dishonour the freedom, peace and love we should enjoy in Christ by turning our honour or adoration to men or idols! To illustrate it better, let’s put it in a simple way with a few examples: God is jealous when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is look for the kitchen for breakfast instead of glorifying Him to be alive; He is jealous when the first word you pronounce is ‘pastor’ instead of ‘Jesus’ when facing a problem; He is jealous when on Sunday you have planned a friend or family outing that will take 4-5 hours while you cannot find 1-2 hours to fellowship with fellow Christians; He is jealous when in the evening after watching all TV programmes you go to bed and take only 5-10 minutes to say good night to Him… My friends, God’s jealousy is for our own good, because He wants to guide us, teach us His ways and lead us to the marvelous plans He has for us… and it is only by having a true relationship and spending time with Jesus that we will be able to get to know Him and these plans for our lives. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.
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