Love Is Not Jealous_ Spiritual Love (4)
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February 03, 2019 |
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 Senior Pastor Rev. Jaerock Lee
"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant," 1 Corinthians 13:4
Those students who get good grades usually go over the mistakes they made on a test. They find out why they got the answers wrong and make sure they now understand the correct answer. It's an effective method to make up for our weak points.
The same principle is equally applicable to spiritual love as well. Hearing the Word of God, we should try to see what we are lacking with regards to patience, gentleness, and virtuous generosity to accept others. Then, we can cultivate spiritual love in a shorter period of time.
The characteristic of spiritual love we will discuss now is that it is not jealous. Here, being jealous means extreme envy and jealousy to the point of acting out in evil toward others.
If we have jealousy, we feel uncomfortable when others are well-off or loved more than we are. We feel our pride is hurt when we see those who are wealthier, more educated, or more capable. We are envious of others who are similar to us when they prosper. Sometimes we might even hate them and have the desire to take away what they have.
In another aspect, we might even think like, "Why is he loved and I am not?" We might become despaired if we compare ourselves with them.
Most people wouldn't think getting disappointed is a form of envy or jealousy. However, if we have spiritual love, we will not get disappointed but rejoice for them when others prosper. Getting disappointed and beating ourselves up comes from our ego that wanted to be loved and acknowledged more than others.
And the jealousy that this chapter refers to is the extreme one that causes evil words and behaviors. Now, let us delve into this jealousy in several categories.
1. Jealousy Caused by Romantic Relationships
Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and son of Isaac, had 2 wives, Leah and Rachel. They were daughters of Jacob's uncle Laban and sisters.
Because of a deception by his uncle, Jacob unwittingly married Leah instead of Rachel. However, out of his love for Rachel he served Laban for a total of 14 years to get her as his wife. Obviously, Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.
When Leah gave birth to 4 sons while Rachel had none, Rachel was jealous of her sister Leah. She gave her husband a hard time about it (Gen. 30:1). Rachel and Leah competed with each other to take all Jacob's love, even by giving their maids to him as concubines.
If they had just a little bit of spiritual love for each other, they'd have been happy if the other person was loved by Jacob. After all, jealousy made all of them, Leah, Rachel and Jacob unhappy, and it had seriously negative effects on their children as well.
2. Jealousy when Others Are Better than Ourselves
People have different value systems, and so, they feel jealous over different things. However, one usually becomes jealous when others are wealthier, better-looking, more capable, or more loved and acknowledged than they are. We can easily see these situations in family, workplace, schools, etc.
Some people in a workplace would make their coworkers' weak points known or frame them somehow so they themselves can get promoted. Some students may bully another student who is smarter or more loved by the teacher than they are. In a family, the siblings might fight to get more love or more inheritance money from their parents.
Let us think about the first murderer of mankind, Cain. When God only accepted the offerings of his brother Abel, he couldn't control his burning jealousy and killed Abel.
He must have learned from his parents Adam and Eve that he was supposed to give a sacrifice of blood of the animals, but he didn't. Abel obeyed the will of God to give the sacrifice of blood, and God couldn't help but accept only Abel's offering. Nevertheless, Cain didn't consider it being his fault, but just let his jealousy rise which resulted in killing his own brother.
3. Jealousy among Brothers in Faith
Some believers might be jealous of another believer if that person seems more advanced in faith or has higher position in the church. It usually occurs when others are similar in terms of age or position in the church, or when we know them quite well. Even though they didn't cause any harm to us, we might have uncomfortable feelings toward them. We may feel they are not really better than we are and yet they are loved and recognized more. So, we have a sense of discontent.
If such people are higher in the order, we wouldn't want to follow them. We might even spread knowledge of their faults and try to bring them down. If somebody who is younger or inexperienced gets a higher position than we are, we could feel strong jealousy.
For King Saul, David was his great helper who saved his kingdom. However, when the people praised David more than they did Saul on their way back from the war (1 Sam. 18:7), Saul became so jealous that he tried to kill David. After all, until he killed himself in a battle against the Philistines, he never had been at comfort due to his jealousy.
In Numbers chapter 16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram held some grudges against Moses and Aaron. They thought Moses and Aaron were unlawfully dominating them, and they wanted to be the leaders themselves. They contacted some people and gained 250 men who agreed with them. They thought they could take over and confronted Moses and Aaron (Num. 16:3).
Moses didn't say anything when they were falsely accusing him of many things. He just knelt before God to pray. Then, he pointed out what their sins were and asked God to judge them. The wrath of God came upon them. The ground was split open to swallow them and everyone and everything that belonged to them went with them. Those 250 men who stood by their side met with annihilation by fire.
God let the people see what a grave sin it was to be jealous of Moses. Passing judgment on men of God is same as judging God Himself.
4. Foolishness of Being Jealous of Meaningless Things
James 4:2 says, "You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask."
Jealousy can never get us what we want. Through jealous acts it might seem we are putting others in lower positions than ours, but they will only come back to us like a boomerang. We might get sick or encounter a disaster in family or work.
Jealousy harms us; it is harmful in every aspect. If we want to exceed others, we shouldn't waste our energy on jealousy but we should ask the almighty God. Most people seek wealth, fame, and power for their own comfort and pride. However, the most important blessing is the prosperity of our soul.
Although we might have so many things, it is nothing if our soul is not saved. We should keep in mind everything in this world is meaningless and it disappears like a fog (Eccl. 12:8)
5. Jealousy vs. Spiritual Desire
The reason why we have jealousy is because our faith is little and we lack love. If we have little faith in God and heavenly kingdom and lack love, we are apt to envy those who have wealth, fame and power of the world.
If we have firm faith that we are God's children who have citizenship in heaven, we also believe the brothers and sisters in faith will live with us forever in heaven. We'd also have strong faith that even the unbelievers are the precious souls whom we have to lead to salvation.
And to the extent that we have true faith, we will love our neighbors as ourselves, and thus, we rejoice when others are successful.
Those who have true faith do not seek the meaningless things of the world. They will only strive to serve the Lord in order to take better heavenly dwelling places by force. This is spiritual desire (Matt. 11:12). Spiritual desire is different from jealousy.
It is good to have the zeal to work for the Lord and be changed as hard as we can. However, that zeal should not deviate from the truth to cause others to stumble. I hope you will cultivate spiritual love by serving the interest of others than your own and by pursuing peace.
Dear brothers and sisters,
1 John 2:17 says, "The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." However, jealousy is evil and dirty, and it is difficult for those who are jealous to be saved. It's because it is an outwardly visible sin.
Therefore, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will not envy or be jealous of others by clinging to the meaningless things of the world but cultivate love of God in your heart so that you will take hold of the eternal heavenly kingdom by force and receive your heart's desires!
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