Godly Jealousy

In our vocabulary, we rarely ever associate jealousy with being godly and rightly so since the common connotation is pretty ugly. It’s the stuff that makes people do harm to other people. Out of bitter jealousy, Joseph was sold by his own brothers so they did not have to constantly look at him, but…

Can there be such a thing as a Godly jealousy?

“For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

Exodus 34:14

This happens to be what tripped Oprah, who grew up attending a Baptist church. It made her question God’s righteousness by thinking that He is jealous of her. As context clearly tells us, this jealousy has everything to do with worshiping a false god that robs Him of the glory that is rightfully His. To even equate God with a sinful jealousy is nothing short of self-righteousness. No human is more righteous than God and apparently, God’s jealousy led Oprah to reject the Cross and so become a leading proponent of New Age teachings.

On one of my walks, I passed this green tree with the beautiful stand-out contrasting leaves. The colors are lovely as it stays attached to the tree and it caught my attention. However, the reason why these leaves happen to have this hue is because they are dying. They may appear to be bright and lovely for now, but nothing removes the fact that it is only a matter of time that these leaves will be forever severed from its life source.

“For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

2 Corinthians 11:2

We see another instance of a godly jealousy carrying the very same context as the first. The apostle whom God tasked to spread the gospel to the Gentiles stresses here about the importance of having a pure devotion to Christ and the true gospel. As the false apostles led believers astray, it is understandable for him to be aroused with jealousy since he was witnessing people flock to a false gospel that ultimately leads to spiritual death. We know there are a lot of Christian-sounding gospel out there. The most recent one- baptizing openly practicing homosexuals who clearly defy God’s prescription of righteous living (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). It is far from being Christian to baptize those who are clearly unrepentant (Acts 2:38), not in human standards, but God’s.

“With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

2 Peter 2:18-19

Any church that participates in this cannot continue to claim Christianity when they clearly reject Jesus.

Do you get jealous when you see a false gospel taken seriously than the true gospel? It is a sad thing to witness wolves get away with deceiving people. While some are preaching Jesus for reasons that are far from being genuine, they are doing it at the expense of souls who will be subject to eternal torment should they continue to be deceived. Hell is for eternity and there’s no relief for those who will go down there simply because people avoid confronting those whom they know to be leading others astray.

Am I jealous? In this case, yes.