For you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God – Exodus 34:14

When we say a person is jealous, we are usually referring to the sin of coveting what someone else has; either their money, their material possession, their mate or their position of power.  Jealously like this is a sin for God has said “Thou shall not covet” as the last of 10th commandment given to Moses.  

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. – Exodus 20:17 

Coveting is last in the order of commandments but it’s not the least in importance.  Coveting is rooted in the sin of pride because it is “pride” that makes you think you deserve and desire what someone else has.  Pride makes you judge the world and rate people in importance and significance based on what they have, not based on who they are.  This is the kind of judging that Jesus warned against.

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. – John 7:24

Jealousy makes you compare and want what others have and pride makes you want everyone else to know that you’ve got it!  Pride is the “root of sin” and jealousy is fire that flames the prideful ego.  Pride is what made Satan fall, thinking he knew better than God.  Pride is what made Adam fall, thinking that Satan’s lie was better than God’s truth.  Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18) .  Pride is what makes a man think that there is no God or he doesn’t need God or he is god.  Pride deceives a person into thinking that he is basically good and that he can make up rules to live by that are better than God’s rules.  Man is born with the rebel streak of pride “I did it my way” and unless he repents of his pride and bows his heart to God’s authority, he will be eternally separated from God and Spiritually die in his sin.

The jealousy that manifests in man is bad but the jealousy that God has for man is a good.  God doesn’t covet our material possessions because everything belongs to Him.  But God does covet our love but not to steal it from us but to transform our selfish love into a lasting and eternal love, connected to Him.  God doesn’t need need our love but we need His love, to become the person He created us to be.  God is the prodigal Father, wanting us to know His rich and lavish love that He has for us.  But God is also the perfect gentleman, who will not force His love or affection on those who do not choose Him.  God is jealous for us to have the “best in life”, like a parent that wants the best for their child.  God is the perfect parent and He wants His children to have the best.  God wants His children to have His love and eternal life with Him.  The problem is that we are children who are born as “Spiritual Orphans”, with a self indulgent nature (sin) that causes us to be separated from our Heavenly Father and hostile to God’s love.

Now, God has made it evident that He loves us by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus to pay for our sin.  Jesus is God in the flesh.  God has made it evident that He is our creator by the complexity and vastness of creation that is before our eyes.  God has made it evident in our conscience that we are sinners who transgress His moral law.  And God has made it evident that He is the “good” Father who loves us and wants to forgive us and He knows what is best for us.  Therefore, man is without excuse for not recognizing he is a spiritual orphan in need of the love of God.  Man knows that he must repent of his sin and be adopted as God’s “born again” child, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

And this is where the war with against God jealous desire for our love is fought, in the trenches of sin sick human heart.  Sin and self love harden a heart so it can’t sense God’s true love but at the same time the grace of God and the unsatisfying emptiness of sin work to make a person realize the futility of their sinful way and turn toward God.  God knows that sin destroys man and like a good parent, God doesn’t anyone to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  In other words, God is jealous for man to be free from sin and come to Him!  Free from big sins like murder and free from small sins like lying and free from the deceiving sin of self love, which is idolatry.

God knows that the sin of idolatry binds a person to the idol that is being worshiped and it blinds a person so they cannot see that their worship is due God alone.  God does not wants his children to worship idols or other gods and goddesses or their self because there is no other “force” or power or god or goodness in the universe that is worthy of worship.  Christ alone is worthy of worship and it is blasphemously to raise up worship to any other.  The Catholics blasphemously worship the Virgin Mary over Christ.  The Freemasons blasphemously worships “the Great Architect – Satan” over Christ.  The Unitarian church blasphemously worships a Divine Feminine Intuition and Power within woman inspired by the goddess Artemis.  Hey, wake up people, the only divine person worthy of worship is the trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God knows the sin of homosexuality destroys the person and it destroy those who accept the behavior.   And because God is jealous, He doesn’t want the souls He created to be destroyed by sin.  God has done everything possible to show His love for man and to lead man out of sin and to lead man out of “self love” that destroys man.  God wants to give man His love that brings eternal life and God wants to put His Holy Spirit power in a person so that person will be sealed as a child of God and have the power to overcome sin!  

But man must decide by “his own free will” if he wants God’s love or to stay lost in his own sinful love of self.  God will not interfere with this choice, although He will put circumstances in the way that show man the bad consequences of his sin, each man must freely chooses to die in his sin or be saved from his sin.  God’s knows what is best for man and He desires that none should perish and that each person will choose a life in Christ free from sin (2 Peter 3:9).  But God honors the free will of man above His desired will for man.  John Calvin was wrong about God’s love!  God does not predestine some men for salvation and some for eternal damnation but He gives to each man sufficient grace and evidence so that each man is responsible to “willing” accept salvation in Jesus Christ or reject the offer.

And furthermore, God’s wrath and judgment are not an act of revenge of jealousy because man has refused to give his love to God.  Man freely decides to go to hell and the Lake of Fire for all eternity by rejecting Jesus as Lord of their life.  God’s wrath is an act of justice against those who reject and persecute Christ and Christ’s followers.  A person who gives up his physical life in persecution because he proclaims belief in the name of Jesus will see the justice of God triumph over his foes.  We can trust that God is the perfect judge of man and the perfect ruler of man that is why we are commanded not to take personal revenge on our enemy but to pray for our enemy, that he will see the futility of his sinful way and turn from it.

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. – Romans 12:19.  

For those who do choose eternal life in Christ and to be free from sin, God is going to create a new Heaven and Earth where this is possible.  But for those who choose not to accept Christ as their Savior, well God honors their choice and gives them an eternity of damnation, lost in the “goodness” of their unrepentant mind.  Those who love God and accept Christ as their Savior will spend eternity enjoying the jealous love of God.

– Rogersings 

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