Jealousy and envy

I have about 25 things I would love to write about right now. So many ideas and pictures are swirling through my head; things I want to share, things I want to show, things that are just fun or new or cute or happening.

All of that I will set aside now to share one thing with you that I learned five minutes ago. Praise God that he has revealed this to me! I hope he has already shown it to you as well. Thank you, Lord, for finally getting it through my head (at least this time) that often the internet isn't the best source of information. Sometimes I should go to The Source first. It might take a little looking, but like all treasure, it is clearly worth the HUNT!

Yesterday and today I spent a lot of time on YouTube because I was captivated by one Francis Chan sermon after another. Today my clicking led to a depressing video about Oprah, which basically portrayed her as the antichrist. I don't want to talk about that right now, but something she said was intriguing. She mentioned that the moment she began to question God and seek alternative philosophies came when she heard in church that God is jealous. She interpreted this as God was jealous of her, and because that didn't seem right to her, she went looking for hope somewhere else.

Anyhow, this got me thinking: how can God be jealous (Exodus 20:5) if God is love (1 John 4:8) and love is not jealous (1 Corinthians 13:4 **this is not exactly right as I will describe in a few paragraphs)?

Good question, right? Well, I thought so and I definitely did not know the answer. The question stewed in my brain for a few hours today before I decided to look up the answer in Scripture. Funny how I considered looking all kinds of other places first. As if Wikipedia or something would know better than God himself! I knew this seeming discrepancy could not be true, and I wanted desperately to understand it for both my own sake and the sake of anyone else who might ask me or wonder it in my direction.

Sorry for such a long story, but I am a rambler:) What else can I say?

I turned to the concordance in the back of my bible and looked up "jealous". All of the references (in my small concordance) refer to God's jealousy, no one else's, and are mostly about situations in which people's behavior has made God angry in the old testament. Except one. The one that is not about God and is not in the old testament is 2 Corinthians 11:2 (I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.).

Now I'm curious, what is godly jealousy? I look up the verse and the cross references and study notes on that verse and so on. I find that God's jealousy involves situations in which people are not honoring him or each other as they should. They are not showing love. I come upon 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 **(see note above), which is well known for the way it describes the truth about love:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a

IT DOES NOT SAY LOVE IS NOT JEALOUS! It says love does not envy. This is new to me. In my head, they have been the same. Jealousy and envy, synonyms, right?

I thought they were synonyms, but when you look them up in the dictionary, they clearly are not:

Jealous: "1 a: intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b: disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness 2: hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage 3: vigilant in guarding a possession"
Jealousy: "1: a jealous disposition, attitude, or feeling 2: zealous vigilance"

1 Envy: "1: painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage 2 obs: MALICE 3: an object of envious notice or feeling"
2 Envy, envied, envying: "1: to feel envy toward or on account of 2 obs: BEGRUDGE, to feel or show envy"

This is the point at which I think I must be the only fool who has seen this incorrectly. I am humbled. I thought I knew what this famous verse said, but I really didn't. And my arrogance in thinking I knew the meaning of it could prevent me or others from real belief, if gone unchecked (Like Oprah, for one! It makes me wish I could call her up and say "your disbelief is based on a misperception". How different might things be? How do we tell her? She is so influential, but she desperately needs this grain of truth. It could change her life!). That's scary and really shows me the importance of not just kind of knowing scripture, but really knowing it.

God is jealous because he has a zealous vigilance for what is right, justice and faithfulness. He is intolerant of things that are not loving. He works for the good of all because of the greatness of love. Envy, on the other hand, is wanting something you do not have merely because you want it for your own sake. This is not love. This is the opposite of love.

Two different things. One that is true of God and is good; one that is not true of God and is not good.