GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary.
The Tree of Life from the week ending 10/02/05
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 26.
The Doctrine of Jealousy.
We have been noting how our Lord taught the disciples the importance of impersonal love, and
the relationship that we have with one another. This has led us to the doctrine of jealousy.
We start with a few principles: 1) Jealousy is described in the word of God as a sin, an emotion, a
state of anxiety, or a trait, depending on the passage. 2) Jealousy is older than the human race
because jealousy existed in eternity past when Lucifer, the star of the morning, son of the dawn,
became jealous of God. 3) The first case of jealousy in the human race surfaced when Cain
became jealous of his brother Abel (Gen 4:4-5); of course this motivated Cain to murder his
brother (Gen 4:8). The same principle is true today; jealousy motivates murder, except the murder
is now mental, 1Jo 3:15, Everyone who hates his fellow believer is a murderer;
Scripture also describes jealousy as being as cruel as the grave (SOS 8:6), as outrageous anger in
Pro 6:34, For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not spare in the day of vengeance, and as the
strongest of all mental attitude sins in Pro 27:4, Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can
stand before jealousy?
Point 1. Definition.
A) Jealousy is a mental attitude sin which demands exclusive devotion and is intolerant of
competition. It is total preoccupation with self. B) Jealousy is discontentment with the blessings,
successes, or status symbols of other people. C) Jealousy is resentment of the attractiveness or
approbation that a person receives. The jealousy of the authority of Joseph motivated his brothers
to sell him into slavery (Gen 37:11, Act 7:9). When you resent anyone because of their authority,
you are arrogant and motivated by jealousy. D) Jealousy is also total selfishness and is incapable
of true love. E) Jealousy is a possessiveness which suppresses the volition of another person. This
is when you seek to control the object of your jealousy. F) Jealousy is also fear. It can be fear of
losing another's affection or love, fear of rivalry, or fear of unfaithfulness, Gen 30:1, Now when
Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to
Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die." G) Jealousy is anti-freedom, and does not permit people
to love you from their own volition. The only love that is worth anything is when someone gives
it to you freely. The jealous person wants to be loved on the basis of their own volition. Jealousy
is also a violation of the Royal Family honor code given in Rom 13:13, Let us behave properly as
in the day, not in strife and jealousy. H) Jealousy is an emotional sin, as well as a part of
arrogance. Therefore, jealousy is irrational in its resentment of others. Many born again believers
have become psychotic and neurotic through jealousy. Jealousy is an emotional sin, and emotion
has no ability to think or to reason. I) Jealousy is mood arrogance troubled by suspicion that a
person's love has been diverted to a rival. J) Jealousy is inordinate competition in love, business,
social life, athletics, professional life, and in the spiritual life. Jealousy, as an emotional sin, has
two directions:
arrogance toward self (subjective arrogance) and possessiveness of others (objective arrogance).
Point 2. A believer’s rejection of B. D. produces envy and jealousy, 1Ti 6:3-4.
Our corrected translation of 1Ti 6:3-4, If anyone advocates, encourages or teaches a different
doctrine and does not agree with sound doctrines, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, even with the
doctrines pertaining to the spiritual life, he has received blind arrogance and understands
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nothing [of doctrine], but he has a morbid obsession about controversies and verbal conflicts out
of which arise or originate jealousy, discord, speaking evil [SOT], evil speculations, or
presumptuous sins.
Many individuals disagree with and attack the teachings of others, because of jealousy, which is
being discontent because of the blessings, successes, or status of other people. This is what
motivates others to discredit another man or woman in all realms of life. Rejection of Bible
doctrine produces jealousy and envy which inevitably leads to covetousness and the sins of the
tongue.
Point 3. Jealousy is self-destructive mental attitude and thinking from the Cosmos.
Jam 3:14-16, But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your right lobes, do not be
arrogant and lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is
earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and
every evil thing. The Greek word for disorder is the noun akatastasia meaning instability,
disorder, commotion, and confusion. Jealousy will always create instability and disorder in the
life of the believer. Note the believer's arrogance of Jam 3:14-16, which always accompanies
jealousy. If you are jealous, you will be contentious and arrogant.
Point 4. Jealousy can produce physical sickness as well as mental disorder.
Pro 14:30, A tranquil heart is life to the body, But jealousy is rottenness to the bones. As goes
your mental attitude, so goes your health. Jealousy is self-destructive, and it kills the foolish
person, Job 5:2, For jealousy slays the foolish man and anger kills the stupid.
Point 5. Jealousy is the worst of all the mental attitude sins.
Pro 27:3-4, A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, But the provocation of a fool is heavier than
both of them. Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy? The stone
in this passage is overt jealousy and anger; the sand is subtle jealousy. Jealousy is tyranny in its
simplest form, and it destroys freedom because it intrudes upon privacy. Jealousy belongs to
several categories of personal sinning: the arrogance complex of sins, the emotional complex of
sins, and jealousy is a major motivator for all kinds of other personal sins. Jealousy is also
defined as unpleasant fear, suspicion, or resentment from mistrust of another. Jealousy is always
an attribute or feeling of discontent. In the arrogance complex of sins, jealousy will have one of
the following reactions: bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, inordinate ambition and
competition, revenge motivation, and/or verbal sins. Jealousy is also related to the emotional
complex of sins, including the hysterical category of sins, fear of rivalry, of losing someone's
affection, of unfaithfulness in some form. It causes consternation, irrationality, and dissociation.
The hatred category where there is uncontrollable anger, implacable hatred, bitter resentment,
implacable vindictiveness, loathing, animosity, tantrums, violence, and murder. The selfcentered category includes self-pity, emotional irrationality, and expressions of dissatisfaction
including gossip, slander, maligning, and other forms of vilification. Arrogant preoccupation with
self is an irrational and implacable attitude toward the object of jealousy, 1Co 3:3, You are still
carnal because there is jealousy and strife among you. Are you not carnal? In fact, are you not
walking on the basis of the standards of men [unbelievers]?
Point 6. A special offering was made for Jealousy in Israel (Num 5:11-31).
This was actually part of an adultery trial, also known as the ordeal of jealousy. If a man accused
his wife of adultery, but had no proof of her guilt, the Law provided a ritual to determine whether
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she was innocent or guilty in Num 5:11-31. If she swore her innocence, the woman was forced to
drink a potion made of holy water mixed with dust from the floor of the tabernacle and the priest
burned the offering, made of barley meal, on the altar. If she was guilty of adultery, she would
suffer; but if she was innocent, she would be spared. In this way the decision was placed in the
hands of God, and this offering was also called the waters of jealousy.
Jealousy actually split the nation Israel (Isa 11:13). The Northern Kingdom was jealous of Judah,
and they attacked Judah. The jealous person always attacks the object of their jealousy, and it is
very difficult to get over jealousy.
Point 7. Jealousy destroys category two love (personal love of a member of the opposite sex),
SOS 8:6-7.
In SOS 8:6, the Shulamite woman is speaking, "Put me like a seal, over your heart, Like a seal on
your arm [signifying she belongs to and is waiting for a certain man]. For love is as strong as
death [indicating that the man's love for the woman, and her response to that love, serves as a
fortification and protection for the woman's soul and body. Each protects, satisfies, and fulfills the
other], jealousy is as severe as Sheol [or the grave]. Its flashes are flashes of fire, The {very}
flame of the Lord.” Just as the grave robs you of a loved one, so jealousy robs you of capacity in
relationship with your loved one. Flashes represent her responses to her right man are hot; she is
turned on first in her soul which carries over to her physical response. Notice how strong jealousy
is, SOS 8:7, "Many waters cannot quench love [jealousy can], Nor will rivers overflow it; If a
man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised."
Water ordinarily puts out fire, and many waters simply refers to pressures, disasters, difficulties,
etc.
Solomon could not conquer this woman, because she was protected by the love for her man.
Jealousy can destroy love between the right man and the right woman; that's how powerful
jealousy is. Pressures, disasters, difficulties, and the most horrible disasters can't, but jealousy
can! Jealousy is the great enemy of love, and no one with pride or jealousy has capacity for love.
Jealousy has great power just as the fear of death has power.
Point 8. Jealousy is part of a mechanism for producing both false motivation and discord
(Phi 1:15).
Here we have a right action (witnessing) with wrong motivation (Jealousy). Arrogance creates
hang-ups of the soul, and these hang-ups are the source of false motivation in life. These people
are petty, jealous, and have inordinate competition. Pettiness is the little sister of jealousy; they
are closely related.
Point 9. Jealousy is related to the three categories of love.
Jealousy, as an anthropopathism, is legitimate only by God, who demands all your attention and
concentration when you reach maturity. In category two love toward a member of the opposite
sex, the jealous person can be so possessive they smother the other person's love and destroy it. In
category three love toward friends, the jealous person wants you to be friends only with them, and
they get upset when you associate with other people.
Point 10. Jealous people rejoice in the misery or fall of others.
Pro 24:17-18, Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he
stumbles; Lest the Lord see {it} and be displeased, And He turn away His anger from him. The
evil instincts, such as jealousy or envy, cause more sufferings and miseries to people than many
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physical diseases. A person who is jealous or envious of others feels painful and resentful when
others are blessed, and feels happy only when some miseries take place in the lives of others. This
demonic instinct of jealously or enviousness is born from a false ego and a false opinion of self.
The jealous person is deceived because they think more highly of themselves than what they
ought to. Gal 6:3, For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Because of this, his false ego gets hurt upon seeing others enjoying an advantage.
Jealousy is like a serpent's venom; it destroys the body, the soul, and the personality of the
individual. The body, mind and intellect of a person with such malicious instincts become nothing
more than a trash basket. As a result, the jealous person looks for faults in others, and never sees
their good qualities, all the while thinking of themselves as faultless. They disown their own
faults, elude responsibility for those faults, and then throw them on others. They continually burn
inside upon seeing others enjoy advantage.
Jealousy is like a cancer; it grows until eventually it turns into outright hatred. Gen 37:3-5, Now
Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made
him a varicolored tunic. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his
brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. Then Joseph had a
dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. Then in Gen 37:9-11, Now
he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another
dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." And he
related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is
this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow
ourselves down before you to the ground?" And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father
kept the saying in mind. Gen 37:18-20, When they saw him from a distance and before he came
close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. And they said to one another, "Here
comes this dreamer. Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and
we will say, A wild beast devoured him. Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" Now,
their jealousy turned into outright hatred for their brother, and they got rid of him. They even felt
they had a right to do this. Their father had favored Joseph over all of them, and over the years
their jealousy had turned into resentment, and then their resentment became hatred.
That's how jealousy works; it grows like a cancer, and it eventually turns into hatred, and hatred
kills. Sometimes it kills physically, but it always kills relationships. It kills our love for the person
we are jealous of. There is the story of King Saul and David the shepherd boy. Saul began by
loving David but became very jealous and his jealousy turned to anger when David was being
honored with a greater reputation. In 1Sa 18:6-8, And it happened as they were coming, when
David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel,
singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments.
And the women sang as they played, and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten
thousands." Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, "They
have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more
can he have but the kingdom?" His jealousy is now causing him to be irrational. Therefore in 1Sa
18:9, And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on.
Jealousy causes suspicion. 1Sa 18:10-11, Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit
from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was
playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul's hand. And Saul hurled the
spear for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David escaped from his presence twice.
Notice his jealousy motivated him to try to kill.
Men are more vulnerable to jealousy than women in certain areas, particularly in their desire for
power, position, and title. We compare ourselves instinctively without thinking about it. Every
time we look, everything we see - we compare ourselves: our status, our possessions, our
reputation, our relative positioning to that person, to that institution, that object. We live in a
performance oriented world where we are taught to compete. In fact, a man's desire for
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possessions often has more to do with the prestige he hopes to gain than either the love of an
object or the desire for security. All of us need loving appreciation, but to collect envy from the
eyes of those whom we have outperformed is an empty victory. Many men compare themselves
with others who have authority or leadership, and when this happens jealousy inevitably abounds.
The children of Israel envied Moses and Aaron, Psa 106:13-17, They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel, But craved intensely in the wilderness, And tempted God in the
desert. So He gave them their request, But sent a wasting disease among them. When they became
envious of Moses in the camp, And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, The earth opened and
swallowed up Dathan, And engulfed the company of Abiram.
Many people are so quick to resent the privileges given to those in leadership, but they fail to see
the price that has been paid for many years. There are terrible consequences for those who
continue in the sin of jealousy. The curse that you have prepared for another will come upon you,
and the blessing that you have prepared for yourself will be given to them. In Eze 35:11, the Lord
said, "I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your envy which you showed
because of your hatred against them"
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