Characteristics of Love: Love is Not Jealous
1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NLT) Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
1 Corinthians 13:4(MSG) Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head,
1 Corinthians 13:4 (AMP) Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
Introduction: All glory be to God who has kept us to see another week of Speaking Scriptures as we look at the Eighth Characteristic of God’s kind of Love. Charity (Love) begins at Home, God’s kind of Love MUST be found in every Christian Home for indwelling of the Holy Spirit in marital relationships.
🙏 May we not be condemned by God’s word that we teach, hear and read in Jesus name.
We are looking at the 8th characteristic of God’s kind of Love this week which says; Love is Not Jealous .
Being jealous is a feeling of anger or bitterness by someone because he/she doesn’t possess what other person possesses.
Looking at some versions from our text above; charity envieth not; Love is not jealous; Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy.
I have heard cases where husbands are jealous of or envious of their wives because they possess what they do not have. It is uncommon to see wives “jealous of” their husbands, they can be “jealous for” their husbands which is understandable.
Jealousy can arise when wife possesses more education, income, talent, position and other noticeable better things of life than the husband.
🛑 Anyone that is “jealous of” or envious of his/her spouse is wicked and cruel and without Spirit of God but full of worldly love.
Song of Solomon 8:6c …. jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
Husbands can be “jealous for” their wives and NOT “Jealous of” their wives.
God is a Jealous God and we are created in His image.
Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
That is why Christians are warned not to provoke the Lord to jealousy.
1 Corinthians 10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
God is “jealous for” or over the Church as the Bride of Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
There is no sin to be “jealous for” or over your wife as a result of Love for her just like Christ loves the Church and gave His life for it.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Hear the law of jealousy to children of Israel.
Numbers 5:12-15; 18-20; 31(NLT)
12 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.“Suppose a man’s wife goes astray, and she is unfaithful to her husband
13 and has sex with another man, but neither her husband nor anyone else knows about it. She has defiled herself, even though there was no witness and she was not caught in the act.
14 If her husband becomes jealous and is suspicious of his wife and needs to know whether or not she has defiled herself,
15 the husband must bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring an offering of two quarts of barley flour to be presented on her behalf. Do not mix it with olive oil or frankincense, for it is a jealousy offering—an offering to prove whether or not she is guilty.
18 When the priest has presented the woman before the lord, he must unbind her hair and place in her hands the offering of proof—the jealousy offering to determine whether her husband’s suspicions are justified. The priest will stand before her, holding the jar of bitter water that brings a curse to those who are guilty.
19 The priest will then put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has had sex with you, and you have not gone astray and defiled yourself while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune from the effects of this bitter water that brings on the curse.
20 But if you have gone astray by being unfaithful to your husband, and have defiled yourself by having sex with another man—’
31 The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin.”
When you are “jealous for” or over your wife, you are guiltless from iniquity because our God cannot tolerate flirtation with other gods by His own.
🛑 Therefore, to be “jealous of” your wife is a feeling of anger or bitterness in your heart because she possesses what you do not possess which emanates from envy.
Envy causes divisions and strife and it is found among unbelievers.
1 Corinthians 3:3(NLT) for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
Envy is among the works of the flesh which denies anyone from the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
This jealousy cannot be found in God’s kind of Love. God’s kind of Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have; it can never be envious nor boils over with jealousy.
❓ What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
Determine to become your spouse’s biggest fan and to reject any thoughts of jealousy. To help you set your heart on your spouse and focus on their achievements, take last week’s list of negative attributes and discreetly burn it. Then share with your spouse how glad you are about a success he or she recently enjoyed.
✍ Finally brethren, are you jealous of your spouse? Why? Can you be bitter against yourself for progress? Since you are one with your spouse, the progress of one is the progress of the other. To be one with your spouse produces godly children now that iniquity is increasing in the world.
Malachi 2:15 (NLT) Didn’t the lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.
Agape Love is Not jealous.
✋ Maranatha.
