Jealousy

In my devotions, I was in the book of I Corinthians chapter 3. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul was writing and giving a spiritual spanking to the church in Corinth. Although they were followers of Christ, Paul told them that they were still operating out of the flesh. One of the ways they were doing that was by competing over who they were following as a teacher. Some were following Paul, and some were following Apollos, but it became an issue of contention because of pride and jealousy. Who was the better teacher? Who was more spiritual because of whom they followed?

Back when I was a youngster, I would find myself jealous a lot. I was jealous because of the toys others had. I was also jealous of cars, clothes, and opportunities as I grew older. You would think as we grow older that would go away, but envy and jealousy are the green-eyed monster that follows us throughout our lives.

Even in the Christian life, we can find ourselves jealous of others' ministry, the attention they receive, and even the size of churches. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are not in competition. In verse 9 of chapter three we read this, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

In God’s economy, there is no room for jealousy for we are all in this together. We all have our ministries, we all have our parts, our roles. Paul’s point is that one is not greater than another, but that we all must work together to accomplish what the Lord has called us to. If we were to boil down the problem with jealousy it is that it stems from pride. Pride is the root of all other sins. It is pride that makes us jealous of one another.

Instead, we should be cheering each other on and celebrating when great things happen in one another’s lives and each other’s ministries. I finish with this example. Old Town Hill just finished its Upward season a couple of weeks ago. At the celebration we had several young ones pray to receive Jesus as their Savior. Now we could get jealous that we were not the ones to lead them to Christ, or we can realize that every person who had a part in the ministry of Upward had a part in seeing these kids come to Christ. It doesn’t matter if you coached, refereed, worked concessions, ran the time clock or soundboard, or cleaned up after the games, we all had a part in seeing salvation occur.

There was a phrase started in the 1960’s “There is no I in team.” That should be even more true when it comes to the church. I don’t see an I in there either, how about you?