39 - Spiritual Jealousy

Do you know someone whose walk with God makes you jealous? Does it seem that He likes that person better than He likes you? Does He speak to them often and easily, yet when you seek Him you usually hear nothing? If so, those are symptoms of spiritual jealousy. It begins with a bit of envy, but if left unchecked grows into a deep resentment, even hatred, toward that particular person whom we believe is being blessed by God more than we are.

And I think spiritual jealousy is the root cause behind this shockingly ugly encounter between Jesus and His own brothers. They came to Him when it was time to make preparations to travel to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, and they pressed Him hard to attend that feast. John tells us that the situation in Judea by this time had grown so dangerous that Jesus had stopped traveling there and was ministering only in Galilee. It was no secret that the religious leaders wanted to kill Him, yet rather than try to protect Him, His brothers urged Him to put Himself in harm’s way. Why? Why did these four young men hate their older brother (half-brother) so deeply? Since it appears that their father Joseph had died sometime earlier, Jesus must have been the principle bread-winner in the family for a period of time, and He had always lived an exemplary life as their oldest brother. But none of that seems to have mattered. The brothers couldn’t deny the works of power Jesus was doing, but instead of being delighted that God was using their brother in such amazing ways, they attacked His character, accusing Him of being ambitious and self-promoting. The good news is that at least two of those four brothers would later on become disciples of Jesus, after His resurrection, but at the moment they were seething with spiritual jealousy.