Grace Thoughts
Teaching Notes: On The Path Of Jealousy (Part 1)
Teaching Notes are Bible studies we taught before GraceLife Ministries began publishing articles online in 1995. Some were presented as sermons, others as group studies.
Our hope is that these older studies will be a blessing to you in your life and ministry. Please use them in any way God leads you.
These teaching notes are from a series of 1970’s radio broadcasts about dealing with jealousy in your life.
[These notes are from more than 45 years ago.]
Recently in a counseling situation the question was asked, “How can I get rid of my jealousy and rebellion?” It was interesting that this person identified having both of these problems because they do go together. If you have a piece of paper, let me draw you a chart that I call “The Path of Jealousy.”
Jealousy begins when we get discontented about our lifestyle, job, salary, talents, intellect, etc. When we get discontented we begin looking at others from this new vantage point that becomes jealousy. We’re jealous of the other person or persons and wish that we had what they had. This is covetousness. Our covetousness becomes envy, which grows into resentment of the person who has what we want. If this resentment is not cured through forgiveness and confession, it will fester into bitterness which eventually shows itself outwardly as rebellion.
If we were going to chart this path of jealousy, we would do it like this:
Discontent > Jealousy > Covetousness > Envy > Resentment > Bitterness > Rebellion
The outsider probably wouldn’t notice that anything was wrong until the rebellion stage or possibly the resentment stage, but all the while it had been festering deep inside of the person who let discontentment become jealousy.
Practical Steps
I want us to look at two things on today’s broadcast:
- Practical steps for solving this problem
- How not to get into this condition again
Step #1 – Jealousy (envy) is sin and must be confessed as sin. Don’t try to butter up God with a different name or rationalization. Just call it what God calls it. If you are rebellious, the Scripture says that “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23). God is telling us that rebellion is just like worshipping Satan. That’s pretty strong language and we had better take some strong steps to see that this Satanic sin is wiped from our lives. Confess your jealousy and envy as a wicked sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross and be done with it! Forsake it forever.
Step #2 – Pray for the welfare of others. Philippians 2:3-4 reads, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” If you’ve had a problem with jealousy and envy, which is really saying that you have a covetous heart, you need to begin getting your eyes off of yourself and onto the needs of others. It’s an interesting thing that when we take our revival team to a crusade we so often find bitterness, rebellion, and strife among Christians who attend the meetings. They tend to be very critical about what others are doing and they try to make you believe they are more spiritual and in a more right relationship with God. After the conviction of God’s Spirit in a revival crusade, these same people often confess their sin of jealousy and envy that led to their critical spirit and self-righteous attitudes.
The signs of jealousy and envy that lead to rebellion and a critical attitude are many and varied. Let me list several for you.
- They will oft-times be angry without a cause
- They shift blame to others
- They will feel a constant twinge of guilt about what they are doing
- They will wallow in self-pity
- They will have problems with muscular tension and headaches
- They will be very sensitive, touchy, and irritable
- They will often become verbally or physically violent to the amazement of family and friends
- They will have either an increased appetite to the point of excessive eating or they will have a great loss of appetite
- They will have trouble with people
- There will be constant communication breakdowns between themselves and others
- They can suffer physical ailments. Even colitis can be caused by this chain of jealousy and envy. It can built to the point that the jealous person actually becomes physically ill about the entire matter.
This entire process can be overturned and turned around when Christians obey the Scriptural principle of Philippians 2:3-4. How can you possibly be jealous of someone when you’re been praying that God would pour out His richest blessings on their lives? The best thing to do in that case is to ask God to specifically bless them in the exact area that you are having problems with jealousy and envy. Then when the person is blessed in that area, instead of being jealous you will be happy because God answered your prayer.
Step #3 – Share your happiness with them about their success! Tell them how pleased you are that God blessed them and gave them such success in a particular area (e.g. spiritual blessings, personal or business finances, material things, job, salary, talent, position, etc). This is excellent therapy. The Scriptures teach that a thief was to make things and give them to others (e.g. Ephesians 4:28). This was therapy for his particular problem. Therapy for the problem of jealousy and envy is to praise the person and share your pleasure at their success.
Next Time
In the next part of our radio series, we’ll look at how we don’t get into the same problem of jealousy again.
[Thank you for reading these teaching notes from more than 45 years ago. My prayer is they will be a blessing to you and your life and ministry.]
Published by gracelifethoughts
Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
