The TruthSayer Foundation

God is referred to in Scripture as jealous and jealousy is referred to in Scripture as sin. The second commandment explicitly says that God is a jealous God (Exo 20:4,5, 34:14), yet, in Galatians, Paul condemns jealousy in the same breath as idolatry (Gal 5:19,20). How can this be…

This question really betrays the deficiency of human language to try and describe any of the attributes of God and our natural inclination to reduce God to our simple understanding of things, for whatever our understanding is of God, is can always only be lacking. We for example often glibly talk about the ‘omniscience’ of God, or his ‘omnipotence’, or his ‘omnipresence’, or his ‘omnibenevolence’, and so on, and while we have some vague grasp of what it implies, we really have no understanding of what these attributes truly mean.

First, there is such a thing as sanctifies jealousy. As such, jealousy is the proper response of a husband or a wife whose trust has been violated through infidelity. Indeed, when an exclusive covenant relationship is dishonoured, sanctified jealousy is the passionate zeal that fights to restore that holy union. The jealousy of God for his holy name and for the exclusive worship of his people as such, is sanctified.

Furthermore, as there is sanctified jealousy, so too there is sinful jealousy. In this sense jealousy is painfully coveting another’s advantages. Accordingly, the apostle Paul lists jealousy as an act of sinful nature. Says Paul, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Gal 5:19-21).

Finally, as God personifies sanctified jealousy, so those who reflect his character must be zealous for the things of God. The Bible is replete with heroes such as Elijah (1Kin 19:10), David (Psm 69:9) and Paul (2Cor 11:2) whose jealousy for God’s glory motivated self-sacrifice and radical reform. The quintessential example, however, is found in the incarnate Christ who exercised the epitome of sanctified jealousy by overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple - a symbolic gesture condemning the Jewish leaders of his day for dishonouring God through their contemptible religiosity (Mat 21:12,13; Jhn 2:17; cf. Jer 7:9-15)

“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
- 2Corinthians 11:2