The Original Gateway Sin

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him~ Acts 13:45

A few years ago, I was at a seminar with some other ladies from our church when a woman about my age walked into the conference room.  I observed immediately that was that she was pretty and well put together. She was tall and thin, with cute clothes, shiny hair, smooth skin and a warm smile. She confidently approached our group and introduced herself. Within minutes it became apparent that she was not only gorgeous with great taste in clothes, but bright and articulate as well.

She was well spoken but did not dominate the discussion. She asked everyone in our group questions about themselves and then listened intently to the answers. One of the woman in our group inquired about her husband and kids and she graciously showed us some photos of her extraordinarily attractive husband and perfect little boy and girl.

She shared a bit about her ministry activities and her reasons for attending the seminar. She discussed briefly how she planned to use what she was learning to start a ministry in her local church that would bless the community. All in all, the woman I met that day was gracious, attractive, thoughtful and engaged in the world around her.

And for one brief moment that I am not proud of at all, I loathed her. I mean I really loathed her. Not only did I loathe her, I brutally judged her.

 In only a few minutes, I became smugly certain that there was absolutely no way that woman could possibly be the real deal. She must have a raging eating disorder, be a horrible Mother, a gossip, a liar, or a terrible friend. There had to be SOMETHING wrong with her. There was simply no way on Earth anyone could possibly be that beautiful, that thin, that kind and be blessed with that cute of a husband without having some sort of a dreadful and loathsome dark side.

Just as I was preparing to share my opinion with the others in our group, the truth and a whole load of conviction hit me all at once like a ton bricks. Pious, Jesus loving, church going, Bible-study leading, little old me was firmly in the grip of the foulest and most treacherous of all emotions.

I was jealous.  

Proverbs 27:4 makes this observation concerning jealousy:

Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood. But who can stand before jealousy?

The self-deceptive nature of jealousy makes it infinitely more dangerous than anger or wrath. Jealousy is the original gateway sin. If left unchecked, it becomes a frontrunner to all sorts of other sins because jealousy convinces us that the anger and wrath we feel are justified. Jealousy dupes us into believing that the innocent person on the receiving end of our bad behavior is somehow deserving of our actions.

At the root of jealousy is typically one of two things. The first is a lack of contentment with our own circumstances. Jealousy gains a foothold in our hearts because we focus far too much of our attention on what other people have rather than what God has blessed us with.

Our misdirected attention inevitably leads to resentment and lack of gratitude as well as jealousy. Such was my experience at the conference. I became so fixated on what that other woman looked like and what God had blessed her with that I forgot all about all about the abundance of good things in my own life. My willful amnesia was followed by a shocking lack of gratitude for everything God has done for me.

Another issue at the root of jealousy is a lack of faith. Jealousy overwhelms us when we doubt God’s ability to work with what He has given us. We forget that God gifted each one of us our own set of abilities, or we decide that that those gifts are not good enough to do anything significant with. Either way, it’s a terrible sin and the birth of a jealous spirit.

We will never do anything out of jealousy that we will feel proud of. For that reason it should be avoided at all cost. The key to avoiding jealousy is to take our focus off ourselves and other people and keep focus on God and the good things He’s given us. When our eyes are on God and our focus is on our own unique set of blessings, we cannot help but be a blessing to the rest of the world.