YOUR TALK SAYS A LOT ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES YOU

Acts 13:44-45 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.

Webster's Dictionary defines jealous as: "envious; fearful of competition; and protective." The Bible describes the Lord our God as a jealous God, for example Exodus 20:5, "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me". The Bible even describes God's name as jealous in Exodus 34:14, "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." We know through study and experience that unlike the first two definitions in Webster's, our God is neither envious nor fearful of competition, rather it is the latter that best describes His nature: protective.

So how do we know when we are feeling jealous or experiencing another's jealousy -- if it is the good (protective) or the bad (envious and fearful of competition) kind of jealousy? The answer lies in the motivation. God's jealousy is motivated by wanting what's best for us (not what's best for Him) and is fully anchored in His complete and total love. Not so the Jews from our passage today, their jealousy was motivated by their desire to retain control of the people, and the result was they "talked abusively against what Paul was saying." In other words, "when the Jews saw the crowds", it didn't matter to them if what Paul said was right or wrong, all that mattered to them was that the city was now listening to Paul (and the word of the Lord) instead of them. So what did they do? They bad-mouthed him. Their jealousy was motivated by envy and the desire to control not by love.

If you want to know what you are motivated by, listen to your thoughts and your words. Are you bad-mouthing someone? Are you being abusive? Many times jealousy will be motivated by envy: another person has someone or something we want. Other times it will be motivated by competition: we want to feel important, be recognized, or acknowledged above someone else. When you feel jealous, how do you react? How would you like to react? What will you do differently the next time you feel jealousy?

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