God's Jealousy and the Lukewarm

Did you know that God is jealous? I thought jealousy was a bad thing, so how could God be jealous? There is a bad jealousy and a good jealousy. Jealousy comes about when a person detects that what is due to them in a relationship from another is not given. The jealousy is sinful when one makes a rash judgment and so improperly detects infidelity or when one expects more than is warranted from the relationship. An example of this would be when a guy and a gal are friends, but he really likes her than more than just friends. He might be tempted to jealousy if she starts to date another guy. Their relationship does not warrant the jealousy, but he wants to have a more exclusive relationship, and so he feels hurt that she is with another.

The good and healthy type of jealousy is when a couple are committed, especially in a marriage, and one of the spouses is not faithful. It is right and good for the other to be hurt and jealous for the exclusive love of the unfaithful spouse. Marriage is a permanent, exclusive relationship entailing the complete gift of self to the other for life, and when this is lacking, it is right for the other to cry foul and set things aright.

There are a number of passages from the Bible talking about God’s jealousy. The first two are from the book of Exodus; notice that God is jealous when the people go after false gods; He says that worshipping other gods is harlotry.

Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 34:13 You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they play the harlot after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and one invites you, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods and make your sons play the harlot after their gods.

The next passages come from Deuteronomy. Here God is not only jealous, He is also a consuming fire. The image is of a husband consumed with the fire of his love for his beloved.

Deuteronomy 4:23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

The next book in the Bible after Deuteronomy is Joshua. In that book, toward the very end, it states this:

Joshua 24:19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.”

Two passages from the prophets come both from Zechariah, and the emphasis here is on the immensity of God’s jealousy. God is not only a little jealous:

Zechariah 1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.

Zechariah 8:1 And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 3 Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.

God is so jealous of us because He views us as His spouse. We owe Him our perpetual and exclusive complete gift of self as one spouse to another, and He is jealous when we do not.

I was explaining a passage from the New Testament to my junior high students the other day. We were looking at God’s words to the church in Laodicea that Saint John recorded in the Book of Revelation. Speaking through the angel, God said:

Revelation 3:15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”


The point I want to highlight is that it seems that Jesus would rather we were completely bad than being partly good and partly bad. That doesn’t seem to make sense. Wouldn’t He rather that we were at least somewhat good than being entirely bad? Isn’t it better to be a person who does some good but occasionally falls into sin than a person who can’t even be good at times? Isn’t the generous glutton better than the cold-hearted killer? In a juridical sense, certainly, he is. But this is not what Jesus is talking about to the church in Laodicea.

Jesus is not talking juridically so much as He is relationally. In a romantic context, we want either a “yes I am interested” or a “no I am not interested.” The one thing no one wants is the “I’m not sure if I’m interested,” or the “I really like you (as a friend).” What is even worse is someone who is interested one day but not the next. In romantic, spousal relationships, we want all or nothing.

This is the sense of Jesus’ words here. He thinks of the lukewarm as so much vomit that He can’t wait to hurl so He can feel better. He wants the church of Laodicea, and all of us, to be exclusively His, not the one who is a sometimes Christian. The rest of the message to Laodicea makes it more clear: they are the ones who are rich and do not think they need Jesus. They do not think they need to pray everyday. Jesus advises: be zealous and repent and pray: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”


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