SPEAKING ABOUT JEALOUSY.

Take a morning devotion with me. Or anytime of the day, read Matthew 20:1-16. It's about a parable of the workers in the vineyard as told by Jesus himself. Different sets of workers were hired at different times of the day but all ended up with the same wage. In this parable, the ones that were hired first were upset with the wage while the ones hired last were over joy because of the generosity of the owner. There are many lessons you can draw from this passage but today, we want to look at it as is, not as how we want to see it.

We are familiar with this phrase: "the last shall be the first and the first shall be the last". When God chose to bless the nations of the world, he chose Israel. In God's divine plan, Israel hardened her heart towards God and the blessings of the gospel therefore flowed to the Gentiles (non Jews). When the "full numbers of the gentiles" has come, God will then turn the ungodliness of Israel away from Him and the entire nation of Israel will be saved. Until that happens, Israel will continue to be trampled upon by the gentiles until God decides when the "times of the Gentile" shall be fulfilled. In the meantime, Paul in Romans 11 exhort the church to provoke the Jews to jealousy so that some of them shall be saved.

In the parable, the owner's generosity provoked the first batch of workers to jealousy. They were not able to see the generosity of the owner nor the joy of the latter workers. All they could see was unfairness and disappointment. They had forgotten the agreement they had with the owner. Was the owner at fault? Of course not. I wonder if the earlier workers will ever work with the owner again. The parable didn't say. Would you? In like manner Jesus was telling His listeners that He had chosen to bless Israel and now He too will bless the Gentiles. Israel has rejected Jesus as Saviour and now His generosity towards the Gentiles will provoke them to jealousy, seeing how the Gentiles are now blessed. My point?

We who have experienced the generosity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ should provoke the unsaved to jealousy. It's our privilege to show the world the generosity of our God. When they see the transforming work of God in our lives and the generosity we emulate of our Lord Jesus, they too would want to be a partaker of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus. We cannot provoke the world into jealousy by our theology. The only way is by the way we live our lives and conduct ourselves as followers of Jesus. We are the living Bible of God. Are people jealous of the fruits we bear? Can they see the goodness and generosity of God trough our lives?  If not, perhaps we are not the living epistles that we are to be (Read 2 Cor. 3:2-3). If people are not jealous of the God we believe in and serve, then something is amiss. We need to do some serious soul searching. I mean, what good is salt if it has lost its saltiness? 

There is a huge difference between being a Christian and a follower of Jesus. One is a religion and the other a living, walking Bible. When Jesus said to go into the world and preach the gospel to all the world, he didn't mean theology. He meant the latter. He filled you with His joy and blessings so that you can provoke the world into jealousy. Jesus said a good tree bears froth good fruits. I pray that all of us here at Vineyard will be able to bear fruits that will provoke others into wanting to partake of the generosity of the God in whom we believe and serve. What good is a fruit tree if it does not bear fruits? 

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As i have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34).