Jealousy Is Poison To One Soul

Jealousy can leads to a person not displaying love to their love ones. Jealousy can make a person neglect all the good within a person and seem them as a horrible individual. Jealousy can make us sick. Yes, sick to point where our hearts become so hardened towards one another. There is a parable in the Bible which is found in Luke 15:1-32. Many describe this parable as one of love and jealousy because when the young brother returns home, the father welcomed him will a love arm, greeted him in fine style as we would say in today's language. He killed the fattest calf, put good clothes on him and so much more. However, his older brother was not pleased. He became jealous. Now alot of people would say he has all the right to be jealous because the young son left with all his inheritance, went out squandered it on worldly things whereas he stayed home with his father and serve the father faithful. Many at times things needs to happen so we can have a change heart. The older brother needed to have a change heart be fully transformed to receive his divine healing. One writer wrote this excerpt that "the incompleteness of this parable draws attention to the decision which the older son must face. The choice, whether to celebrate or not celebrate with his brother, becomes a key to unlock the meaning of the parable. The decision of the elder son which is left hanging in the air suggests that this parable is not so much about sinning, repenting, and forgiving as it is about jealousy. It is not so much about forgiving the son who came home but the willingness to accept the brother who has come home. It asks us: Are we willing to rejoice in the good fortune of others?" George Smiga. Now, I want to ask us these questions, why is it so easy to point fingers at others and not recognize our own faults? Why is it so hard to embrace someone who mess up when they fell off track? Why can't we display love to put brothers and sisters no matter what stay they are in? How many times have we become like the prodigal son and recieves a poor welcome from our neighbors. George went on to say that: This parable is a parable in which the elder son is jealous of the love that the father gives to his brother. Clearly the parable is inviting us to avoid such jealousy in our own lives. But if we are going to do that, we have to understand what is the cause of jealousy. The parable gives us the answer. The older son is unable to accept the love that his father has for him. The father certainly loves the elder son. He says this clearly. He says, “My son, you are here with me always and all I have is yours.” And yet, for some reason, this elder son will not believe in the father’s love. Because he will not accept the gifts that flow from that love, he ends up being jealous of his brother. The surest way to avoid jealousy in our own lives is to accept the love God that has for us and the gifts that God has given us. Even though our gifts might seem less than the gifts of others, we need to believe that the gifts that we have been given are valuable and important. Sometimes we think: If God is loving that other person so much there will not be enough love left over for me. But the parable clearly says this is wrong. The father is excessive in loving, prodigal in loving. The parable assures us that with our God there will always be enough love for all of the children.