God is Jealous?

"We work (labor) for Jesus, that we may be 'accepted' of Him". The entirety of the verse we have been looking at for three weeks now in 2 Corinthians 5:9 is:

"Wherefore we labor (the "fact"), that, (the "nature" of the labor) whether present or absent (the "arena" of the labor), we may be accepted of Him (the "motive" or "reason" for the labor)".

This is the entire goal of a follower of Jesus - to please Him. To be accepted of Him. It is probably the dominant characteristic of all serious Christians I have known - this constant, over-riding, primary, consuming desire to please one's Savior and Lord.

It is the dominant goal of any servant to be approved of his master. A servant's highest achievement is making happy and pleased his master. His constant effort is to gain his master's approval - to see his nod, his smile, any recognition of acceptance.

The Bible gives a name to such a servile motive: "single". In the Greek it means, "steadily directed". Jesus used the term in Matthew 6:22 wheh He taught that "our eye be 'single'", or "steadily directed". Paul used the same term with the instruction to servants in Ephesians 6:5 when he directed "servants to be obedient" to their employers "with singleness of heart".

It is the idea of "exclusivity", and carries the same idea of "jealousy" God required from Old Testament followers (SEE Exodus 20:5 and 34:14). And why not? Even us earthly spouses require such "exclusivity" of our husbands and wives...and rightly so.

The biblical fact is plainly established by Jesus in Matthew 6:24 and in Luke 16:13 when He stated that: "no person can serve two masters". A divided love or loyalty is no love at all, for some things by nature are not divisible. A Christian cannot love Jesus "a little bit", or even mostly!, and he cannot be loyal to Christ "partly".

What means a lot to me personally is that Jesus is worthy of such supreme love and loyalty. Any way we may view Him, He is lovely, and indescribable, and unequaled, and worthy!