How to advance each others lives without being suspicious or taken advantage of? — People Have Asked
More than ever we, the real Christians, need each other to be united, and encourage one another. God, and what the Bible teaches us, says we can help each other without being taken advantage of, and even advance each others lives without always being suspicious.
Rather base the decision on what God teaches us.
After all the Bible says that love does not envy. (See 1 Corinthians 13:4)
Let us love the way God would love by wanting the absolute best for one another. Let me give an example of a phone conversation I had with a service provider. One day I had to call one of our service providers to change a feature on our account. Long story short, the receptionist answered the phone, pulled out the account information, saw my name and account features, and then said: “I am so jealous...that your...” That is an example on how this particular scenario and person said that they are jealous. Now a few weeks later, I called back the same service provider for another question. Another person answered and gave us a good deal out of an act of care and I was very pleased with the outcome. We need to seek the loving way that God teaches that benefits us all not just the flesh for a moment.
Now, there is a certain type of "jealous" that is healthy and that is the kind that Jesus would have about HIS children!
Exodus 20:5 KJV: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exodus 34:14 KJV: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
2 Corinthians 11:2 KJV: For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
As you can see God's type of jealous is very different from human jealousy. Human jealousy most of the time is envy whereas God's jealousy is an act of love. “So if,” we were to be jealous we should be jealous in a loving healthy way that is love. In other words — want the absolute best for one another. God's jealousy is the exact opposite of human jealousy. If one is jealous out of an act of love as Jesus would, that is different, it is an act of love.
That is why more than ever we, the real Christians, need each other to be united, and encourage one another.