Got Jealousy?

I was thinking about a situation I had recently where I was jealous of a believing colleague(will call him Ron) getting 2 new clients that were people I knew. My sinful thoughts spun like this: "Those are folks that know me. I'm more experienced than Ron. I'm a better attorney than him. Why would they go to him over me? This is not fair. I should have them as clients..." Garden-variety, sinful jealousy. The problem, other than my sin, was that I didn't know how to "fix" my thinking. I knew it was wrong, but simply saying, "Jeff, stop thinking sinfully!" wasn't working. I knew the gospel should inform my thinking, but I couldn't figure it out...

God then spoke to me through 1 Corinthians 8-10. These chapters have a theme running through them which goes like this: "Discern well what your rights in Christ are, then be ready to set them aside out of love for others." Though there are many verses that speak of it (i.e., 9:12, 15, 19; 10:23-24, 28b, 31-33), consider 8:8-12 :

"Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak...And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble."

The question I am trying to answer is: "How does the gospel affect how I think about my brother and how I treat my brother?" The passage reminds us that Christ died for our brother. Many implications can be seen from this. Two that help me properly view my problem is (1) Christ laid aside his rights in order to benefit others, and (2) my brother is valuable to Christ because He bought him with His blood.

My focusing on the fact that I deserved the clients' business (whether this thought is accurate or not) is akin to me saying "I have the right to eat this meat and I will not be denied that right even if a brother stumbles as a result." My focus should rather be on the benefit to my brother! I should be looking for ways to say: "I have a right to that, but I have the opportunity to benefit my brother by sacrificing that right." In doing this, I reflect in some way Christ's thinking in going to the cross.

The other implication is likewise applicable to me. Selfishly obsessing on my right to have the business over my brother reveals that I do not place a high value on him. He is not valuable enough to cause me to sacrifice my rights for his benefit. This is exactly opposite of what the gospel teaches us. God bought him with the invaluable gift of Jesus. God could not have placed more value on my brother than giving His Son to redeem him. When my thinking is in contradiction to God's valuation, I actually "sin against Christ" (v.13). It turns out that my sinful jealousy is far uglier than I thought.

Bottom line: Jealosy reveals a wrong view of myself, a wrong view of my brother, and a lack of conformity with the gospel.