I understand that Jessica Biel is doing a remake of “Easy Virtue.” I can’t swear as to how close this will follow the original movie, but in the original movie, Biel’s character, Larita, has an abusive drunk for a husband, but there is a local artist who tries to convince her to leave her husband and run away with him. The husband becomes convinced that she is having an affair with the artist, and kills him, and divorces her. His defense, of course, is that killing the artist was a crime of passion. Most of the film is about what happens to Larita after the fact; she goes to France, where no one knows her, and no one thinks of her as a less-than-virtuous woman who had an affair (this is where the title, “Easy Virtue” come from). I personally found it interesting that the divorce court jury deliberations mostly consisted of, “Well, of course she did it; that drunken lout of a husband, and that handsome artist, she must have done it.”
It’s kind of interesting that, although a crime of passion is not legally recognized as a defense, it is occasionally used by defense lawyers to try to get a lesser sentence. That is, if a husband catches his wife cheating and kills her, or her lover, juries generally consider that to be less criminal than if he planned out a murder, say, for money. Generally, we understand when someone finds out that his or her spouse has been unfaithful, and then gets violent during that moment of passion.
My point is that jealousy, at least under certain circumstances, is an emotion that we understand, that we, in general, can identify with. Now, if I’m jealous of someone else because he has a young wife who is better looking or more passionate than mine (or both), that’s wrong. If I’m jealous because my wife is spending a lot of time with a man who is younger, better looking, and more passionate than me, well, maybe I have good reason to be jealous (and maybe I don’t—after all, I should be able to trust her, right? And yet…). Envy is generally listed as one of the seven deadly sins, but not jealousy. I would imagine that most thesauruses list envy and jealousy as synonyms, but only because if I’m jealous of someone else’s marriage, or house, or job, then that’s envy. If I’m jealous that my spouse may be seeing someone else, that’s not envy.
There are a number of times in the Bible where the relationship between us and God is compared to a marriage (Jeremiah 3, Matthew 9:15, Matthew 22, Matthew 25, John 3:29, Revelations 21:9). It seems very clear to me that God ordained marriage as an image of the kind of relationship that he wants to have with us. It should be a relationship of mutual love and trust. Historically, though, we haven’t done a very good job of upholding our end of the bargain. The situation described in Jeremiah 3 didn’t stop with the Old Testament. We’re under a New Covenant, I understand that, but God hasn’t changed, and people haven’t changed. We still have the same faults and foibles that Ancient Israel had. We, as Christians, still commit basically the same sins that our Jewish forbearers did.
Having said all of that, some people have been very critical of the fact that God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, Deuteronomy 5:9, Deuteronomy 6:15, Joshua 24:19, Ezekiel 39:25, Nahum 1:2). God shouldn’t be jealous, jealousy is a bad thing, that’s a negative emotion. Jealousy in the sense of envy is a negative emotion, but jealousy in the sense of protection what is rightfully yours is not. To those that would say God shouldn’t be jealous, I have to ask the question, shouldn’t God be jealous? Haven’t we given Him good reason to be jealous? Shouldn’t we be more careful to be faithful to God, so that He doesn’t have to be jealous?
It’s kind of interesting that, although a crime of passion is not legally recognized as a defense, it is occasionally used by defense lawyers to try to get a lesser sentence. That is, if a husband catches his wife cheating and kills her, or her lover, juries generally consider that to be less criminal than if he planned out a murder, say, for money. Generally, we understand when someone finds out that his or her spouse has been unfaithful, and then gets violent during that moment of passion.
My point is that jealousy, at least under certain circumstances, is an emotion that we understand, that we, in general, can identify with. Now, if I’m jealous of someone else because he has a young wife who is better looking or more passionate than mine (or both), that’s wrong. If I’m jealous because my wife is spending a lot of time with a man who is younger, better looking, and more passionate than me, well, maybe I have good reason to be jealous (and maybe I don’t—after all, I should be able to trust her, right? And yet…). Envy is generally listed as one of the seven deadly sins, but not jealousy. I would imagine that most thesauruses list envy and jealousy as synonyms, but only because if I’m jealous of someone else’s marriage, or house, or job, then that’s envy. If I’m jealous that my spouse may be seeing someone else, that’s not envy.
There are a number of times in the Bible where the relationship between us and God is compared to a marriage (Jeremiah 3, Matthew 9:15, Matthew 22, Matthew 25, John 3:29, Revelations 21:9). It seems very clear to me that God ordained marriage as an image of the kind of relationship that he wants to have with us. It should be a relationship of mutual love and trust. Historically, though, we haven’t done a very good job of upholding our end of the bargain. The situation described in Jeremiah 3 didn’t stop with the Old Testament. We’re under a New Covenant, I understand that, but God hasn’t changed, and people haven’t changed. We still have the same faults and foibles that Ancient Israel had. We, as Christians, still commit basically the same sins that our Jewish forbearers did.
Having said all of that, some people have been very critical of the fact that God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, Deuteronomy 5:9, Deuteronomy 6:15, Joshua 24:19, Ezekiel 39:25, Nahum 1:2). God shouldn’t be jealous, jealousy is a bad thing, that’s a negative emotion. Jealousy in the sense of envy is a negative emotion, but jealousy in the sense of protection what is rightfully yours is not. To those that would say God shouldn’t be jealous, I have to ask the question, shouldn’t God be jealous? Haven’t we given Him good reason to be jealous? Shouldn’t we be more careful to be faithful to God, so that He doesn’t have to be jealous?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment