Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
—Romans 11:13-18
by: Leanne Lippincott.
As Paul ministered to the Gentiles, he harbored a desire that seems strange to us at first: He wanted to make his Jewish brethren envious.
Although I often think of “envy” in negative terms, in this passage it’s used in a positive sense. Paul wanted the lives of Gentile Christian to “light a fire” under his own people, flaming a desire in them to have the same joy and peace and eternal hope that these non-Jewish converts had. Envy was one of the tools that Paul hoped to use to help save the nation of Israel.