Bikini-Thumpers

Jealous

[jel-uh s]

adjective. 1. Unhappy or angry because someone has something that you want

Covetous

[kuhv-i-tuh s]

adjective 1. Having or showing a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else

Ellissa was one of those drop-dead gorgeous women whose tan skin and wavy hair elicited the attention of every guy on campus.  Six years ago, we shared the same room in our condo, just down the road from the Bible College we attended on the island of Maui.

The first time we headed off to the beach together, I braced myself for the tinge of jealousy sure to arise when a beautiful and fit friend sports a bikini.  Instead, upon arriving to Big Beach, she threw aside her top only to reveal a totally modest, one-piece bathing suit.

This ultimately sparked jealousy within me… but not the kind I had expected. 

You see, Ellissa had closeness with Christ that I had never experienced at the time.   In this case, the relationship she shared with Him freed her from the world’s lie that a young woman’s worth is found in flaunting and displaying her body.  This was intriguing to me.

Where am I going with this?  Don’t panic. I’m not going to pronounce bikinis a calamity of our generation, a symptom of spiritual immaturity.  On the contrary…

The reason I always remember Ellissa- the bikini incident one of many- is because she never told me to do anything.  This example of a bathing suit may seem trite or silly, but it stands out to me because she never condemned me for what I was or was not wearing/doing/saying.  She simply adored Jesus and her desire for him was contagious.  It sparked in me a holy, godly jealousy… A yearning to unlock her secret, to know what she knew, to walk with Whom she walked with.

In Romans 11, Paul talks about the pure, God-invoked jealousy that he strived to stir the Jews to: “I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.” Oh, that we display such sincere longing and great joy for Jesus that others would be envious.

Unfortunately, our tendency is instead to channel our desire for seeing a sister sanctified into behavior modification.  When we enforce external changes upon others without allowing the Spirit’s conviction or power in their life, we become like the Pharisees, of whom Jesus rebuked, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”  We actually do others greater harm when we promote religiosity without grace as the motivator.  

But when we provoke others to a curiosity or longing for Jesus- simply by loving Him ourselves and preaching of God’s goodness- they enter into the most important conviction of all: knowing Him & trusting His love.  It is these ground-floor convictions that begin to sanctify from the inside out, eventually resulting in more Christ-exalting secondary convictions (which may or may not be the same as yours).

We should be creating a culture of covetousness, invoking longing for the One we were all made to long for! To make others “unhappy or angry because you have something (Someone) they want”.  To see others “show great desire to possess something (again, Someone)”. Let’s stop hitting our sisters over the head with a bikini- or cigars or cuss words or whatever it is you’re trying to reform her to/from- and instead lead her to the One who brings life-giving conviction and genuine transformation.