Often I hear people like Mr. Dawkins ask, “How could I believe in a god who feels such a petty emotion as jealousy?” I’ll set aside my opinion of calling jealousy an emotion for the moment and focus on the thrust of the statement.

The statement assumes that coveting — wanting someone else’s possessions or advantages — is first a bad thing, a crime, a sin, a pettiness that, when broken, leads to hypocrisy. God affirms this to be true in His commands.

The statement further assumes that God himself is guilty of such a crime and is therefore a hypocrite or at very least, rather petty. Envy tends to stem from a discontent with self while jealousy creates anger at another. Typically, this is uncharitable, unloving behavior.

But there is a jealousy that differs from all others.

See if my bride were to leave me and commit adultery on me, I would be jealous, but jealous in a very specific way. She is mine, I am hers, we are one together. I will suffer no rivals for my bride and will do everything to ensure that I am the one who loves her best. No one would blame me for jealousy in this situation. Jealousy here is not only justifiable, but just. It is good for me to suffer no rivals to my bride, for this shows love without conditions — a love willing to out-do, out-gun, out-perform all other loves. A love without rivals.

A love of a jealous kind.

That’s not pettiness. That’s faithfulness. That kind of jealousy has more in common with what the ancients called “long-suffering.”

And therefore, God’s jealousy is good where other jealousies fall far short.