In Acts 13:45, Luke specifically identifies what led the Jews to their hostility against the apostles–they were filled with jealousy. The leading Greek dictionary defined this term as intense negative feelings over another’s achievements or success.[1] We saw this same expression, filled with jealousy, to describe the high priest and his cohorts back in Acts 5 because of the apostles’ miracles and popularity in Jerusalem. Here in Acts 13, these Jews must have been thinking something like this: “Oh, this is ridiculous; we’ve never gotten a crowd like this before! Why does the city want to hear these guys? We’ve lived here all these years with the people and we’re the official representatives of the synagogue. We’re not going to stand for this.”
Jealousy leads to a complete self-consumption, not rejoicing in the success of others, but hating it and wishing you had it instead. Clearly in that state one could care less about God’s purposes, being indifferent to the fact that God gives things, whether tangible or intangible, with the expectation of receiving praise. If we chaff at God’s gifts or enablement given to another, then we are withholding or even stealing glory from God.
[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 427.