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[Armchair]

Reconciling Disparate Statements

The Bible asserts each of these statements as true: (1) God is love. (2) God is jealous. (3) Love is not jealous.

One of these statements, rationally, must be false. How can this be reconciled?

[jimwalton]

Jealousy has more than one definition. Jealousy can be a possessive kind of neurosis (or even psychosis), but it can also be the proper expression of a proprietary right (that item rightly belongs to me). Jealousy can be bad when it's just an expression of stalking, protecting the petty, or an expression of self-centeredness. That's obviously the wrong kind of jealousy. A jealousy that comes from a concern for another's wellbeing or to protect a relationship of value, however, is appropriate. Jealousy can be a vice (Gal. 5.20), but it can also be a virtue (2 Cor. 11.2).

When the Bible says God is jealous, it means that God has a right to His people, whom He loves, and He has every right to protect them and to do whatever it takes to keep that person in relationship with Him. In the same sense that a husband or wife can be jealous over their spouse who they suspect might be fooling around with another, this is the good and right kind of jealousy. A husband who doesn't get jealous when others flirt with his wife—when an illegitimate intruder threatens to ruin the relationship—isn’t all that committed to the marriage. Outrage, pain, anguish, and action are the appropriate responses. Our relationship has value to God, and He has every right to preserve it as well as to fight for us when it seems that we might be straying from the relationship.

When the Bible says "love is not jealous" (I presume you're referring to 1 Cor. 13.4), it is talking about an unhealthy fixation. It's a self-oriented fear that someone will get more, or that he/she will be repacked or diminished. 1 Cor. 13.4 actually uses the word "envy," which carries with it the desire to destroy or deprive another of the good things they have. More than desiring to possess, it becomes an insatiable desire to rob the envied person of the qualities or possessions that person has. This is not like God at all.

> One of these statements, rationally, must be false. How can this be reconciled?

So your conclusion is based on faulty premises, and therefore is a fallacy of equivocation. The three statements are all true, subject to the variant possible definitions of jealousy.