What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?(James 4:5) The scriptures ask this and do we understand what it means? As Christians we accept the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit is not of this world and therefore opposes the world. This concept is hard for people to comprehend because our God is a loving and compassionate God. The fact that He is jealous of us is not in the way we are accustomed to. We think of jealousy in a way when someone is jealous in a bad way. The world will offer us things that are fleeting and failing. God offers us a life that is everlasting. He is jealous because He loves His children and wants them to receive what He has for them.
Moses instructed the Israelites of this in Deuteronomy to not make an idol of anything before God. Seek the Lord and you will find Him if you look with all your heart and your soul.
Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 4:23-24