I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Romans 11:11 (NKJV) 

Please do not miss this! One of the reasons Gentiles are saved is because our salvation is intended to make the Jews jealous. Jealous in a good way…jealous for God!  There’s no other way this can happen but through friendship. To “provoke to jealousy” is a Greek expression that means to “come alongside someone, causing him to boil or seethe with jealousy.” To make a Jewish person jealous over our relationship with God through Jesus the Messiah we first need to have Jewish friends. We need to be true friends. Friends who connect, who share their hearts and look out for one another. We need to have relationships with Jews. I think it’s worth mentioning that your friendships with Jewish people should not be based on whether they believe in Jesus or not. True friendships do not have strings attached.

The majority of Jews who have come to faith in Jesus as their Messiah have done so because their Gentile friends shared the gospel with them. If you are a Gentile believer, and you have not been provoking the Jews in your life to jealousy, you have not been fulfilling one of the purposes of your own salvation. This is most likely the first time you have ever heard such a thing, but it’s true! It’s not the only reason Gentiles are saved, but the Bible says it is one of the reasons. You have to wonder whether, over the centuries of Church history, this verse was ignored, taught incorrectly, or simply allowed to slip under the radar.

Excerpt from the Promised Land study guide