SUNDAY NIGHT WITH EKURWE
21 August 2022
“Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you.” (Galatians 4:17-18 NIV)
Zeal was one characteristic of the early Christians; they forfeited everything in the world for Christ’s sake. It has been the characteristic of people of God throughout history and should be ours in this present age if we are determined to bring about the revival that we heard about.
What are the characteristics of this true Christian zeal? It is essential that we should understand what kind of zeal we are to have and what kind of zeal we should desire to experience in the body of Christ. Many people think that so long as someone is sincere, his zeal should be right, but that is not always true. People can be sincerely wrong in other spheres of life, and so is the zeal in the kingdom of God.
True zeal must be according to knowledge enlightened by God’s word. The word of God should be the yardstick we should use to measure the veracity of any zeal we seem to exhibit. The Jews who persecuted the early church had great zeal, but it was not according to knowledge. They were zealously protecting the old order that was handed over to them through Moses but never realized that the same God had revealed the new and perfect order the previous foreshadowed. Christ they were persecuting was the fulfilment of all the laws and the prophets they seem to be protecting. Peter had zeal when he cut off Malchus’ ear in the garden of Gethsemane with a sincere and loving effort to protect His master from arrest and death. Peter’s zeal was sincere and humanly cannot be faulted, but it was not according to the knowledge of the mission ordained for Christ and the redemption plan of God for humanity. As good as the zeal of protecting Christ may seem, it was unenlightened.
The same situation played out in Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila helped Apollos, as recorded in Acts 18:24–26, “Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.” (NIV).
True zeal must spring from true motives. The zeal of the Pharisees sprang from party spirit. Some people’s zeal springs from selfishness; they are out for what they can get for themselves—some people’s zeal springs from the love of praise and recognition. But God examines our hearts, and true zeal must spring from the love of God and desire for His glory.
True zeal must be concerned with what God himself is concerned about. We should be zealous to be holy; we should be zealous for the salvation of the Lord in our hearts and the lives of others. We should be zealous in opposing everything God hates.
True zeal must be mixed with love, and our zeal must not be bitter or harsh. Our zeal must know the difference between wickedness, compromise and compassion like Christ during His life and ministry with His followers and non-followers. It will hate the sin but love the sinners. It will hate wickedness yet be ready to do good to evil men. Christ, in His interaction with saints and sinners, demarcated actions that constitute wickedness to a person regardless of affiliation, was careful of activities that will compromise the standard of God and never failed to displayed compassion to His friends and sinners alike. Jesus Christ exposed and rebuked sharply false teachers and hypocritical religious leaders of His time and yet, in love, wept over Jerusalem.
Paul earnestly rebuked the error of the Galatians yet cared for them like little children. “Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you [from us], so that you may be zealous for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!” (Galatians 4:17-20 NIV)
Lastly, true zeal will be joined with deep humility. We should know that the difference between a saint and a sinner is the Grace of God–without the Grace of God, the best of saints is deserving of hell fire, and with the Grace of God, a sinner today could be the best of saint tomorrow. Our current spiritual status must not get into our heads and puff up our ego to look down at others or allow our zeal to crush a weaker brother that Christ died for. A truly zealous person is more likely to mourn over what he has failed to achieve than to boast about what he is able to accomplish. A true zeal points people to Christ at the height of personal achievement.
Worthy of note, a person may be sincerely zealous yet completely wrong, I mean sincerely wrong. May the Lord help us to be zealous according to His will and for His glory among the fallen humanity.
Why is it good to have a Christ-like zeal?
Keep a date with us next Sunday
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