REAL ZEAL!

The New Testament speaks of a “zeal not according to knowledge” (Romans 1:2) meaning a misguided passion which is called “the sister of folly.”  Calvin was even more forceful saying, “Zeal without doctrine is like a sword in the hand of a lunatic!”  Zeal without knowledge is like a machine gun in the hands of a madman.  But true zeal with knowledge is something different.  Long ago it was said by several men of God to think of zeal like fire.  Fire in the fireplace is the wonderful friend, but fire elsewhere in the house, the bedroom or the attic, is the worst of enemies.

An example of this very thing of a kind of “ready, fire, aim!” is confessed by the great George Whitefield.  He admitted, “Alas, alas … in many things have I judged and acted wrong … wild-fire has been mixed with my zeal, and I find [as I reflect] that I frequently wrote and spoke in my own spirit, when I thought I was writing and speaking by the assistance of the Spirit of God.”  We can be guilty!

But, while zeal is a somewhat antiquated word, it is still a Bible word that needs to be used after it’s explained.  Look across the pages of church history that it’s evident those who did great things for God possessed a flaming energy controlled by Him.  In fact, ministry without a holy passion is inexcusable.  All people with a call of God on their life should be aflame with a white-hot passion to honor the Savior.  Jesus had the single-minded desire to please God, and we should have it too.  C. T. Studd said, “Be extravagant for God or the devil, but for God’s sake don’t be tepid!”

So, zeal not created by the Spirit and controlled by Biblical knowledge is like “a chariot without its steeds, a sun without its beams, a heaven without its joy,” said C. H. Spurgeon.  And, of course, we are not all of the same temperament, nor do we all have great mental power and charismatic personalities, but all Spirit-filled believers have a fire within.

If we never test the resources of God until we attempt the impossible, then we should add, we never attempt the impossible without a wholehearted flame.  Thank God for James S. Stewart of Edinburgh saying, “The supreme need of the church is the same today as it was in the first century: it is men on fire for Christ.”  (I heard him speak such words as he taught me the characteristics of New Testament Christianity as a student.)

We would applaud Samuel Chadwick for reminding us, “Men ablaze are invincible.  Hell trembles when men kindle.”  We all need to pray with Amy Carmichael, “Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.”

M’Cheyne, the Scottish divine, said it was impossible to have too much zeal for holiness in our life nor too much zeal to honor Christ with the salvation of souls.  Ravenhill warns us not to have a scorching tongue without weeping eyes.

What then is a man with holy zeal?  Again Ravenhill gives us an answer, “The zealous man of God lives for one thing only: to please God.  He is impervious to the opinion of others about his zeal.  He cares not what it costs him to burn out for God.  In sickness or in health, in poverty or in wealth, whether he is esteemed or despised, flattered or flattened, considered a fool or a philosopher, through evil report or good report, kisses or curses, he is set to do the will of God!”

The disgrace of the church in the twenty-first century is that there is more zeal seen in the world of politics and profit-making, in humanism and terrorism than can be found in the pulpit or pew of the average church.  How can one have love, real, passionate love, for Christ and not have a holy zeal?  All that Christian service is, is the “overflow of superabounding devotion for Christ” displayed in active, energized service.

And it’s certainly not limited to males.  Take for example Elizabeth Fry saying, “Since my heart was touched at seventeen, I believe I have never awakened from sleep, in sickness or in health, by day or by night, without my first waking thought being how best I might serve the Lord.”  She is telling us between the lines that there is nothing like active Christian service like that you find in anyone who lives to love Jesus and loves to live for Him.  That is, in fact, the authentic.  Real zeal!

Without actually using the word “zeal,” Wesley Duewel describes it in people as “Ablaze for God!  Your personality so suffused with the presence and beauty of the Lord that others instinctively sense that God is with you! God’s hand so clearly evident upon your life and leadership that a quiet holy power and authority seem to rest upon you!”

Once, the evangelist John Sung, who is now considered the greatest evangelist China ever knew, was called “a living flame of gospel zeal.”  He is a good example of real zeal.

One would have to conclude the Book of Acts’ norm for God’s people was fervency and passionate zeal.  There is not a dull chapter in the entire book.  Later, Paul urged the early church, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor” (Romans 12:11).  The Revised Standard Version words it, “be aglow with the Spirit.”  Anyone will have spiritual zeal when that is true of them; one’s inner life is ablaze and their zeal for God’s glory becomes intense.

Paul urges young Timothy, “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (II Timothy 1:6).  Let’s say it with conviction, we are spiritually combustible and we were meant to be ablaze by the Holy Spirit.  Many godly people have written that God has created all who are born-again people to be spiritually ablaze.  In fact, we are most like the Book of Acts church when we are set aglow with the holy flame of the Spirit and showing holy daring ablaze.

Once, General Booth of Salvation Army fame wisely warned his people, “The tendency of fire is to go out; watch the fire on the altar of your heart,” and it’s evident that there needs to be a continuous rekindling of that inner blaze of God-bestowed zeal.

Spurgeon had a school for young preachers and he said to them, “We need red-hot men, white-hot men—men who glow with intense heat … men like thunderbolts flung from Jehovah’s hand …”  In that one statement there is a description of holy zeal which is needed to accomplish God the Father’s purpose.  For, “The zeal of the Lord will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:7)

And here we establish the fact that zeal that is real, has nothing to do with religious fanaticism.  So then, true zeal is controlled and focused by God on things that are eternally important.  In that setting a person does little things as if they were big things because it’s done unto the Lord.  At the same time that person does big things as if minute because of the Lord Jesus who dwells within.  The attitude is if it’s worth anything, it’s worth everything—it is service totally bent on pleasing Him.  We kindle this holy fire for God because we realize His love for us.  In that moment we spend and are spent with real zeal.

There is often the warning heard, “You’re going to burn yourself out,” by those who stand on the sidelines and watch.  And to those, Spurgeon has a well-seasoned word, “If by excessive zeal we die before reaching the average age of man, worn out in the Master’s service, then glory be to God.  We shall have so much less of earth and so much more of heaven.”  Amen!

But, in most cases today, there is little danger of dying an early death because of too much labor and too little rest.  In fact, we should be reminded as we look at today’s church that it is far easier to cool down a zealot than to warm up a corpse.  No, see it with the eyes of the wise.  In most cases a motivated zealot is little more than somebody who loves Jesus more than we do.

Admittedly, very often zeal and heroic acts breed persecution.  Those in history who were absolutely in love with Christ felt there was no price too great to pay.  This is especially true when one is sure the best, in eternity, is yet to be.  So some were quite willing, with holy zeal, to have their life end early.  They were so sure of eternal life and reward awaiting them.  Stephen is a perfect example. (read Acts 7)

The zealots for Christ were so convinced that they were not ending their lives but exchanging their lives on earth for something far better with their Lord in heaven.  For example, you hear that confession in the final words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged by the Nazis in 1945, just before World War II was ended.  He said in quiet confidence, “This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.”

A true zeal is like the burning bush in the day of Moses, it burned on but never burned out.  Lord, let it be that way for all of us!  In Christ-honoring holy zeal, burn on and burn bright.