For some reason we tend to associate zeal with youth, and misguided youth at that. We expect, and we usually see, the zeal fade with time, and we tend to associate maturity with something much cooler, more moderate and better managed. Is this as it should be? Why do we not expect to see a burning zeal in those who are older in the Lord, a zeal that never fades and that, if anything, burns brighter and hotter with the passing years?
The Lord Jesus is described as being consumed with zeal for His Father’s house (John 2:17), The prophets described the Lord as “clad with zeal as a cloak” (Isaiah 59:17). The character of God does not change – zeal is always very much a part of His holy nature. His zeal has brought salvation and His zeal will finish what He has begun.
If we are looking among the apostles for an example of zeal, we need look no further than Paul, and it is he who is given to us as a model of God’s goodness and mercy (1 Timothy 1:16). Paul never mellowed with age, donning his slippers in complacent ease. The sign of maturity, he wrote, is persistent pressing on to obtain the still unattained goal (Philippians 3:12-15).
Of course, zeal is not everything. Paul said the Jews had a zeal for God, but it was misguided, being intent on establishing their own righteousness (Romans 10:2-3). The false teachers corrupting the believers in Galatia were also zealous, but not to a good end (Galatians 4:17-18). But zeal that is fueled by revelation is something else altogether.
The example we have in the apostle Paul is clear. He knew His own wretchedness and the grace that had saved “the chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). He loved the Lord’s people because he loved their Lord. He knew the greatness of “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). How did he respond to what he has seen and understood? He was not, he said, “disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19).
Did you notice the word he used? Disobedient. Obedience requires a choice or it is not obedience. God does not make those He created in His own image to be pre-programmed robots. We are free and we are accountable for our choices. Paul chose, and zeal was his very rational, freely chosen response.
Is our zeal, or lack of it, a measure of our understanding or our obedience? This is a question that is best asked now and answered now, because both a lack of understanding and disobedience can be remedied now.
A glorious Saviour, a wonderful calling, all-sufficient grace, the blessed Holy Spirit within. Everything is in our favour. Everything encourages us to holy zeal.
“One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
