“They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2).
Zeal is good. It’s the pure heart of God, moving all of history toward final redemption (Isaiah 9:7). But our zeal is mixed.
Our zeal can be of the Spirit or of the flesh. We shouldn’t assume, just because we’re considering a virtue (zeal) and not a vice (complacency), that our zeal must be okay. To quote Jonathan Edwards, “There is nothing that belongs to Christian experience more liable to a corrupt mixture than zeal.”
What was wrong with the zeal of the Jews? It was “not according to knowledge.” Verses 3-4 explain that. The Jews were zealous for their own righteousness. Paul is saying, “You have to hand it to them. They’re not complacent. They’re passionate. But their zeal doesn’t understand justification by faith alone.”
That helps me. It gets me asking myself, What’s going on inside my own zeal? If it’s really about my own righteousness, to show how radical I am, how rigorous I am, how I am not a slacker, then my zeal is self-justification. It’s of the flesh, by the law.
How does the zeal of the flesh reveal itself? Because it’s driven by law, it treats people with law. It does not rejoice over them but finds fault, jumps to conclusions, accuses, is argumentative, doesn’t listen, gloats when a brother is down, and loves to come out on top. This zeal isn’t for God. It’s for Self. And it’s powerful. It diminishes the future of the church by robbing everyone of beautiful things that might have been.
How does the zeal of the Spirit reveal itself? In many ways. But its intensity is never at variance with this: “My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30). We tend to think, “With Jesus, harder = better.” Not always. That word “easy” is also translated “kind” in Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” True zeal is kind. It melts in your mouth. It goes down easy. Yes, it may have to drive moneychangers from the temple now and then. But the zeal of Jesus always asks, “In kindness, how can I make this as easy on everyone as possible, even at cost to myself?”
This Holy Week is a good time to sweeten our zeal for God with kindness toward one another.
