GOOD ZEALOUSNESS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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 have zeal for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Galatians 4:16-20

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been zealous for something?

It’s not really a word you hear used too much so let’s put a definition to it and then reconsider the question.

Looking at the dictionary, to be zealous means a person is shows great energy or enthusiasm while in pursuit of a cause or objective.

I enlisted in the United States Navy in 1983 and went onto serve 28 and a half years. Considering that much dedicated time to a single cause, you could say I was zealous about serving my country.

As you well know, I am also zealous for serving my Lord. I’ve been blessed to be a Bible teacher for thirty years now answered a call from the Lord to launch The Christian Walk ministry in 2007. I have no greater passion than sharing the word of the Lord with others and helping them become the people He wants them to be,

Maybe you have your own examples of having zeal for something. If that zeal is associated with ministry work of some kind, feel free to share it through a comment on this message.

Well, as we see in our scripture passage, this matter of being zealous isn’t just a modern day happening. For the Apostle Paul touches on the matter as he writes to the churches in Galatia and through his words, we are reminded that zeal can be applied in good and bad ways. Look again at his words here:

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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 have zeal for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!  Galatians 4:16-20

There was no question that Paul was zealous about the Gospel-sharing, Christian church planting mission that the Lord had him on. His self sacrificing passion for carrying out the Great Commission and making disciples is unmatched in the Bible as we study how he embarked on four missionary journeys in his lifetime.

Yes, the Apostle Paul was zealous for sharing the true good news about salvation through Christ and Christ alone but as we see in this passage and in this letter as a whole, there was an emerging issue infecting the Galatian Christians, an issue grounded in people who were just as zealous as Paul in their approach but zealous in a sinful way. In other words, zealousness can be just as bad when applied to a cause as it can be good,

The bad zealousness Paul was concerned about came from a group referred to as the Judaizers. These were Jews who fervently worked to convince Christian believers that there was more required to be saved than simply believing in Jesus. They pushed a doctrine that mandated an adherence to the Law of the old covenant in addition to believing in Jesus as Savior. To further ensure they got their way, they worked hard to try and discredit Paul in what was a classic tear-someone-down-so-we-can-look-better scheme.

We read where Paul calls out the Judaizer’s zeal as being no good. While the dedication to their belief seeming legitimate, the Jews were really just trying to alienate the Galatians from Paul and his team, the ones who were sharing the legitimate Gospel.

Paul wasn’t bashing zealousness. Rather, he made it clear that zeal was great as long as it was associated with a good purpose and Paul’s purpose was indeed good as it was in sync with the Lord’s purposes.

Today, there are also people who are zealous for all the wrong things.

An unchecked zeal for alcohol consumption can lead to alcoholism. Ditto for illegal drugs and drug addiction.

An unchecked zeal for food can lead a person into obesity and subsequent health consequences that come along with it.

An unchecked zeal for sinning is always going to be bad in the Lord’s sight and put the offender in the crosshairs of God’s punishment.

We need to make sure we self examine ourselves and what we are zealous about to make sure our energy and excitement are focused on the right things. We can do this by allowing the Lord to drive our zeal so that we are enthusiastic about the right and good things, the right and good things He wants us to be engaged in.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com