THE WRONG KIND OF ZEAL
Acts 21:18-21 NKJV
18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; 21 but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.
This chapter follows Paul as he returns to Jerusalem. He knows that hard times are coming his way, but he is relatively unmoved. He had told a group of believers who were very upset that he was going to be in harm's way that he was prepared to not only be imprisoned but to die in the name of the Lord Jesus. It's hard to push a man who is not afraid of dying.
When Paul comes to Jerusalem, he has a meeting with James and the elders of the church. He relates to them all the things that the Lord has done through his service to the Gentiles. When the church leaders heard of what God was doing, they glorified the Lord. They did not glorify Paul.
However, Paul's presence created a problem for the church in Jerusalem. There were a large number of Jews who had believed in Jesus as their Messiah. And these Jews were also zealous for the law of Moses. Red flag. Zealous for the law of Moses was the wrong kind of zeal.
Zeal means to be fervent or white hot, to be passionate. The Jewish believers in Jerusalem were white-hot passionate about keeping the law of Moses. In all the New Testament writings, the church has never been instructed to be zealous for the law of Moses. The church is to be zealous for spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:12). The church is to be zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). Paul wrote to the Galatians that it was good to have zeal for good things, but never is the church instructed to be zealous for the law.
And the word on the street concerning Paul was that he was teaching Jews who lived among the Gentile nations to abandon the law and to not circumcise their children. What Paul was preaching was that right standing with God was not through the keeping of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul had a revelation of God's grace that brought freedom to the Jews and the Gentiles because no one was able to keep the law. Paul knew that if there was a law given that could have given life, then righteousness would have been by the law, and there would have been no reason for God to send Jesus.
These Jewish believers were fired up about the wrong thing. It would have been much better if they had been zealous for spreading the message of Jesus Christ to the world. Or if they had been zealous for walking by faith and loving their neighbors into the Kingdom. But their zeal for the law was responsible for almost killing Paul in Jerusalem and his imprisonment at Rome.
APPLICATION
This example in Acts is a cautionary tale. We who have believed in Jesus must stay zealous for the right things. The gospel, the spreading of the gospel, and seeing people come to Christ are things worthy of zeal. People growing in the Lord and changing their world are worthy of zeal. Applying God's Word to our personal lives is worth being zealous for.
I had a pastor once tell me how excited the people in his church were for a multi-level marketing product. He was pretty zealous about it. I passed on the opportunity to bring it into The Ark. This opportunity was eventually shut down by various states as illegal. So not worthy of zeal, so glad I passed.
PRAYER
Lord, show us what we need to be zealous about and what is not worth our time and energy. You and the things of Your Kingdom are worthy of my zeal.