Consider Your Zeal for Christ, Your Zeal for Souls!

Zeal for Souls

Do you have zeal for Christ and for the Gospel, for the Souls of those around you?

Zeal is something we think we often have and we do yet within our fallen selves prone to sin it is a mixed bag of many things.

Jonathan Edwards said of zeal, “There is nothing that belongs to Christian experience more liable to a corrupt mixture than zeal.”

Romans 10: 2

“They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”

The Jews in Jesus's and Paul's time had zeal but the wrong kind of zeal.

The Jews were zealous for their own righteousness bound up in their pride and arrogance.

Our zeal can be of the flesh, prideful and sinful, the Nazi's had zeal.

If we have zeal of the flesh it’s driven by the law or laws and it treats people with that law in a sinful way. Zeal of the flesh does not rejoice over God's image bearers but finds fault, jumps to conclusions, accuses, argues, doesn’t listen, and gloats when someone is down, and loves to be right. This is zeal for Self and not God. Zeal for self is powerful and destructive. Satan loves it! It diminishes our life in Christ and the future of the church by robbing from everyone the beautiful things that might have been possible.

Ephesians 4:32

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

True and authentic zeal has kindness as its hallmark. Through the Person of the Holy Spirit our Lord leads us to kindness and forgiveness even at a cost to ourselves. Put aside the law or laws and humble your self in your zeal and serve those around you!