‘And to those who were selling the doves Jesus said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”’
- John 2:16-17 -
The Lord Jesus Christ was not the soft-skinned, passive sage that Renaissance paintings and modern movies make Him out to be. In fact, the inspired Gospels depict Jesus as passionate, direct, quick-witted, and courageous. No fragile wimp could singlehandedly clear the Temple of merchants and moneychangers. Yet Jesus performed this herculean feat not once but twice, bookending His ministry with unmatched zeal for His Father’s house. When John reports on the first event, he says the stunned disciples remembered ‘it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me”’ (2:17). It turns out that even this early in Jesus’ ministry, the twelve knew what kind of teacher they had hitched their wagons to.
It takes zeal to be saved. God’s kingdom hates moderation and impartially. God rejects middle-of-the-road devotion to His beloved Son. Think how the risen Christ rebuked the Laodicean church, saying: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16). Our Lord isn’t just offended by moderation toward God, in fact He’s repulsed by it! Jesus knew Scripture like no man who’d walked the earth, so you can bet He cleansed the Temple with Psalm 69:9 in mind. He lived out David’s zeal for God by carefully crafting a whip and cleaning house, not in a blind rage, but with focused anger. This teaches that zeal without Godly forethought is sin.
Jesus felt more zeal for His Father’s earthly Temple than any man had. The reproaches of money-hungry merchants who reproached God fell on Jesus. Paul knew about zeal and he knew of it’s pitfalls, having zealously condoned the stoning of Stephen. With his sinful zeal ignited, Paul ‘began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he was delivering them into prison’ (Acts 8:3). It took the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road to teach Paul that the purpose of zeal is to exalt God and edify His church. This is why Paul later wrote: ‘Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord’ (Rom. 12:11). It’s all connected. So while Paul’s original zeal had been sinful, the redeemed apostle still saw an ever-present need for Godly zeal.
We get Paul’s word fervent from the Latin fervens, meaning to boil. So, if we are fervent in spirit, our saved souls boil over for God. Sticking with Paul’s zeal, notice how he ends First Corinthians: ‘If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed’ (16:22). He doesn’t say: ‘If anyone doesn’t believe the Lord, let him be accursed,’ though that is true. He doesn’t say: ‘If anyone hasn’t received the Lord, let him be accursed,’ or ‘If anyone hasn’t decided for Christ…’ Instead, Paul talks of love, where Godly zeal always counts. He would later say that ‘apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches’ (2 Corin. 11:28). Clearly Paul knew that the salvation and sanctification of Christians depended most of all on a fervent love for Christ.
On the flip-side, Paul warns of zeal that doesn’t save. Grieving Israel’s lostness, he says: ‘My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge’ (Rom. 10:1-2). True knowledge, then, is at the crux of salvation, just as false knowledge leads to hell. Religionists who don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior are ignorant to God’s righteousness, rejecting His substitutionary sacrifice for sin. Adrift without the gospel, they scorn God’s plan of salvation and zealously assemble their own phony righteousness (Rom. 10:3).
Jews who rejected Jesus in Paul’s day were no different to Muslims or Buddhists today. All false religions teach disciples to aspire to the phony righteousness of false gods. As a Pharisee, Paul was zealous for the law as it masked his hidden sin. As Jesus put it, Paul strained out gnat-sized sins but swallowed camel-sized ones (Matt. 23:24). He rejected the Biblical truth that God’s righteousness is a gift, not a moral or legal achievement. Only once Paul met Jesus and learned his error could he say that ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes’ (Rom. 10:4). The law’s true goal was to lead sinners to faith in Christ’s singular righteousness. That’s it. No works. No effort. Just plain old belief in the One who is transcendent and saves with zealous love.
When Paul received Christ’s gift of righteousness, he gained a zealous flame that no trial or torture could extinguish. His new boast was to ‘be found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith’ (Phil. 3:8-9). Imagine Paul’s joy when he was welcomed into the same Jerusalem church that he’d formerly persecuted. Picture him embracing his fellow apostles and hearing about the Lord from them.
Maybe John even recounted how Jesus had rebuked zealous Jews like Paul, saying: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The apostles (including Paul) all heartily agreed that righteousness was never gained from the law, but from a zealous relationship with the Savior it pointed to. We gain God’s righteousness at the moment of salvation, but the Christian’s zeal for Christ only increases as we are washed in His Word.
But here’s a danger. Even when we’re saved with true knowledge, that knowledge can go to our heads. Our chests puff out, our jaws clench, and we grapple with unbelievers like opponents in a ring. We say: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me,” but if it’s said in anger, this zeal is sin. Peter and Paul show a true and better way that often means suffering for righteousness’ sake. Peter tells Christian exiles to ‘honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect’ (1 Pet. 3:15). It’s tempting to forget that last part when we’re defending the faith. But God inspired Peter to add that vital disclaimer, and we grieve God if we ignore it.
Likewise, in his last letter to Timothy, with execution looming, Paul reminds his son in the faith that ‘the Lord’s slave must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may give them repentance leading to the full knowledge of the truth’ (2 Tim. 2:24-25). This is no easy feat. Actually, it’s impossible without Godly sanctification. Yet we must master zealousness, not so that colleagues or neighbors find us sweet, but in order to control our zeal, appeal to the lost, and see them saved.
When Peter confronts his Jewish brethren at Pentecost, He states the fact that they’d nailed their Messiah ‘to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death’ (Acts 2:23). If ever there was a time to zealously call it quits on Israel, this was it. But Peter doesn’t do that. He is patient and gentle, zealous to correct in order to save. He speaks the truth in love upon hearing their heartfelt sorrow, saying: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:38-39).
Our Christian witness and gospel message must mirror Peter’s zeal to see Israel’s lost sheep return to their Good Shepherd. We are to be patient with Christ-rejectors, praying with Paul that God would gift them repentance leading to the knowledge of truth. Yes, Jesus made a whip and emptied the Temple. He stared down sinful zealots in His day and administered righteous indignation when called for. Yet He also humbled Himself as a man in order to restore the world to right relationship with God. He kept His zeal in check and never sinned. The apostles learned to do the same, and we must follow in their footsteps if we are to exalt our loving Christ and edify His church.
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