ZEAL by G. | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jul 26, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 30.

ZEAL.

By G.

ACCORDING to the Standard Dictionary, "zeal" signifies "ardor for a cause; . . . eagerness, especially disinterested eagerness, in promoting some end; enthusiastic devotion; fervor." Zeal, of itself, is no evidence of virtue. It is nothing to one's credit to be zealous—terribly in earnest—unless the end to be promoted be a righteous one. The most intense zeal may be exercised in behalf of an unholy cause.

The apostle Paul, in describing his personal position and characteristics before conversion, says: "If any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more; circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the church."

Here was an exceedingly zealous man, a religiously zealous man, yet whose zeal, in the highest degree, was manifested in persecuting the church of Christ. He also represents the Jews, who were actuated by the same spirit of hatred toward Christ, as having "a zeal for God;" but because it was directed against Christians, he says their zeal was "not according to knowledge." They did not know the righteousness of God. This ignorance was manifested in their aim to establish their own righteousness, refusing to submit themselves to the righteousness of God, of which Christ was the supreme exponent.

Persecution, then, may be a manifestation of zeal, and usually is; it may indicate an intense zeal; as in the case of Paul, the very acme of zeal. This is especially the case in the matter of religious zeal, where men are aiming to enforce their own type of righteousness instead of the righteousness of God.

The law of God is His righteousness (Ps. 119:172), and the laws of men are the expression of their righteousness. The righteousness which the Jews of Paul's day were seeking to establish was expressed in their traditions. So the righteousness which so many religious people of to-day are zealously striving to establish is expressed in Sunday laws and kindred legislation. But, like the zeal of the Jews, professedly toward God, their zeal is "not according to knowledge." The zeal that is according to knowledge is for "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

The purpose of Christ in this world was to exemplify the law of God in human life. Ps. 40:7, 8. So it is said that He "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." When men are redeemed from all iniquity they are in harmony with the law of God (1 John 3:4), a condition possible only through the faith of Christ. G.