Titus 2:14 “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
God desires that we be zealous (2 Corinthians 7:11), saying, “be zealous” (Revelation 3:19), which means that he expects us to have desire and enthusiasm in following him. Jesus sought the people who would be the most zealous to be his disciples (e.g., Peter: Galatians 2:7-8, Paul: Acts 9:15), and commanded that we count the cost of being his disciple (Luke 14:25-33).
God is seeking a specific kind of people to worship him (John 4:23-24), who are “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). God does not desire lukewarm Christians in his service which are not excited in any way for any of the things of God, because lukewarmness is the antithesis of being zealous (Revelation 3:14-22). God desires dedicated Christians, who are not small-minded people (Joash: 2 Kings 13:14-19; Ahaz: Isaiah 7:10-13), double-minded people (James 1:6-8; 1 Kings 18:21; 1 Chronicles 12:33), or half-minded people (contrast: Matthew 22:37).
1 Corinthians 14:12 “Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.”
Proverbs 12:26 “The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.”
The Zeal Of The World
Almost everyone is zealous for something, seeing there are many different kinds of zeal that a person can possess. Most people are zealous in wrong things (Galatians 4:16-18), or for bad reasons: “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2).
The Business of the World: Many people in the world have the zeal of working. A child will honor his father with the highest respect, but children of God will dishonor their heavenly Father over and again; an employee will fear their boss, but the Lord’s servants will not fear him (Malachi 1:6; see vv.6-14). Soldiers endure hardness to please their commander, and the soldiers of the cross should endure hardness to please the Captain of their salvation (2 Timothy 2:3-4; see Hebrews 2:10). Too many a Christian will offer to the Lord what they would not offer to their governor:
Malachi 1:8 “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.”
This zeal in business usually comes from a zeal for earning money. The love of God and Christ hardly constrains Christians as it should (e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:14), but the love of money (see 1 Timothy 6:10) almost never fails to entice them. Balaam rose up early for filthy lucre’s sake (Numbers 22:21), false prophets and workaholics are never satisfied with the money that they already have (Isaiah 56:11; Ecclesiastes 5:10), and Gehazi ran after Naaman only to receive expensive commodities from him (2 Kings 5:20-24).
Jeremiah 18:13-15 “13 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? 15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up.” (See also Jeremiah 2:31-32).
The Recreation of the World: Although it is difficult to get God’s people to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), it is the easiest thing to excite them with the world’s forms of entertainment: board games, video games, or sporting games. A professional athlete can run faster, be more temperate, and fight more certainly for a corruptible crown than Christians will for an incorruptible crown (1 Corinthians 9:23-27). We must strive to win all nations unto Christ the same way that Olympians strive to win a gold medal (1 Timothy 2:5).
The Religion of the World: Many of those who are deceived by false religion are very zealous for their false god. The zeal of a person involved in false religion can be seen in their steadfastness in belief (Jeremiah 2:11), and devotion in practice (see Micah 4:5). The believers of the Lord are often ashamed of the true gospel, but false teachers are usually unashamed of their false gospel. Unsaved persons can read more of their scriptures and go more often to fake church services (see Acts 8:27-28) or pray more prayers and do more good works (see Acts 10:1-4) than the saved. They can also evangelize with their false gospel more than Christians do with the true gospel, and be more persistent in following up on their false converts (Matthew 23:15).
The Creatures of the World: God’s creation is very fastidious in regard to their nature, but people are all too often lacking diligence in the service of the Lord. Birds observe their migratory patterns, but God’s people do not observe the Lord’s ordinances (Jeremiah 8:4-9). Livestock regard their master, but the Lord’s sheep do not listen to their great shepherd (Isaiah 1:2-4).
The Zeal Of God
The EXCELLENT SPIRIT in Daniel made him “ten times better” than all of the other wise men of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 1:17-21), because God gave him “knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.” Daniel’s zeal translated into gaining great knowledge: “… I Daniel understood by books…” (Daniel 9:2).
Daniel 6:3 “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” (See also Daniel 5:12-14).
The OTHER SPIRIT with Joshua and Caleb caused them to have faith in the Lord and have no fear of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:30; 14:6-10, especially vv. 22-24). Even though the spirits of the other ten spies were affrighted by the difficulty level of overcoming the Canaanites, Joshua and Caleb’s zeal caused them to have a can-do attitude in view of that great obstacle.
The LABORING SPIRIT that Paul had pushed him to labor “night and day” (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8), and “more abundantly” than any of the other apostles (1 Corinthians 15:8-10). The pre-conversion Paul was a “Hebrews of the Hebrews” (Philippians 3:4-6), so zealous so as to persecute Christians, and the most dedicated of the Pharisees, “being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (see Galatians 1:13-16). The post-conversion Paul did not lose his fervency in spirit, but converted his zeal and knowledge to the service of Jesus, preaching “the faith which once he destroyed” (Galatians 1:23). After getting saved, Paul went out immediately preaching the gospel (Acts 9:20), boldly preaching the gospel (Acts 9:27, 29), often preaching the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:10; Romans 15:19), and ceaselessly preaching the gospel (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
How To Increase In Zeal
The one thing that will differentiate a zealous Christian from a lukewarm one is their desire. One’s will, or their desire, for the things of God is the only means whereby they can become fired up for the Lord. It is by receiving the love of the truth that one is saved (2 Thessalonians 2:10), and the desire of a person makes their soul say “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21; see also Acts 8:31). After salvation, however, we should delight ourselves in the Lord (Psalm 37:4; Isaiah 58:14). For example, the Bible says that it is through “desire” that a man becomes a pastor (1 Timothy 3:1), and God says that we should “desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1), and make our one desire to be that we dwell in the house of God (Psalm 27:4).
Psalm 73:25-26 “25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
Understanding three realities about God’s matters can help us grow in our desire for the things of God:
- The things of God should be desired, meaning that God expects us to direct out desire to his name (Isaiah 26:8). There is a divine appeal to the things of God.
- The things of God are desirable, meaning that they are the most valuable things in the world, and thus the most worthy of affection (e.g., Psalm 19:10; Proverbs 3:15; 8:11). There is an intrinsic appeal to the things of God.
- The things of God are desired, meaning that many people already greatly desire the works of the Lord, and so the things of God also have a popular appeal to them (men: Luke 10:24; angels: 1 Peter 1:12).
Things We Should Desire In Order To Become More Zealous
- Desire the Wisdom of God
Just as the deer pants after the water brooks (Psalm 42:1), our soul must pant after God and the water of the word. One’s heart will “burn within” them as they open the scriptures daily, just as the heart of the disciples did as Jesus opened the scriptures to them on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35, especially v.32). In order to excel, we must read the word of God, which contains “excellent things” (Proverbs 22:20).
1 Peter 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”
- Desire the Work of God
We must get involved in the work of the Lord in order to increase in our zeal for God, just as Phineas was said to be “zealous for his God” because he got involved and slew Zimri for committing fornication (Numbers 25:6-15, especially vv. 12, 14). Psalm 69 (vv.6-9) describes David’s zeal for God’s house and is prophetic of Christ’s zeal for the temple of God. It could be said of Jesus that “the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” when he served God by cleansing the temple, casting out the moneychangers and merchants from it (John 2:13-17).
- Desire To Be With the Zealous People of God
2 Kings 10:15-16 “15 And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. 16 And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot.”
Zeal––like fire––spreads. When we commune with those who are more zealous than us, they “provoke” us “unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24). “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise” (Proverbs 13:20), and he that walks with zealous men shall be zealous. Paul said of the Corinthians who were very generous and prepared to help the poor saints in Jerusalem, “your zeal hath provoked very many.” (2 Corinthians 9:2). Our eyes should thus be upon the faithful of the land (Psalm 101:6), and our yokes with others should, at the very least, be equal (2 Corinthians 6:14).
The spirit of Elijah which rested upon Elisha was bestowed upon him in double portion (2 Kings 2:9-10) for his desire to be very zealous for the Lord God of hosts as Elijah was “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts” (1 Kings 19:10, 14). Because Elisha followed Elijah so closely, he became just like, and even better than, Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-15).