Amped Up Passion
What sorts of things do you get zealous about? I guess that raises the question: what does it mean to be zealous? It means to be uber-passionate, to be on fire for something. What sorts of things do you care really intensely about? Those are the things for which you’re zealous.
I once went with our son, my brother-in-law, and a nephew to a hockey game in Everett, Washington. It wasn’t an NHL major league game. It was just a Western Hockey League game, the highest tier of amateur hockey. It wasn’t a huge arena; it only sat about 8,000 fans. But on this spring evening the place was packed solid, sold out. And it was loud. My nephew was quite young at the time and he was covering his ears and crying because it was way too loud for him.
The place was shaking. I have never been to a sports event before or since that was as loud as that hockey game. The fans there were crazy. They had this practice that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It had to do with the opposing team and their penalties. When the penalty was over, and the player left the “sin-bin,” the announcer would say in his most stentorian, deepest voice, “And the Tri-City Americans are back up to full strength.” That would be the cue for the crowd to shout out in unison, “And they still suck!” They were super zealous for their team, even if they were a little crass and unsportsmanlike.
The Bible tells believers to be zealous about things that really matter. In Revelation 3, Jesus was writing to the lukewarm church in Laodicea. They were pretty casual about their faith, neither cold nor hot. So Jesus said in Revelation 3:19 that they have to “be zealous and repent.” They have to amp up the level of their love and enthusiasm for the Lord.
Titus 2:14 says Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from our lawlessness and rebellion. But he also gave himself for us towards something. Our redemption in Christ is also for the purpose of our being “a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Christ wants us to be passionate about living a godly and holy life.
Setting the pattern for us as his followers, Christ himself was zealous for God and his will. We see it in John 2. Jesus zealously cleansed his Father’s house in Jerusalem. Christ’s zeal was fired up by God’s Word in passages like Psalm 69:9, “For zeal for your house has consumed me.” Today as we’re disciples of Christ, our zeal is to be fired up in the same way – by God’s Word.
God’s Word should be the standard determining the things we’re going to care about most. You can care about your favourite sports team and cheer for them. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But if that’s the thing in life that you get most passionate about, that’s a problem. If that’s the thing you live for, that’s a problem.
What does God want us to be zealous about? We have to go to his Word to find out. When we do that, we learn that, above all, we should be zealous for God. We should be zealous about worshipping him. Pray for zeal to love and serve him with every aspect of our lives. He is worthy of such zeal.
