They zealously court
you, but for no good;
yes, they want to
exclude you,
that you may be
zealous for them.
But it is good to be
zealous
in a good thing
always, and not only
when I am present
with you.
Galatians 4: 17 -- 18
Zealousness and about $2.50 will
get you a cup of coffee at most coffee shops.
Yes, it is good to be zealous, not overzealous for that would lead a
person into some sort of harmful activity, rather, it is good to be zealous
when it is in control and is for a good thing.
An example: the Muslim people are very zealous, so zealous that they
will strap bombs to themselves and whomever without much care about as to whom
they kill. They are zealous for their religious/political agenda. And we find zealousness that has not gone to
that extreme and yet it is extreme. In the past an example would be the
Woodstock concert were by hippies were shouting and screaming and wearing next
to nothing and drinking and smoking marijuana. They felt good from what I felt zealous at least for something, to belong to something. These are just examples of zealousness but
let me give you a better example: Paul.
Paul zealous for the truth and was willing to do what every, is
necessary to bring the truth to the people from whom he preached. No, he didn't use some sort of armor, or
militant tactic. He used his efforts
going about talking with people, and doing some sort of work to pay the bills, but
in everything to be speaking the Gospel without fear of death, or persecution. Paul, and we also should be zealous for
the truth and the truth is God came to earth, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Only Begotten Son of God incarnate to die upon the cross to
pay the debt owed to Him. Unfortunately we often find that
people are more interested in some sort of enthusiastic zealousness by a church
leader whereby they cling to that person as though this person is speaking the
truth when often they are simply acting out a part in for ill-gotten
gain. Paul had to face this type of
person in the different cultic and heretic teachings by the Gnostics and by the
Judaizers, by the Nicolaitans, the Nestorians, and other forms of heresy.
Let's take a moment and understand that within the apostles who were associated
personally with Jesus Christ, and even Paul who had an encounter with Jesus
Christ on the road to Damascus that their teaching was in unity with each other. A lot of the denominations hang closely and
tightly to their doctrines of their denomination and others want to avoid
doctrine altogether, but is this scriptural truth? Let's take a look at this:
Christianity is primarily, not
merely doctrine. Christianity is life,
a new moral creation, and has the facts of salvation for sinners, and is
personally embodied in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, the god man, to spread
from Him and to embrace gradually the whole body of Christianity, and bring it
into saving the Fellowship with God.
This is also true of Christianity as it exists subjectively in a single
individuals. What does that mean? Christianity begins not with religious views
and notions simply although it includes these, at least in the germ. Christianity becomes a new life in
regeneration, conversion, and sanctification.
This creative fact of an experience takes up the whole man with all of
his faculties in capacities, releasing him from the guilt and the power of sin,
and reconciling him with God.
Christians are to mirror the life of Jesus Christ and they do this by
rising gradually through the use of the means of grace and the continued
exercise of faith, and love, to his maturity in the resurrection. This is the experience for a Christian. Yes this new life necessarily contains the
element of doctrine, or knowledge of the truth. This element of doctrine does appear in the New Testament, not in
the form of an abstract theory, nor a product of speculation, nor is it a
scientific system of ideas subject to logical and mathematical demonstration. There were those men in the past who
attempted to do this to enjoying of nature with God to form some sort of
sentences to explain the existence of God.
This is done by those who will not simply read Scripture for what
Scripture has to say about itself so that they might understand that the
doctrine, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This doctrine of Jesus Christ, this Gospel, is a simple fresh, and
immediate utterance of the supernatural, this divine life, and is a life-giving
power, it is equally practical and theoretical, coming with divine authority to
the heart, the will, and the conscience, as well as to the mind, and
irresistibly growing people to itself.
We must never confound truth with dogma. Truth is a divine substance, doctrine or dogma is a human
apprehensions and statement of it; truth is a living and life-giving power,
dogma is a logical formula; truth is infinite, unchanging, and eternal; dogma
is finite, changeable, and perfectible.
The Bible therefore, is not only, nor principally a book for the
learned, but a book of life for every one, and epistle written by the Holy
Spirit to mankind. No number of systems
of Christian faith and morals, therefore, indispensable as they are to the
scientific purposes of the Church and of theology, can ever fill the place of
the Bible, whose words are spirit and life.
When we say the New Testament is the logically arranged system of
doctrines and precepts, we are far from meaning that it has no eternal order
and consistency. On the contrary, it
exhibits the most beautiful harmony, like the external creation, and like a
true work of art. The substance of all
the apostolic teaching is the witness of Christ, the Gospel. The Gospel is the free message of that
divine love and salvation, which appeared in the person of Christ, was secured
to mankind by His work, and is gradually realized in the Kingdom of God on
earth, and will be completed with the second coming of Jesus Christ in glory.
Read Scripture carefully and
examine all things, especially those who are overzealous and are not teaching
the truth of the Gospel rather their own speculations and ideologies as though
they have the truth or that God has somehow supernaturally implanted this new
truth in their minds. Do you want to
truth? read the Bible and pray that God by means of the Holy Spirit will lead
you into the truth as found in Scripture and not in man's mind.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
who walk in
the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
who seek
Him with a whole heart!
Psalm
119:1 -- 2
Establish, Make Sure, Your Election
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