But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. Galatians 4:18
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, groups of al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four airplanes in the United States, forcing two of them to crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York and another into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth was prevented from crashing into the White House by heroic passengers who forced the plane to crash into a Pennsylvania field. Those terrorists were zealously affected by their religion. But were they zealously affected in a good thing? A couple of nicely dressed men made their way along our street, knocked at our front door, smiled sweetly, and tried to hand me a piece of spiritual rat poison. Those Russellites were zealously affected by their desire to earn their cult’s commendation. But were they zealously affected in a good thing? Millions of people enter a confessional once a week, enumerate the sins that they can remember, and pay whatever penance is demanded by the priest. These people are zealously affected by their religion. But are they zealously affected by a good thing? These all remind me of a Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown is lamenting his team’s loss of the baseball game. He asked, ‘How could we lose when we were so sincere?’ Our text would remind us that there is nothing wrong – in fact there is everything right – with zeal and sincerity as long as they are not misplaced.
Our text is taken from Paul’s plea to the Christians in Galatia to reject the doctrine of false teachers who insisted that they had to observe the Law of Moses in order to be saved. That law required zeal on the part of its adherents. And Paul is not condemning zeal, in itself. Zeal in keeping the law to be saved was pointless, because they were already saved. They had trusted Christ, Whose work on the cross satisfied God’s requirement for judgment against sin and righteousness toward God. But zeal towards God because they were saved, now there was the right motive for being zealous.
The Word of God would urge us to be zealous in sharing the good news of the Gospel with those around us (Mark 16:15). The Word of God would urge us to devote our energies into good works as a good testimony to our salvation (Ephesians 2:10). The Word of God would comment us for our zeal in loving and caring for our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:2). The Word of God has nothing good to say about Christians who are too lazy or indifferent to share and show their faith.
There is so much for us to be zealous about, good things that will bring glory to our Lord, and bring joy to our redeemed souls. – Jim MacIntosh