Zeal

Zeal is a high degree of love; the cause of holy zeal is love for God.  The highest degree and the measure of our love for God is zeal for His glory. The meaning of zeal expanded for me while reading Thomas Manton’s classic work on Psalm 119.  Thinking of zeal as a higher degree of love  really helped my understanding of it.  Zeal manifests itself by grief and anger.  Whether zeal is righteous or unrighteous depends on what provokes it.  Zeal that is only interested in avenging personal injuries is unrighteous.  Righteous zeal is provoked by violations of God’s law.  The person who sincerely loves God will be grieved and angry when His holy law is broken.  What a person loves, he wants others to respect, and is grieved when it is dishonored.  The glory of God should be esteemed according to its true value.   The degree of zeal that is fitting to the genuine worth of God’s glory is beyond human calculation.  The Bible expresses this degree of holy zeal in an interesting way—zeal for God “has consumed me” (Psalm 119:139); “zeal for Your house has consumed me” (Psalm 69:9).  The verse in Psalm 69 is quoted in John 2:17 in reference to the righteous anger of our Lord when he violently drove the greedy moneychangers out of the temple.  The main thought is that the feelings involved are raised to such a level that our whole being is “consumed.”  To be righteous, zeal must be directed towards a good object.  Everybody is eaten up with one kind of zeal or another.