Last week, as I was studying for Sunday’s sermon, I stumbled upon something interesting. I learned that our English words jealous and zealous come from the same Greek word. If you think about it, there is a very fine line between the two concepts. When someone is zealous, they are passionate in the pursuit of a cause or objective. When someone is jealous, that passion is replaced with envy over the success, accomplishments, or advantages of another in the pursuit of a cause or objective. It strikes me that the difference is found in the placement of our passion. Are we passionate about the objective, or are we really passionate about our own accomplishment?
If our passions get poisoned by the need to succeed, we can easily turn our allies into enemies and sacrifice our God given purpose for personal glory.
I think we see this struggle in the relationships between our local churches. At least, I feel the struggle. It is the deep desire of my heart that Jesus Christ would be made known in my community and that lives would be transformed by the power of the gospel and the presence of His people in the world. That is the objective to which I have dedicated my life. One could say that I am zealous about it. At times, I see the success of other churches in our area and I am jealous. It begs the question: am I serving to make much of Jesus or am I serving Jesus so He’ll make much of me? It’s a struggle we see in Scripture.
In Acts 17, we are presented with two contrasting responses to the preaching ministry of the apostle Paul. In Acts 17:5 we read that Jewish preachers were jealous of Paul. A.T. Robertson writes, “The success of Paul was entirely too great in both places to please the Rabbis. So here is jealousy of Jewish preachers towards Christian preachers. It is always between men or women of the same profession or group.” We often assume the issue between Paul and the Jewish leaders was the content of his message, and it probably was at times. But in this specific case and many others, their issue was not what Paul said, but the results he was getting. It’s a sad commentary. Here were people who had studied the Scriptures their whole lives, who had preached the coming of the Messiah to save His people, and considered themselves servants of God and they were so blinded by jealousy that they ended up standing against the very God they claimed to serve. It’s a poignant warning. If our passions get poisoned by the need to succeed, we can easily turn our allies into enemies and sacrifice our God given purpose for personal glory.
A little later in Acts 17:11, we see the other side of the coin in the form of the Bereans. It reads, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” The priority for the Bereans was the integrity of message, not the popularity of the preacher. Their passion was focused on knowing the truth and serving God’s purposes, not being God’s most prominent servants.
Any success in sharing the saving grace of Jesus and serving the least and lost in Jesus name should be celebrated, not stopped.
Too often in the modern church, we confuse modern conceptions of success with the calling of God. We prioritize building brands, increasing audiences, and expanding platforms. Consequently, we often make the mistake of believing we are in competition with one another. This is an egregious misplacement of priorities and passion and transforms our zealousness into jealousness.
We need to take care not to mistake the church down the street as competitors. They may do things differently, but if they are proclaiming Christ crucified, risen, and coming again, they are coworkers serving the same Lord. Any success in sharing the saving grace of Jesus and serving the least and lost in Jesus name should be celebrated, not stopped. May we always be zealous for the Lord and never jealous of His servants.
