Christian Zeal Commended.
I. Zeal may be defined as the heat or fervour of the mind, prompting its vehemence of indignation against anything which it conceives to be evil-prompting, its vehemence of desire towards anything which it imagines to be good. In itself it has no moral character at all. It is the simple instinct of energetic nature, never wholly divested of a certain rude nobility and never destitute of influence upon the lives and upon the characters of others. Zeal in itself is neither morally excellent nor morally blameworthy, and it becomes Christian zeal only when it springs from Christian motive, when it is displayed in a Christian manner, when it is used for Christian ends. The great constraining motive of Christian zeal, as of every other grace or energy that is hallowed, is the love of God shed abroad in the heart, and kindling a pure, disinterested, brotherly love to the fellow-man. All true Christian zeal bears this mark. The chief object of Christian zeal will be the spread of the religion of Jesus, that which is the great cementing bond of all social relations here, and which links them in a higher fellowship with the brotherhood of heaven.
II. The pith of the Apostle's warning lies in this: "It is good to be zealously affected alwaysin a good thing." The Galatians in the presence of the Apostle were warm and extravagant in their professions of attachment both to himself and to the cause to which he had given his life; but they needed his presence. They needed his presence to prevent the relapse of their affections into indifference, nay, not only into indifference, but into opposition, inveterate in proportion to their former enthusiasm. He therefore reminds them that zeal, to be valuable, should be permanent; that it should not be based upon the shifting sand of favourable circumstances, but rooted in a well-principled conviction which, like a rock, will be granite to the storm as well as granite to the sunshine.
III. Note the profitableness of Christian zeal: "It is good." No higher praise can be given to it. Where the heart preserves the ardour of devotion, it will preserve the ardour of enterprise, and will always be at work for the best interests of men.
W. M. Punshon, Penny Pulpit,New Series, No. 14.
References: Galatians 4:19. R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxv., p. 71; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit Sermons,5th series, p. 7. Galatians 4:20. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 379. Galatians 4:22-31. Homilist,vol. i., p. 405.Galatians 4:23. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 143.Galatians 4:24. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 69; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 130. Galatians 4:25; Galatians 4:26. B. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 385.