One of the things we talked about last Sunday[1] was Saul’s misplaced zeal. He genuinely believed he was carrying out God’s will by killing the first followers of The Way. He felt like the defender of the faith, the one with the most "biblical" backbone. He makes that clear in Philippians 3:5-6.
“…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”
He was the one doing something about idolatry and what he perceived as a betrayal of the faith. He was tragically wrong.
When God stopped Saul on the road to Damascus, God didn’t correct Saul because he hadn’t memorized enough of the Torah, or because he lacked conviction and courage. He corrected Saul because Saul misunderstood what kind of Messiah Jesus is—and therefore what kind of kingdom Jesus brings. Part of his conversion was coming to grips with how badly he had misunderstood God and God’s plan in spite of having all the information he needed.
Then we talked about a few times historically when Christians sincerely believed they were doing God’s will but were, in fact, working against the heart of Christ: The Inquisition; the Crusades; the church’s long defense of slavery in the Southern states, etc.
In nearly every one of these moments, the church was not trying to rebel against God. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were convinced they were on the side of righteousness. Like Saul, they were not.
I started thinking about times in my life where I saw a zeal for righteousness lose its way. I grew up in a denomination where churches split over what kind of covering women should wear, what Bible translation to use, and whether or not Christians would have to go through the tribulation. Yes, they were zealous for honoring Scripture (as they understood it), but surely the division it caused (and the message it sent to people hurt by these positions and arguments) was not what Jesus had in mind for his children.
I couldn’t shake the sense that we aren’t done with this topic. If sincere, Bible-believing Christians have been this wrong before, where might we need Jesus to lovingly interrupt us today?”[2]
To be clear, I love that this church is full of people zealous to follow Jesus. I’ve been here almost 30 years, and I have known some of you that long, and I know your zeal. It’s a beautiful thing. But if you have been here long enough, you’ve been through a whole lot of differences of opinion about how to live in the Kingdom, from worship styles in our Sunday Service, to responding to Covid, to our discussion about immigration and ICE last Sunday in Message+, and to a multitude of other things. We are a people zealous to follow Jesus, and we at times have remarkably different conclusions about what faithful discipleship looks like.
Sometimes, it’s disagreements over matters of personal conviction, aka, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”[3] That’s fine; no Damascus Road intervention needed. But sometimes personal convictions were taught or defended as normative for all, and that needs a Damascus Road intervention to teach us something about humility and grace.
Other times, someone was right and someone was wrong about what Jesus is calling us to think and do. That can still happen. In those moments, we need Jesus to confront us on the road we are on.
So. I started a list of things sincere, zealous Christians disagree about, then went online to find what others were saying - and they had things to say. I have pared 15 pages of notes down to 9. As we go through just a portion of them, I want to challenge us to ask,
“Is it possible that I hold a position that reflects a misunderstanding about what it actually looks like for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?“
Keep in mind that the issue will not be, ‘Does that person even care about God’s kingdom?’ Zeal for following Jesus will be assumed. The question for each of us to ask is,
“Does my zeal cause me to look more or less like Jesus, and my community to look more like His kingdom?”
I tried to end up with a list that will challenge all of us at some point - and maybe multiple points – to do one of two things:
Challenge us to give grace because we’ve made our opinion a law when it ought to be an issue of conscience, or
Challenge us to humility because we might be wrong.
Honestly, I kicked against the goads on this one. There are a lot of ways this could go wrong. This list will be imperfect and incomplete. Don’t get hung up on things that don’t apply to you. But if the Holy Spirit starts to nudge you about one of these or something that didn’t make the list, I encourage you to be humble and responsive.
We start with the things closest to home. We have a deep, God-given desire to protect what is precious: our children, our bodies, and our health. This zeal is rooted in stewardship. That’s a great start. Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
Discipline
The zeal: We parents want to obey Scripture, raise godly children, and take discipline (correction) seriously, as we should.
The distortion: Authority can be emphasized without comfort and relationship, and behavior modification can replace spiritual formation. Some parents may fear using any firm correction because they associate discipline with past trauma or authoritarianism.
The Damascus Road Question. Does our discipline aim merely to control behavior, or to build authentic disciples? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
Vaccines
The zeal: Protecting bodies and communities by getting vaccines and/or protecting autonomy and freedom by rejecting them
The danger: distrust of medical advice becoming unhealthy cynicism OR trust of medical advice becoming unquestioning loyalty.
Damascus Road question: If Jesus were physically present among believers who disagreed on this issue, would our words and posture look more like a conversation at a table of fellowship or more like tribal warfare? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
Psychology vs. Faith for Emotional and Mental Healing
The zeal: Relying exclusively on spiritual maturity/supernatural healing OR relying exclusively on therapy and medicine.
The danger: Spiritualizing pain away or psychologizing sin away. One side fears that psychology denies sin (ignoring the soul's depravity).The other side fears that the church denies trauma (ignoring the body/mind's complexity).
Damascus Road question: Does our approach help people boldly bring their wounds to Jesus and others for healing, or would it cause them to hide and isolate out of shame for what we might say? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
* * * * *
Beyond our homes, we have a zeal for our 'teams'—our nation, our politics, our people. But Saul's story warns us that when we commit ourselves to any identity flag other than Jesus (in Saul’s case, Jewish Pharisaism defended with Zealot means), we risk confusing the Empire’s culture with the way of the Kingdom.
Political Allegiance/Idolatry
The zeal: Wanting good leaders, biblically moral laws, and cultural stability.
The danger: Excusing sin in parties and people to gain cultural power; the temptation to baptize political strategies as “God’s plan”; defending the words and lives of leaders more fiercely than the teachings and the life model of Jesus.[4]
Damascus Road question: If Jesus refused to take the throne of the Empire to save the world, why do need the throne of the Empire to join in his mission? Does our zeal distract us from or cause us to bemore and more focused on Jesus?
Confusing the American Dream with the Kingdom of Heaven
The zeal: Gratitude for freedom, prosperity, and opportunity (which tracks with a just society).
The distortion: Material success, national identity, and personal advancement becoming signs of God’s Kingdom arriving.
Damascus Road question: Does our vision of a “blessed life” look more like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount—or more like our culture’s promise of comfort, security, and upward mobility?[5] Does our zeal create a life in which we look more and more like Jesus?
Military Action to Stop Christian Persecution (e.g., Nigeria)
The zeal: Protecting persecuted believers, as we would like to be protected.
The danger: On the one side, are we failing to take the action we can to protect God’s persecuted children; on the other, are we trusting violence to do what resurrection love alone can do, and assuming Christ’s kingdom advances the same way empires do?
Damascus Road question: How would Jesus counsel us to protect his persecuted followers?[6] Does our zeal choose a path that looks like the path of Jesus?
Church as Prophetic Voice
The zeal: For the church to offer prophetic critiques of culture and pastoral care within existing cultural structures.
The danger: Becoming ideologically or politically captive to movements that give us platforms, prestige and power, then failing to speak gospel truth to power lest we lose our comfort and privilege.[7]
Damascus Road question: Are we consistently speaking Jesus’ Kingdom truth to the Empire’s power? Does our zealous message cause us to sound more and more like Jesus?
* * * * *
Many of us feel the fire of our zeal most when we see the brokenness of the world. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This is a good impulse. Once again, does our zeal cause us to look more and more like Jesus? I offer one trend often associated with the Left, and one with the Right. In both cases, that challenge is how to respond when we start expecting the State to do the Church's work.
The Social Gospel
The zeal: A sincere concern for justice, the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.
The distortion: The fruit of the gospel being treated as the root of the gospel.[8]
Damascus Road Question: Are we proclaiming the same good news Jesus announced—repentance, reconciliation, and restoration—or only the practical outcomes of an embodied Kingdom? Does our zeal contain actions and words that point more and more clearly toward Jesus?
Christian Nationalism
The zeal: A desire to honor God publicly, preserve moral order, protect religious freedom, and see the nation flourish under righteousness.
The distortion: Confusing the Kingdom of God with national identity; prioritizing cultural dominance over cruciform witness.[9]
Damascus Road Question: Are we proclaiming allegiance to a cruciform King who will bring about Kingdom ends by Kingdom means, or are we looking to the Empire to bring about Kingdom ends by Empire means? Does our zeal refuse to step out of the ends and means of the kingdom, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
* * * * *
Finally, there is our zeal for the 'House of God.' We want to be orthodox. We want to protect the truth. But if our defense of the truth isn't characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, we may find ourselves like Saul: protecting the letter of the Law while dishonoring the heart of the Law – love - by trampling on God’s children. Does our zeal cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
Deconstruction vs…..Not Deconstruction
[Note: it seems like everyone describes deconstruction differently. Here’s what I mean: someone looks at their faith and sees something built shoddily on an unstable foundation because of bad teaching, hypocritical experiences, etc. They decide to tear it down. Some don’t start over and instead walk away. Others start rebuilding their faith, seeking a more stable foundation and more quality building material. This is about the Rebuilders.]
The zeal: On one side: protecting traditional orthodoxy, resisting relativism or cultural syncretism;. On the other: a zeal for authenticity, perhaps also a claim to protecting original orthodoxy; refusing to pretend everything is okay where there is doubt, hurt and confusion.
The danger: The danger for the defender is a defense of traditional orthodoxy without love or humility that might lead them to agree maybe not everything was what it should have been; the danger for the deconstructor who wants to rebuild is revisiting their faith without a humble curiosity that may lead them to reuse some of the material initially torn away..
Damascus Road question: Does our zeal contain both truth and grace that keep us humble and curious (as we always have more to learn), and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
Christian Celebrity Culture
The zeal: Wanting strong leadership, gifted teaching, and effective ministry.
The danger: Confusing gifting with godliness, or excusing abuse because “God is using them.”[10]
Damascus Road question(s): Would Jesus recognize our definition of leadership as resembling His—washing feet, telling the truth, and laying down power—or something else entirely?[11] Does our zeal contain integrity, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
End-Times Fascination
The zeal: Taking Scripture seriously and longing for Christ’s return.
The danger: A fear-driven faith (when Revelation was meant to be hopeful!); moving from watchfulness to withdrawal and neglecting love, justice, and neighborliness now because it’s all gonna’ burn.
Damascus Road question: Does my focus on the future make me scared of the world, or does it make me care for my neighbor? Does our zeal for Christ’s return fuel loving outreach, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?
* * * * *
In almost every case, the problem is not necessarily what followers of Jesus care about—it’s what we stop caring about. Maybe we stopped caring about people on the other side of an argument, and broke the bruised Isaiah said God would not break.[12] Maybe we are so zealous for a country to look like the Kingdom that we forgot the model of Jesus: sacrifice, love, invitation, example.
The most dangerous thing about being zealous for something is that it often feels indistinguishable from righteousness. Like Saul, we are sincere. Like Saul, we are certain. Like Saul, surely we are wrong in at least some ways in at least some places. And like Saul, we still need Jesus to stop us on the road when we misunderstand what kind of Messiah Jesus is – and, therefore, what kind of kingdom Jesus brings.
If Jesus is interrupting us today, I don’t believe His first words would be condemnation. As with Saul, I believe the first thing He would say would be our names, spoken tenderly, calling us to truth and healing by pointing us back to the nature, life and ministry of Jesus.
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[1] Acts 10
[2] Pete asked this question in Message +. Good work, Pete!
[3] James 4:17
[4] Zealous to defend our political side as the one that can bring the most good to the nation (good!), but not zealous to confront sin when it wears our team’s colors (not good).
[5] Zealous to enjoy God’s blessings and steward opportunity (good!), but not zealous to embrace the way of the cross when it costs comfort, status, or security (not good).
[6] Zealous to protect persecuted Christians (good!), but not zealous to ask whether the cross, rather than the sword, truly reveals the path of Jesus (not good).
[7] Zealous to be relevant or to be faithful (both good!), but not zealous to remain free from captivity to any power that competes with Jesus’ Kingdom (not good).
[8] Zealous to pursue justice, mercy, and good works (good!), but not zealous to proclaim reconciliation with God as the source of that work (not good).
[9] Zealous to preserve Christian influence and moral order (good!), but not zealous to follow Jesus when His way conflicts with national pride, political power, or cultural dominance (not good).
[10] Zealous to support gifted leaders and effective ministry (good!), but not zealous to insist on Christlike character, humility, and accountability as non-negotiable (not good).
[11] Would I defend or overlook this leader’s message, character and actions if they had no platform but were, instead, my next door neighbor, or led in my church?
[12] Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20