The Believer's Zeal

In Revelation chapter 2 and verse 4, the Master (the Lord Jesus), speaking through the Apostle John to the church at Ephesus, mentioned how that church had lost their first love. Now I have personally heard some, in a bid to explain this, say that it means a Christian has become inactive. I am sure they meant no harm, but the issue lies in the truth at the base of that scripture.

All scripture communicates a truth of its own. The Bible shows us that no scripture is of any private interpretation, which is to say that scripture carries its own truth that it is trying to communicate to you the reader, and not something for you the reader to interpret through your own lens. This in fact is what Decoding Deity is about: the communication of the intended truth behind scripture.

Back to the topic at hand. When it comes to this excerpt from the Lord in Revelation, the best way to understand it is to read from the outset of the chapter, especially verse 2:

"I know what you do, how hard you work and never give up. I know that you don't accept evil people. You have tested those who say they are apostles but are not. You found that they are liars."

Reading from verse 2, you see that it is really not about inactivity but about something else. These people were busy, active, productive, effective, whatever you call it, they were! But first love did not mean the extent or fervency of activity. It meant something else.

What we have most of the time is Christians who have fallen into dry routine without realising they are in it. After all, they are still in church, praying, attending the meetings, participating with their resources and their involvement, so they are perfect in their walk, as that really is their measurement of Christian consistency. But the mind behind it is almost lifeless. Now this does not mean they do not love God or his house. It does not mean they have been corrupted necessarily, and it does not mean they have strayed or backslid, before you ask, "where then do we even get this right?"

It is possible to get it right, and it starts with first understanding the mind behind it.

Here is what it is, plain and simple. Be in love as though you had just found this love for the first time. The best way to describe this is the interaction between two people who have recently discovered they are in love. There is a whole atmosphere, theme and behaviour, and so much more, that belongs to this stage. Take the man. When he is in love like that, his mind is focused and determined on doing everything he can for this new love he has found, both the things within his reach and the things outside it. Given the right opportunity and circumstances, he would even rob a bank. This love comes with passion, vision and jealousy. Vision, because he sees a future with this person. Passion, because that is where the heart truly is. Jealousy, because he could not imagine anyone else but himself inside this new euphoria that he has entered into.

Which reminds me of something I read recently:

"The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer."

Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

The point is not the routine but the heart behind it, because even with passion and the right heart it can still, and really should still, look like routine. But there will always be a difference between mere routine and zeal. Routine is not as compelling and consuming as zeal is. Zeal, on the other hand, leaves no space for whatever it is that may lead you into mere routine.

The issue, though, is the sustenance of zeal. The Christian faces multiple distractions day in day out, week in week out, month in month out, and what these distractions do is dampen all the right things going on within them. So someone who was once passionate could be slowly losing that passion unbeknownst to them, simply because of the introduction of distractions, and these might be genuinely innocent things.

Two things remedy this quagmire: prayer, and the study of the Word.

These are two sacred actions where the Christian gets to both see and hear. Why? Because the main way to influence a man is through the things he sees and the things he hears. We see this with Lot, where the Bible says that in seeing and in hearing, his righteous soul was vexed. If you read closely, you will find that he was not actually in Sodom and Gomorrah geographically, but on the outskirts rather, and being far from it did not stop it from influencing him.

We have been called into a life where we ought to be careful in a holistic manner, and not one where we leave some things to chance while we deal with the rest.

So this I say to you: find that love for God and his house. Fuel the passion with study and prayer. And watch. Be of the mind that you ought to inoculate yourself from being filled with the wrong thing, rather than waiting until it happens and then beginning to cure it.