Zeal

Zeal in biblical vocabulary designates an earnest, passionate commitment to God and his honor — an inner fire that resists the compromise of what is sacred. The classic Old Testament exemplar is Phinehas, whose zeal for God in executing the Israelite man and Moabite woman who profaned the tabernacle stayed the plague and was credited to him as righteousness (Numbers 25:11–13; Psalm 106:30–31). Elijah twice declares: I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts (1 Kings 19:10, 14), where jealous and zealous translate the same Hebrew root qin'ah.

The New Testament distinguishes enlightened zeal from misdirected zeal: Paul acknowledges that his pre-conversion persecution of the church was zeal (Philippians 3:6), while acknowledging that Israel's zeal for God was not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2). Jesus's cleansing of the temple was associated with Psalm 69:9: zeal for your house has consumed me (John 2:17). Paul commends zeal in Romans 12:11 — not slothful in zeal, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord — and in 2 Corinthians 9:2 praises the Corinthians' zeal as stirring up others to generosity.