“Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When I was growing up, we had a golden retriever named Ginger. She was a really good dog. I’ve never had another dog since. I still remember the last time I took her for a walk before we had to put her to sleep. In any event, when she was a puppy, the rule was that she couldn’t leave the kitchen. She could enjoy our full, big backyard, but in the house, the kitchen and dining room was the extent of her domain. The stated reason for this was so she didn’t make the rest of the house dirty. The real reason was that every time my dad got home from work, she would get so excited to see him that she would pee all over the floor. Linoleum is easy to clean, and we cleaned it a lot. Carpet…not so much. She had lots of zeal, but not much diligence. Today we’re going to keep working our way through Paul’s list of specific instructions giving us a framework for what it looks like to follow Jesus. And unlike our previous couple of attempts, I’m not even going to try to tackle more than one verse. Let’s dive in.

The Oxford dictionary defines zeal as “great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.” This should perhaps go without saying, but this is a written blog, so I’m going to say it. Believers should have zeal for the Lord. If you have committed your life to following Jesus, there should be a certain amount of excitement about that. Think about it: with your life hidden in Christ, your eternal life in God’s kingdom is secured. You have the assurance of God’s presence and power through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in you in all that you do to advance His kingdom. You have the guarantee that no matter what happens in this life, your eternity is locked into place. The joy and peace and hope of the Lord will be your strength, enabling you to face whatever comes along with courage and graciousness. If all of that doesn’t get you at least a little excited, you may not actually understand what you signed up for in the first place.

It’s easy to be excited about something when it’s new. This is why new believers are often the most passionate about their faith. When someone has a genuinely transformative experience with the Lord, they are generally fairly bursting with excitement and enthusiasm. They read their Bible ravenously. They share their faith boldly. They embrace the ethics of God’s kingdom wholeheartedly. They are all in. Young believers are often just as excited. This is why there are youth movements that draw enormous crowds of energetic worshipers. Most missions agencies rely on young people who don’t have many roots put down just yet to go and proclaim the Gospel in far flung places. Youth and passion are typically two peas in a pod.

But then something happens. Unless you connect yourself to a church community that puts a lot of emphasis on enthusiastic worship experiences, that zeal cools over time. Familiarity breeds contempt in religion just like it does in everything else. We get used to the rhythms. We get used to the songs. We get used to the sermons. We get used to the service. It all becomes just another thing we do, and it starts to blend in with all the other things. We forget our first love, and just go through the motions. Yes, we occasionally go to retreats that peak our ardor for a time, but those tend to be the exception to the rule.

But again, when we truly understand what we have in Christ, that sense of joy along with a profound gratitude should not ever leave us. A gift as significant as the one God has given us in Christ should not be something we ever get over. This doesn’t mean we should get emotional about it all the time, but our sense of quiet wonder should always be there. Time spent in the Scriptures can help with this. We have to actually pause to take in the weight of what we are reading, but the constant reminder can help. So can time spent in prayer. When we pursue a relationship with God, we will come to know Him more and more. And the more we come to know Him, the more we will marvel at who He is.

Rounding out this trio, time spent with the body of Christ can help here as well. Engaging with the church gives us the chance to hear the stories of how He is moving in the lives of others can be a great encouragement to us. And sharing our own stories of God’s activity in our life can encourage them, which will serve to encourage us as well.

When Paul told us to not lack diligence in zeal, his command can be taken in two different ways. On the one hand, we can’t let our excitement exist simply for its own sake. We can’t let it lead us to drift out of control. We probably won’t pee all over the floor like my puppy did, but zeal without diligence can result in our pushing people away from the faith, or choosing to drive stakes into the ground on issues that are secondary at best. This is why young people and those new to the faith need the guidance of a seasoned believer to help guide them so they grow in healthy ways.

At the same time, maintaining our zeal for the Lord is a worthwhile endeavor. Zeal, though, is not something that is sustained long-term on its own power. It has to be fed. It has to be supported. It has to be encouraged. It takes diligence on our part to remain excited about our faith. It takes diligence to maintain our sense of awe and wonder at the God we serve. It is wise and worthwhile to take active steps to keep those things alive. This doesn’t mean we submit ourselves to emotional manipulation. The initial emotional swell of excitement when our faith is new and fresh is going to ebb, and that’s okay. But that sense of profound wonder at the glory of God and our ability to share in that and magnify that in Jesus should take root and grow deeper and richer and fuller over time as we invest in our relationship with Him in intentional ways. Do not lack diligence in zeal.

We can do this when we take the next command seriously. “Be fervent in the Spirit.” The word translated “fervent” refers to boiling water. When water begins to heat up, what is happening chemically is that the molecules are building up energy. They build up so much energy that they begin to vibrate. This is what causes the bubbling of a boiling pot. The molecules are vibrating to much that they begin to break free from the rest of the bunch and go out as steam.

I think the imagery is apt here. If we are following Jesus, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Our excitement at having the very Spirit of God in us should not be something we manage to keep to ourselves. We should have so much passion for what is good, that it bursts out of us to affect the world around us. The more diligent we are to maintain our zeal, the more fervent we will be in the Spirit. One leads naturally to the other, and vice versa. The more we boil with passion for God’s Spirit, because of God’s Spirit in us, the more we will naturally seek out the kinds of things that allow us to maintain that zeal.

This last part is important. In my senior year of college, my roommate and I shared an on-campus apartment which had a little kitchen where we could cook our own meals. We weren’t exactly gourmet, but we did okay. One time, though, we turned some green beans on to boil, but forgot to turn them down to simmer once they started boiling. Yeah…it was messy…and smelly. We had to throw that pot away. We have to seek out the kinds of things that allow us to maintain that zeal intentionally, because otherwise it will fade. And when you try to boil with zeal when there is no Spirit to boil with, the result is burnout. If we are going to effectively be fervent in the Spirit, we must be continually filling ourselves with the Spirit so that we can keep boiling away in our passion, impact in intentional, positive ways the people around us.

One of the best ways to do this happens to be Paul’s third and final command in this verse: “Serve the Lord.” If you want to be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, set about serving Him. And how do you serve Him? You serve the people He loves. When we intentionally pour into the lives of the people around us, motivated by our love for the Lord, He will make sure we stay filled with His Spirit so we can be successful in our efforts. Now, if we are doing it for ourselves in some way, we’ll quickly burn out. But when our motives are sincere, when we don’t want anything out of our service beyond the advancement of God’s kingdom, His glory will be the result.

The Westminster Catechism, a centuries-old teaching tool for helping new believers understand the Christian faith, declares right out of the gate that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When we serve the Lord, filled and constantly being filled with His Spirit, we will be achieving our primary created purpose. There isn’t anything that will keep us filled with zeal like realizing our purpose each and every day. So, serve the Lord. Be fervent in Spirit. Have great diligence in your zeal. Be who you were made to be. Follow Jesus. You’ll be glad you did.