Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Proportion your zeal


It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. Gal 4:18

Take then the whole of religion together, just as God has revealed it in his word; and be uniformly zealous for every part of it, according to its degree of excellence, grounding all our zeal on the one foundation, — “Jesus Christ and him crucified;” holding fast this one principle, — “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved ME, and gave himself for Me.”

Proportion your zeal to the value of its object. Be calmly zealous, therefore, First, for the Church; “the whole state of Christ’s Church militant here on earth;” and in particular for that branch thereof with which you are more immediately connected. Be more zealous for all those “ordinances which our blessed Lord hath appointed, to continue therein to the end of the world. Be more zealous for those works of mercy, those “sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased,” those marks whereby the Shepherd of Israel will know his sheep at the last day. Be more zealous still for holy tempers, for long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, lowliness, and resignation: But be most zealous of all for love, the queen of all graces, the highest perfection in earth or heaven, the very image of the invisible God, as in men below, so in angels above. For as God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him,”

-John Wesley "Sermon: On Zeal"

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