Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
May 13, 2018
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Paul's desire for Israel had its underlying root in the fact that he had been the prototypical "Israelite" until "God was pleased to reveal His Son" to him.
Introduction: In last week's study we looked into the restatement by Paul of his attitude toward his "kinsmen according to the flesh". In that look we assumed two things: first, that Paul was responding to a very subtle "theological" argument by his adversaries (that good theology cannot arise out of a heart of hate); and, second, that the Roman believers needed to know that good theology produces a very real "love for one's enemies", just as Jesus taught, and that Paul agreed with the "theological" point that hate is not a good seed bed for good theology and that he was not guilty "as charged".
This study is, as Paul intended, a look into his "reason" for his longing for Israel's "salvation". He begins verse two with "for", indicating a rationale for the prior information. From there his reasoning, though very solid, works through a maze of seeming contradictions.
- I. The Problem as Paul Set It Up in His Letters.
- A. Most of his uses of the "positive" issue of operating by "zeal" are decidedly "negative".
- 1. Most "operations by zeal" are frowned upon by biblical writers.
- a. Luke uses the term twice (in Acts) and both times are "accusatory".
- 1) In Acts 5:17 we are told that the high priest and all that were with him (Sadducees) were filled with "zeal" (translated by the Authorized Version as "indignation") so that they arrested the apostles and cast them into prison.
- 2) In Acts 13:45 we are told that "the Jews saw the multitudes [and] ... were filled with "zeal" (translated by the Authorized Version as "envy") so that they deliberately set up a campaign to publicly speak against and contradict Paul's Gospel.
- b. In the only other use of this word in Romans (13:13), the meaning is decidedly evil (the root of "strife" is "zeal", just as "drunkenness" is the root of "rioting" and "wantonness" is the root of "chambering").
- c. Paul used the word in 1 Corinthians 3:3 to accuse the Corinthians of embracing a "zeal" that produces "carnal" "strife and divisions".
- d. In Galatians 5:20 Paul says that "zeal" is a "work of the flesh".
- e. In Philippians 3:6 he explained that his "zeal" led to his persecution of the Church, which, as he declared in 1 Timothy 1:13, made him the "chief of sinners".
- f. And James, in both 3:14 and 3:16, says that "zeal" produces "strife".
- 2. There are, however, a few references to "zeal" as a good thing, the chiefest of which is John 2:17 where Jesus' cleansing of the temple was driven by "zeal".
- B. In our current text, Paul is setting up the "zeal" of the Jews as his reason for wanting to see them "saved" (making it appear to be a "good" thing).
- 1. The "I bear them witness" seems to indicate a "positive" thing.
- 2. That he says that it is "a zeal of God" also seems to indicate that he saw it as a positive thing.
- II. The Actual Significance.
- A. There is an extremely significant "BUT" in the sentence.
- 1. As a strong adversative, it negates the implication of "zeal" being a "good" thing.
- 2. As the introduction to the adversative idea, it decidedly erases "zeal" as a "good" thing.
- B. The problem: the "zeal" leaves the owners without the key to understanding.
- 1. According to Revelation 3:19, "lukewarmness" can only be resolved by "repentance" sponsored by "zeal".
- 2. Without "repentance", "zeal" leaves a person in the condition described by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:7.
- a. The word Paul used in our text for "knowledge" is an intensified form of the word that indicates knowledge that is gained through intimate experience of the details of some "object of knowledge".
- b. Thus, there is a kind of "knowing that comes from a fairly detailed experience of multiple details of its object", and there is an intensive "knowing" of that kind that signals a more comprehensive "detailed experience" that allows for "understanding" (a kind of "connecting of the dots" that mere experience of many details does not produce).
- c. The key to gaining the ability to "connect the dots" is found in the attitude required of "repentance" and without that, there is a condition of ever learning and never able to come to the "connecting of the dots" kind of knowing.
- C. Our conclusion: "zeal", of itself" is simply a single-minded fixation upon both an "objective" (love) and a "method" (faith); it is not, of itself, a "moral" issue.
- 1. The "morals" of "zeal" are bound up in the Love/Faith complex driving it.
- 2. Paul perfectly understood the Love/Faith complex driving his adversaries because he had been precisely in their shoes.
- 3. It was his own former condition that made him sensitive to the blindness of his "kinsmen according to flesh" and, thus, he wished for them what had happened to him.
