Holy Zeal

HOLY ZEAL

What the Bible teaches about passion for God

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: August 20, 2023

Series: Neglected Doctrines

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction to Sermon Series

This sermon is the fifth sermon in a sermon series that will be preached intermittently over the next few years. The sermon series is entitled “Neglected Doctrines” and emerges out of my observation that certain important biblical doctrines are often neglected or undervalued by evangelical churches in America. By God’s grace, let’s be a congregation that gives careful attention to all that the Bible teaches!

Introduction to Sermon

This sermon is titled “Holy Zeal: What the Bible teaches about passion for God”. Every now and then, you might describe a faithful Christian by saying that he or she is ‘on fire for God’. On fire, boiling hot, consuming devotion, full of ardor and fervor, full-throttled zeal. Does that describe you?

The lukewarm Laodiceans were not burning hot with heartfelt devotion to the Lord. They were smug and self-satisfied in their outward prosperity, and they were tragically out-of-touch with their spiritual poverty. They were wretched branches that were disconnected from the life-giving vine. Therefore, Jesus advised them to make a course correction: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19) The only good way forward for calloused and coldhearted churchgoers is to pursue repentance with intensity – no half-measures, no lip-service, but with zeal to be restored to fellowship with Christ.

Then, once fellowship has been restored and devotion has been reignited, zeal should characterize the entire course of our walk with God: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” (Romans 12:11)

Of course, it should be noted that our fervency, our zeal, our boiling hot devotion, must be oriented to Jesus. Many people have misguided zeal – zeal that is oriented to someone or something other than Jesus – and this misguided zeal has no spiritual value in God’s sight. This means that the mere presence of zeal doesn’t prove anything one way or the other about whether the zealous person is walking rightly with the Lord. Therefore, this sermon is not about ‘zeal’ but about ‘holy zeal’. It is about holy, set apart, God-centered passion for God that is pleasing in God’s sight.

We’ll take three steps in order to understand holy zeal. First, we will take some time to ponder unholy zeal. Second, we will meditate on God’s zeal – that is, the zeal that God Himself has. And third, we will arrive at our consideration of godly zeal – that is, the zeal that God’s people ought to have in their everyday life.

UNHOLY ZEAL

So, what does the Bible say about unholy zeal? Quite a bit, actually. Don’t be fooled: God is not impressed with the religious zeal of ignorant people. God is not impressed with the religious zeal of unbelievers, of heretics, of false teachers, of members of cults.

Unholy religious zeal

The Pharisees exhibited zeal for mission in God’s name, but all they succeeded at doing was expanding the reach of hell: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15)

One such Pharisee was named Paul. Paul was zealous for the Hebrew religion. He wrote of his pre-Christian life: “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” (Galatians 1:14) Paul expressed his zeal by persecuting the church (Philippians 3:6). Paul wasn’t your run of the mill persecutor, either: “I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” (Galatians 1:13) Paul had an intense religious zeal that put him on a collision course with the Lord God.

In due course, Paul the zealous Pharisee became Paul the faithful Christian apostle, and he had this to say about his fellow Israelites who refused to believe the gospel:

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” (Romans 10:1-3)

These Israelites had a zeal for God, but it was a misguided zeal. In their zeal, they attempted to secure God’s favor by building up a resume of their own righteousness. But that only succeeded at entrenching them in rebellion against God: “they did not submit to God’s righteousness”. The Bible is clear: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (Romans 3:10-11) All the religious zeal in the world won’t make an unrighteous person righteous. All the rules and rituals, all the prayers and principles of conduct, all the church programs and volunteer activities, won’t render you righteous in the court of God’s justice. Zeal for God is no substitute for submission to God – and submission to God means submission to God’s righteousness: God clothes you in His righteousness when you humbly receive His dear Son. Everyone who doesn’t believe remains naked and ashamed, regardless of how zealous they are.

The unholy zeal of misguided ambition

Misguided religious zeal is a common form of unholy zeal. Another form of unholy zeal is passionate devotion to yourself. The Greek word that is sometimes translated ‘zeal’ can also be translated as ‘jealousy’. This makes sense, because the English words zeal and jealousy both suggest intensity of feeling, and the critical question is whether the intense devotion is directed to a worthy or unworthy end:

• “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.” (Romans 13:13)

• “For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Corinthians 3:3)

• “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” (James 3:14-16)

‘Zeal’ or ‘jealousy’ is good when it is directed toward a worthy end, but ‘zeal’ and ‘jealousy’ are bad when they are directed to an unworthy end. These three passages from Romans 13, 1 Corinthians 3, and James 3 connect jealousy with quarreling, strife, and selfish ambition. The point is obvious: unholy zeal is characterized by getting passionate about all the wrong things. People are zealous or jealous for their own honor, they want to get their own way, they want their own opinions and preferences to carry sway, they want to hold power over others for selfish reasons, they want their clique or faction or interest group to dominate the whole church, they are devoted to personalities, they deploy underhanded and fleshly tactics in order to pursue their own agenda. Holy zeal or holy jealousy means being passionately devoted to the best things for the right reasons. Paul expressed holy jealousy when he said to the Corinthians, “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2) Paul was passionately devoted to the spiritual purity and fidelity of Christ’s church. In contrast, many people are passionately devoted to their own preferred side show, featuring themselves and their allies. Such unholy zeal or unholy jealousy means being passionately devoted to inferior things for impure motives. Diotrephes is a case in point:

“Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first [there’s the root of his problem!], does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.” (3 John 9-10)

Diotrephes was passionately devoted to his own prominent position. He expressed this zeal for himself by opposing other ministers, by slandering other ministers, by refusing to show hospitality to faithful brothers, and by kicking out anyone who wanted to show hospitality to these faithful brothers. In other words, Diotrephes demanded loyalty to himself, and he undertook passionate action against anyone who threatened his own prominence. 

Are you passionately devoted to the best things for the right reasons? Or are you passionately devoted to inferior things for impure motivations?

GOD’S ZEAL

Having considered the tragic reality of unholy zeal, let’s now move to a consideration of God’s zeal.

God’s zeal for the glory of His infinite worth

God has great and immeasurable zeal. God has unfathomable zeal for the infinite glory and worth of His holy name. All glory, laud, and honor belong rightly to Him as the sovereign Creator, and when we give glory, laud, and honor to man-made idols, His holy jealousy is inflamed:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

Not because He is needy and insecure, but because He is the infinitely majestic King and infinitely valuable Redeemer, the sovereign Lord will receive exclusive worship from human beings or – if they refuse – they will receive His wrath. God is jealous over His incomparable worth. He alone is worthy, and everything else is like a tiny drop in the bucket.

God’s zeal to carry out His perfect plan

A well-known passage in Isaiah shows us that God has a firm resolve and unwavering commitment to pursue His own perfect plan. Isaiah 8 concludes with the tragic reality of a sin-sick world: distress, hunger, rage, “the gloom of anguish” (Isaiah 8:22), and “thick darkness” (Isaiah 8:22). Isaiah 9 begins with a great reversal: God’s grace descends upon the world, light shines in the darkness, gladness is given in place of the gloom, a rich harvest bursts forth in answer to the hunger, and lasting peace is established as oppression and hostility are taken away. This great reversal takes place through the coming of the promised King:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

What was promised through the prophet Isaiah began to be fulfilled when the Word became flesh, when the true Light came into the world, when Christ the Lord was born in Bethlehem. What is the driving force behind the fulfillment of God’s promise to give His Son for the salvation of this sin-sick world? When I read Isaiah 9:6-7, I didn’t read the final part of verse 7. After all that Yahweh promised to do to bring forth light and salvation and righteousness and peace through the appointed King, we read these words: “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:7) Divine zeal – God’s own boundless passion to do what He has promised to do – is the driving force behind the fulfillment of God’s promises. God is absolutely determined to keep His Word and accomplish His purpose.

The zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ

As it is with the Father, so it is with the Son. It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that our Lord Jesus Christ shares the zeal of His Father. Do you remember when Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem?

“In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”” (John 2:14-17)

Human beings often get upset and undertake aggressive action because they are consumed with zeal for their own ego or for their own selfish agenda. They didn’t get their way, and now they’re throwing a temper tantrum, or they’re throwing punches, or they’re throwing objects across the room, or they’re hurling insults at other people. But Jesus’ zeal was profoundly different than the ordinary zeal of sinful men. Jesus was consumed with zeal for His Father’s house; Jesus was consumed with zeal for His Father’s honor and name; Jesus was consumed with zeal for the purity and integrity of worship that ought to have taken place in His Father’s house. Jesus was outraged that the place of worship had been turned into a place of commerce; Jesus was outraged that the place of prayer had been turned into a marketplace; Jesus was outraged that the place of sacrifice had been turned into a sales arena.

John 2:14-17 teaches us that it is possible to be outraged and undertake aggressive action – and to be perfectly in the right while doing so. In fact, part of Jesus’ righteousness is simply this: He was rightly consumed with zeal for His Father’s house, His Father’s honor, His Father’s glory – and He didn’t hide it. He wasn’t privately committed to His Father’s honor but publicly ashamed to admit it. Far from it: Jesus was not ashamed to be seen as a faithful Son to His beloved Father. If the truth is to be told, then we must understand that part of our unrighteousness is that all too often we are not consumed with zeal for the Father’s house, the Father’s honor, and the Father’s glory. When biblical worship in the church is replaced with cheap entertainment, shouldn’t you be consumed with holy zeal for your Father’s house? When biblical preaching in the church is replaced with worldly wisdom, shouldn’t you be consumed with holy zeal for your Father’s house? When biblical ministry in the church is replaced with gimmicks and manipulative techniques, shouldn’t you be consumed with holy zeal for your Father’s house? When biblical holiness in the church is replaced with indifference to obedience and flagrant violations of God’s law, shouldn’t you be consumed with holy zeal for your Father’s house? Where are the courageous Christians who are willing to be publicly seen and even willing to be publicly ridiculed because they care about the purity and integrity of their Father’s house more than they care about their own comfort and ease?

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is zealous to fulfill all of His promises, and our Lord Jesus Christ is zealous to uphold the honor and worth of His Father. If we are to be a holy people, rooted in the Lord and set apart for His purpose, then God’s zeal must stir up in our own hearts a zeal for the Lord.

HOLY ZEAL

So third, we must ponder the godly zeal and holy zeal that God’s people ought to exhibit.

The example of Phinehas in Numbers 25

As a great example of an ordinary person (like us) having extraordinary zeal for God, I want us to consider the example of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. In Numbers 25, the children of Israel fell into vile sin:

“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor.” (Numbers 25:1-3a)

Instead of remaining loyal to Yahweh and worshiping Him alone, and instead of preserving faithfulness to Yahweh by practicing sexual purity within the marriage covenant and by marrying within the extended family of Israel, the Israelites strayed far from God’s boundaries. They threw purity to the wind; they shacked up with Moabite women; they worshiped Moabite gods; they celebrated the feast of false gods; and they forged a bond with the false god, Baal of Peor. The unfaithfulness that was already in the hearts of these Israelites broke forth in open rebellion. How did the Lord respond? He responded with intense wrath that was determined to swiftly destroy the evildoers: the destruction of the evildoers would satisfy His wrath and thereby turn His wrath away from Israel.

“And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”” (Numbers 25:3b-5)

God will not be mocked and belittled, but will meet rebellion with decisive judgment. Leaders bear a greater measure of responsibility, and so they were executed in broad daylight. Meanwhile, as we will see in verses 8-9, the Lord had sent a plague upon the people, and many Israelites died as a result. As Matthew Henry points out in his commentary, the plague would not be taken away until the wicked leaders were executed.[1]

Now at such a time as this, the proper response to the Lord’s fierce anger and severe action against the people ought to have been humility, confession, and repentance in sackcloth and ashes. It seems that many Israelites had this healthy response, because many Israelites were weeping, as we shall see in verse 6. But one Israelite man’s action was totally out of sync with the solemnity of the moment. Instead of weeping with the rest of his fellow Israelites, this one Israelite man – and he was a prominent man, “Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites” (Numbers 25:14) – this prominent Israelite strolled across the field with a Midianite woman and brought this foreign woman to her family. In this moment of severe judgment upon the nation, instead of bowing low in order to seek the Lord’s mercy, this man was engaging in conduct that would only compound Israel’s guilt. Israel had gotten in trouble because their men had fooled around with Moabite women, and now this lone Israelite man was rolling the dice with a Midianite woman. It was a foolish choice, and Aaron’s grandson Phinehas was furious. Don’t miss the flow of thought: the Lord was furious in verse 3 and took swift action against “the chiefs of the people”; now in verse 7 Phinehas is furious and he takes swift action against the son of an Israelite chief and the foreign woman with him. Phinehas has Yahweh’s zeal for the holiness of Yahweh’s people. Look at verses 6-13:

“And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

“And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”” (Numbers 25:6-13)

Notice these two phrases: “he was jealous with my [the LORD’s] jealousy”; “he was jealous for his God”. Phinehas had a heart for God, just like Paul. Paul had “divine jealousy” for the holiness of the Corinthian church. Phinehas had divine jealousy for the holiness of the Israelite congregation. Phinehas’ heart was shaped by his loyal devotion to the Lord: Phinehas loved what the Lord loved, and Phinehas hated what the Lord hated. Phinehas didn’t want to make a name for himself; instead, Phinehas wanted the Lord’s name to be honored in Israel. The priority in the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray was obviously front and center in Phinehas’ heart: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)

Do you display holy zeal through concrete action?

Phinehas, an imperfect but faithful priest, had holy zeal for the purity of God’s covenant community and he displayed his holy zeal through concrete action. Jesus, our perfect and great high priest, had holy zeal for the holiness of God’s house and he displayed his holy zeal through concrete action.

Do you display holy zeal through concrete action? Have you learned to live life from God’s perspective? Do you care about what God cares about? Do you love what God loves? Do you hate what God hates? Do you have a holy zeal for God’s house, for God’s church, for God’s people, for God’s image in mankind, for God’s gospel, for God’s truth, for God’s righteousness? As Christians, we are not called to get stirred up about the things that are important to people. People are not the measure of all things, and people are frequently wide of the mark in their assessments and priorities, so we shouldn’t get provoked or inspired simply because other people say we should. Instead, we are called to get stirred up about the things that are important to God.

Three exhortations to promote fervency in your devotion to the Lord

Let me conclude with three exhortations that are designed to promote fervency in your devotion to the Lord.

Anchor your zeal in God’s Word

First, you must anchor your zeal in God’s Word. True zeal must accord with the knowledge of God. Drinking deeply of Scripture – knowing God’s heart and mind from Scripture – this is the only way to ensure that you have holy zeal. Just consider the attitude of the man who wrote Psalm 119. He hungers and thirsts for God’s words: “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times” (Psalm 119:20); “I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.” (Psalm 119:131). His delight in God’s Word gets translated into doing what God’s Word says to do: “I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments” (Psalm 119:60). This faithful man’s earnest devotion to God’s words shapes the way that he relates to wicked ways and wicked people: “Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.” (Psalm 119:128) “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.” (Psalm 119:163) He doesn’t meditate on Scripture merely for the sake of a little personal inspiration. Instead, Scripture is the decisive lens through which he sees the entire world. Disobedient people break his heart: “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” (Psalm 119:136) Disobedient people also provoke his righteous heart: “Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law.” (Psalm 119:53) “I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands.” (Psalm 119:158) “My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.” (Psalm 119:139) Too many evangelicals who have been schooled in sentimental niceties will never speak this way, but we should let God’s Word shape us to have a holy outlook! The faithful man of Psalm 119 is not passionate for himself; he is passionate for God, for God’s law and God’s honor. When you make God’s Word your treasure, it governs the way you see the world, it puts fire in your bones, and it makes you passionate for the things that God cares about.

Jesus died to make you zealous

Second, you must understand that Jesus died to make you zealous. Jesus graciously saved you in order to establish you in holy zeal. Titus 2 tells us:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11-14)

Prior to redemption, we were characterized by ungodliness, disobedience, and worldly passions and pleasures (Titus 2:12; Titus 3:3). If we were zealous, we were zealous for all the wrong things – and our zeal was only an expression of our lawlessness. But Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for sin in order to lift us out of that lawlessness and to make us His pure and holy people who are justified and transformed by God’s grace. Therefore, the zeal that stirs in the hearts of God’s redeemed people is a pure and holy zeal, it is a zeal that results from the power of Christ’s blood, it is a zeal that is shaped by God’s mercy and grace, it is a zeal that runs along the path of self-control, uprightness, and godliness, and ultimately it is a zeal that we experience because we belong to Christ. We don’t manufacture this zeal out of our own resources, and we don’t manage it in our own wisdom. We are being worked upon by Christ, by His grace, by His Word, and by His Spirit, and thus Christ generates holy zeal in us. But what is our zeal directed to? What is our zeal motivated to do? This leads me to the final exhortation.

Express your holy zeal in service to others

So third, you must express your holy zeal in service to others. Holy zeal is experienced in the heart but it cannot remain in the heart. Holy zeal is not passion for its own sake, but passion to serve other people for the Lord’s sake.

Most of the time, holy zeal doesn’t mean thrusting a sword through an immoral and idolatrous man, as Phinehas did. But it is important to understand that Phinehas’ action was indeed an act of gracious service to his fellow Israelites, for by his zealous action he “made atonement for the people of Israel”. Phinehas was a mediator of mercy. Similarly, most of the time holy zeal doesn’t mean turning over tables in a temple and kicking people out of the temple, as Jesus did. But Jesus’ action was also a gracious action in that He was determined to preserve God’s house as a place of prayer for the benefit of worshipers who need to draw near to the Father of mercy.

Most of the time, holy zeal simply means acting from the heart for the good of the person in front of you. True and holy zeal is motivated to do a world of good in the lives of other people. The passage I just read – Titus 2:11-14 – celebrates God’s transforming grace in our lives, and it concludes by describing Christ’s people as those “who are zealous for good works”. After celebrating God’s transforming grace again in Titus 3:3-8, Paul concludes it by saying that believers should “be careful to devote themselves to good works” (Titus 3:8). The bottom line is that holy zeal demonstrates itself in the regular acts of practical love for other people. The call to holy zeal is not a call to do something dramatic or to undertake an isolated act of heroism. To be “zealous for good works” and to be “[devoted] to good works” obviously means much more than doing occasional good works throughout the week. Instead, zealous devotion means that your whole life is taken up with good works. These good works start at home (read Titus 2:1-10 or 1 Timothy 5:1-16 or Ephesians 5:22-6:4), where each family member ought to have a continual joyful inclination to help and serve other family members all throughout the day. Radically devoted zealous Christians don’t start by signing up for awesome ministries someplace else that is away from the thick and thin of everyday life; they start by laying down their lives and resources for their own family, their extended family, their co-workers, their everyday neighbors, and of course their church family: “[Since] you are eager [zealous] for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Corinthians 14:12). If we display holy zeal through practical loving action in our immediate and everyday relationships, then our holy zeal will overflow everywhere we go: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” (Titus 3:1-2) I wonder how many new disciples we might make and how many doors might open up for sharing the gospel, if we had that kind of zeal for honorable, winsome, and gracious conduct at all times.

Dear brothers and sisters, the call upon us is not to be zealous for sporadic and dramatic moments, but to be zealous to do good unto others all the time, in the Lord’s name and for the Lord’s sake. As Jesus said: “[Let] your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

ENDNOTES

[1] Matthew Henry. A Commentary on the Whole Bible: Volume 1: Genesis to Deuteronomy. Old Tappan: Fleming H. Revell Company: p. 687.