John 2:17  Passion For Christ

John 2:17

 His disciples remembered that it was written: “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

The gospel, according to John, is the apostle John’s eyewitness account of what he saw, heard, and felt Jesus the Messiah did. In chapter 1, John states that Jesus, the light of the world, came into the world, and the world did not accept Him. He came to save His own people, but His people did not accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. So, Jesus was not taken but was pushed away, and eventually executed by those He loved, even counting you and me. My 1 Samuel 1:20 Teaching God’s Word website mission statement is, this is the gospel according to Samuel, my personal Bible study I like to share. But since that time, many of my family, friends, and church family have distanced themselves away from me. The disciples who followed Jesus saw His zeal and passion for the Lord’s house. The religious leaders were confused by the actions of Jesus, questioned His authority, and asked for a sign to prove He was the Son of Father God. A person who is zeal for the Lord will lose family and friends. The passage where the disciple remembers that it was written, says that the family and friends will feel distant from someone who has a zeal for God and sometimes can’t understand themselves. 

Psalm 69:7 Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children; 9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, That became my reproach.

The word zeal is written in the Holy Bible 36 times. The definition of zeal is having passion, intense emotional desire, or chasing whatever a person wants in life. The apostle Paul’s zeal for God was so great he felt an urge to arrest or execute anyone who blasphemed God’s name. The Lord knew Paul had a zeal for God’s truth, so He corrected Paul in a blinding way and redirected his passion. To live is life; in reality, how lead to everlasting life?

Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. 15 But when He who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace was pleased.