Laodicea’s Antidote – Zeal

Responding to the common desire for a personal action plan to help heal the fractured state of the Church of God, Marshall Stiver implores us to cultivate zeal. Christ was a zealot. His desire to learn and do God’s will defined him, and led Him to decisive action. Like Christ, we establish our identity by our actions. Zeal is a matter of personal accountability.

God the Father and God the Son want us to demonstrate the unity and zeal that characterizes them. Christ will return to marry one unified Church that is zealous for good works and has overcome this world.

This condition is cultivated by stirring up the Holy Spirit, and being zealous for good works. Spiritual life depends upon this impatient, primal thirst for spiritual water, just like physical survival depends on thirst for physical water. Tomorrow is when fools repent and change. Zeal is not created spontaneously. It has to be developed individually and collectively by conscious choices and attitudes. Our private lives have a direct correlation to God’s blessing of the Church.

Be personally accountable. Wake up every morning sure of your identity as a begotten child of God, and commence to expose and eradicate your sins with the zeal and single-mindedness of Phineas. Take righteous vengeance on you own sin, killing the old man. If we instead compare ourselves amongst ourselves, then transformative power of the Holy Spirit seeps away from us.

We are sons of the most High God, and we must be consumed with being conformed to the image of Christ.

Keywords:
Luke 2:41 – Church of God – John 2:13 – zeal – will of God – zealot – accountability – Laodicean – lukewarm – II Corinthians 6:16 – I Peter 2:4 – Titus 2:13-14 – Ephesians 5:25-27 – unity – Temple of God – Body of Christ – Matthew 25:1-13 – Ecclesiastes 9:10 – work – overcoming – II Corinthians 10:12 7:10-11, 9:1 – Romans 12:5 – influence – culture – Deuteronomy 28:1 – John 4:19 – Hebrews 12:14 – restoration – relationships – forgiving – Numbers 25:5-7 – Phineas