Passion isn’t always truth, so we need to be careful to discern what people are being passionate about.

Galatians 4:17-20

17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

I originally came from Sydney, but I lived in Ballarat, just out of Melbourne for eight years. My two children were born in Ballarat. Everyone in Victoria has a team (as far as I am aware, EVERYONE has a team).  It is a bit of an issue which team your boyfriend supports – a bit like marrying into the wrong team. It can cause a problem. I adopted the Sydney Swans, because I came from Sydney and I needed a team. They are still my ‘team’ but I wouldn’t really call myself a ‘zealot’, I’m more of a Rugby Union girl. Don’t tell the Victorians. Down in Victoria, the team you support, is a big deal, but it’s an even bigger deal that you know about AFL.  AFL is HUGE in Victoria. People don’t just love it, they are zealous about it. I started to follow it a bit when I was there, but my heart wasn’t really in it.  My son, who was 18months old when we left, grew up here, and surprisingly for me started following the Brisbane Lions AFL as his team from an early age. There must have been something in the air down there. He had no interest in Rugby Union.

In the same way that not following AFL could really alienate you from the social group in Victoria (What was there to talk about if not your AFL team?), in this reading we have two groups with two different ways of thinking. Paul is talking about salvation by grace in this passage, and the Jews are talking about salvation by works. In order to influence the Galatians, the Judaizers needed to close out Paul and prevent him from speaking the truth to them. The ultimate aim for the Jews was to get the Galatians to follow them and adopt a lifestyle of works.

Paul has used zeal twice in verse 17, highlighting that the Jews were only interested in creating a personal following – they were zealous to create followers whose zeal was focused on them.  To do this the Jews spoke and acted with ‘zeal’.  They showed overwhelming enthusiasm. A lot can be said for the power of enthusiastic persuasion – There is that saying ‘fake it till you make it’. Showing interest in someone, caring for them, blocking out contact with anyone with a different message and finally being really enthusiastic about your own message has incredible power.  Flattery and enthusiasm can be blinding.

This was Paul’s warning to the Galatians. Just because someone is really excited about their message or story, and they are showing love to you, does not mean they are speaking the truth. Paul was worried that the Galatians were being blinded by the Jews who were being zealous with a wrong message. Paul would have been happy if the Jews were zealous about the same message – zeal in and of itself is not a bad thing, but it is naive to use zeal (passion) alone as the criteria for measuring whether what someone is saying is true.

Head: Am I persuaded by the words people say or the passion that accompanies those words?

Heart: I know God’s truth, do I share that truth with zeal?

Hands: Can I add zeal to my conversation when I talk about the opportunities for community or the message of Jesus this week?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the reminder of the power of zeal as well as the negative impact when people try to lure us away with their enthusiasm. Help me to not to get distracted by positive, focused, flattery that is designed to take my eyes off you. In the same way, help me to inject zeal into my message as I know that I speak the truth about a loving saviour and that I have a message of hope and joy to share. Let me add enthusiasm and caring to my conversation that I might encourage others to join our community and get to know you personally. Amen.

A song to listen to: Relentless

Melinda Martin-Khan