Zeal
It seems that society has an inordinate, even inverted view of zeal. I think there are two layers to this disordered view. First, the improper view comes from the reality that men are most often zealous for the wrong things, most particularly, frivolous things. Men will sit in the snow with their shirt off to scream at the top of their lungs for someone they’ve never met and likely will never meet - and if they did, they would be imminently disappointed because this behavior would demonstrate that they’ve clearly idolized this other person - simply because this other can carry a ball a little faster than the average man. In a similar vein, the founder of the Pennsylvania colony, William Penn, observed in his musings that men are often more zealous over the purity of the breeding of their horses and cattle than they are their own offspring, being meticulous and scrupulous in which horses mate with which, but have little continence and sobriety in their own sexual mores. This is zeal, misplaced. That is the rub, though. It is not the zeal itself that is inordinate, it is the misplacement of it. Zeal is actually an honorable thing when directed appropriately. The second way that men go wrong in their understanding of zeal, however, is more subtle and pernicious. That is, understanding what good and proper zeal looks like. Zeal for holiness may look like praying fervently that one would put their own sins to death, training their children in the feat and admonition of the Lord, and being committed to family and corporate worship. Yet, sometimes, the good kind of zeal, properly directed and proportioned looks like a spear shoved through the abdomen of evil - or even evildoers themselves - and it is precisely this kind that brought peace among the encampment of Israelites and was explicitly commended by God:
“The Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.”” (Num. 25:10-12)
