Zeal For Your Church Will Consume Me

Zeal For Your Church Will Consume Me
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 2:16-17

Christ loves the house of God, his temple. Today God’s temple is the church, in particular each Christian, and all of us, as we are gathered together. “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:17). 

Jesus is zealous for his church. So zealous that he will die to redeem us, bearing our sin that we might be transformed into his perfect church. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25).

If you love God, then like Jesus, you should naturally love his house, which is his people, the church. The normal healthy Christian heart loves the church. We share Christ’s zeal for his church. 

Those professing Christians who do not love the church, the body of Christ, have something gone wrong in their hearts or in their beliefs. Perhaps they have been deeply hurt by members of a church and this has not yet healed properly. Or maybe they have allowed a root of bitterness to grow in their heart. Or perhaps they have divorced ecclesiology from Christ in their thoughts. “I love Christ, but not his church,” they might say. Or perhaps they have let individualism win over the community of God’s people. “I can worship God just fine on my own,” they rationalize. 

Certainly, churches fail to love well, and worse. Members and leaders in churches may sin badly against others. Indeed, an entire local church may be so lost in sin that it is more a “Synagogue of Satan” than any house of God. (See: Rev. 2:9, 3:9)

These ungodly people in churches cause the faithful intense pain. Sadly, I know this all too well. But while we may necessarily leave one erring local church or another, we cannot give up on THE Church. This is the bride of Christ, whom he loves. If we love him, we must also love his bride. This was his direction to Peter. “‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep’” (John 21:16).

Of course, love for Jesus’ bride means we will be zealous for her purity, as Jesus was. We may need to overturn some tables and denounce the false professors who masquerade as Christians. 

But we should not quit THE church. Even when one church has hurt us deeply, we should return to his church, to find fellowship with his bride again. This we should do in order to serve others with the gifts he has given us to share with his church. We should return in order to worship with brothers and sisters gathered as his church. We should return in order to take part more effectively in his kingdom’s advance through his church. We should return to love his people, his church. “A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also  are to love one another” (John 13:34-35).

The church plant I pastor now has faithful believers who have also been hurt by people in their past churches. Yet, here they are, bruised, but eager to engage the Body of Christ. Timid to hope, but still longing for a church home, and so willing to trust Christ and take the risk. That is the Christlike zeal that brings us back to one another again, around Christ.

If we profess Christ, if we follow Christ, if we love Christ, then let his love for his church be ours! “Zeal for your house will consume me.”