Zeal, but little knowledge
Zeal …is a burning desire to please God, do His will, and advance His glory. It's a focused desire that's characterized by passion and commitment, and it's often used to describe God and His Followers.
Zeal for God, but not according to knowledge
This is a perfect description of Paul himself before his conversion. Saul of Tarsus was a notorious persecutor of Christians before Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20). Israel also, had a lack of knowledge. But that wasn’t their only problem. They also had a moral problem: they had not submitted to the righteousness of God.
People cannot come to Jesus without the right information about the gospel, but information alone is not enough to save anyone. There must be a radical submission to the righteousness of God, putting away our own righteousness.(which is according to the law)
Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way; Christ is the end of the law; law righteousness ends for the believer, in the sense that our obedience to the law is no longer the basis for our relationship with God. The law has not come to an end, in the sense of no longer reflecting God’s standard or no longer showing us our need for a Savior. Jesus did not come to make the law milder, nor is it compelled to lower its requirements, as though it had originally asked too much—Absolutely Not!!!
The law is still holy, just and good, and ought not to be altered in one jot or tittle, nor can it be. The law of Moses made the path to God’s righteousness, by way of the law… simple!
If you still want to live by the law (find life through the law), you must do the law – and do it completely and perfectly; but the righteousness of faith: is based on Jesus, and we don’t have to “work” to become righteous. We are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Instead of having to go to great lengths to achieve righteousness by the law, we can immediately receive righteousness by faith, by trusting in the word of the gospel.
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
With Jesus’ righteousness, all distinction (differences in receiving righteousness), disappears —Jews, Greeks, bond, free; male, female.
For “WHOEVER” calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
If you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, you agree with what God said about Jesus, and with what Jesus said about Himself.
It means you recognize that Jesus is God, that He is the Messiah, and that His work on the cross is the only way of salvation for mankind.
To believe in your heart means agreeing with the facts of the cross, and the resurrection (not mere “intellectual” agreement), Mental assent is not enough! You must believe in your heart; with accompanying actions of that faith.
The faith that saves is not believing “certain” truths, nor simply believing that Jesus is just a Savior; but it is resting on him, depending on him, trusting with all your weight in Christ as the foundation of your life and hope. This is the faith which saves.”
Many who are “confessors” in His existence, have this “zeal,” but not according to knowledge …they expend all their efforts at what it means “to them,” to be saved—not based on what is written; they work hard, but on all the wrong things!
▪️ Zealous people are zealous for causes, such as God or a religious cause, but lack knowledge of the actuality of what it means to be saved and to be righteous.
▪️ They can be dangerous and cause harm. For example, they might not question their own motives or actions, and may end up abusing others while thinking they are doing good!
▪️ They want to be followers of God, but they do not want to listen to God.
▪️ They want to “appear” godly, but they do not want to “be” godly.
▪️ They have “ignorant zeal” that prevents them from seeing Jesus as their Messiah, and they walk according to “works.”
Consequences of religious zeal without knowledge include:
🟥 Alienation from Christ,
🟥Legalism
🟥Religious terrorism
🟥Missing the righteousness of God
🟥 Stumbling over Jesus
Examples of zeal without knowledge :
…when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant while defending Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. His intention was to defend Jesus at all costs, even if it meant dying, but he missed his mark in the heat of the moment.
…the Jewish people who were faithful to their religion, worked extremely hard…but were constantly being corrected by Jesus himself!
Zeal not according to knowledge may:
⚫️ nullify the effectiveness of your service for God.
⚫️ may involve you being in many needless difficulties, and perplexities
⚫️ may cause you to think unkindly and unjustly of God
⚫️ may cause you to bear an “untrue witness,” of the Lord
Such was the case with Job when he declared, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,” not realizing that it was Satan, and not God, who took away his children and his goods.
It was Job's lack of knowledge of the workings of both God, and Satan that caused him to complain that the arrows of the Almighty were against him. It was Job's lack of knowledge, causing him to justify himself, rather than God, which kindled the wrath of the Lord's spokesman Elihu and drew from him a blunt rebuke that, "Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom. . . Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplies words without knowledge."
When "the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind" it was with the piercing question: "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?"
It was then, that the Lord set before Job the fierce dealings of leviathan, the seven-headed monster, which to the ancients was a symbol of Satan and was "king over all the children of pride." Then the eyes of Job were opened and he saw what he had not seen before—that it was Satan and not God who had brought to him all his woes. Job’s conclusion was, “I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. . . . Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"
Of what did Job repent? It was his zeal without knowledge, drawing from him, his bitter complaints and his misleading testimony concerning the nature and works of God.
Christ has put an end to ‘law righteousness’ —but He freely gives God’s righteousness…to those who believe!