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Zeal about religion may be very far from religious zeal; and as the abuse of the best thing is proverbially the worst, there are few passions that have proved more truly Satanic in their operations and consequences, than a blind and misguided zeal about God and divine things.

I. WE MUST BE SURE THAT ITS OBJECT IS THE TRUE ONE. Personal religion. There may be a great deal of profession, with little life or spirit. It must have the heart, as well as the mind in it.

II. IT MUST ALWAYS BE IN A GOOD THING.

1. A truth.

2. A duty.

III. THE PRINCIPLE OR MOTIVE OF ZEAL MUST BE GOOD. God's glory, not our own advantage or comfort.

IV. IT MUST BE PROPERLY PROPORTIONED. Every truth and every duty is good, and ought to be attended to in its proper place; but truths and duties have various degrees of importance, and we must not prosecute the lower to the neglect of the higher.

V. IT MUST BE CONSISTENT, UNIFORM, AND PERSEVERING. It does not burn and shiver alternately, nor pass with uncertain and capricious mutability from the torrid to the frigid, and from the frigid to the torrid zone of feeling. It is not the sudden and flickering flame, however brilliant; and lively, that fuses the hard ore, but the glowing heat of the well-regulated furnace.

VI. THE MEANS, AS WELL AS THE OBJECT, OF CHRISTIAN ZEAL MUST BE GOOD. Nothing may be used that is at variance with any of the great principles of moral rectitude. We cannot advance the Divine honour by first doing dishonour to the Divine law. No fighting or persecuting zeal, no indulgence of passion, can be tolerated in this hallowed cause.

(R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

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KJV: But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

WEB: But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.