Fervent In Spirit, Serving the Lord

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

We don’t often study the period of time between the Old and New Testaments, but some interesting things happened during that time, which set the stage for the Gospel record. An impassioned revolutionary, Judas Maccabaeus, led a successful revolt against the Greeks serving Mithradates, whom we know as Antiochus III, or Antiochus Epiphanes.   

Those spirited revolutionaries lived by a motto found in an apocryphal book, which says, “Be zealous for the law and give your lives for the covenant." [1 Maccabees 2:50]  At some point between that rebellion and the New Testament, those politically oriented guardians of Judaism became known as Zealots.

Jesus chose a Zealot to follow Him. His name was Simon, referred to in Scripture as Simon the Zealot. Before his commitment to Christ, Simon was one of those highly motivated activists. And surely he approached ministry with that kind of passion.

What interests me, for the point of this eDevotion, is the realization that Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector, served in ministry together. Under normal circumstances, that would never have happened. Simon would have slit the throat of Matthew, having considered him a traitor to the Jews. 

But because they each committed their lives to follow Him, Christ broke through their differences and taught them to love each other and serve in ministry together for the glory of God. 

Christ transformed these men, and others who would also serve Him during His time on earth—people from different backgrounds, personality types, emotional characteristics, and more. And He asks the same of us. We would do well to follow the example of Simon the Zealot and Matthew the revenuer by fervently serving the Lord together! 

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord... Romans 12:10-11