McKnight on Zealotry
If you don't read anything else today, check out Scot McKnight's post on Zealotry. Scot has hit on, in a profound way, a problem that I have encountered and experienced again and again. He hits - I think exactly - on (1) why extra-biblical rule-making and judgmentalism go hand in hand, (2) the true motivations that underlie judgmentalism, and (3) why judgmentalism is ultimately a lack of trust in God and others.
Technorati Tags: judgmentalism, scot mcknight, zealotry
Technorati Tags: judgmentalism, scot mcknight, zealotry
posted by Matt at Friday, July 07, 2006
2 Comments:
The comment I left on Scot's blog:
Not a bad thought, but I think 'zealous' is not the word to be used. We want to be like Jesus, and he was zealous ('zeal for your house will consume me.')
Additionally, Paul wrote that we should never be lacking in zeal, but that we should keep our spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. And elsewhere that it is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always.
On the other hand, Solomon wrote that it is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.
In my opinion, this is the middle ground that we should be looking for. Zeal is not bad, but zeal without knowledge sure is. Zeal without knowledge is what led Paul to persecute and kill Christians. Zeal with knowledge led Paul to establish the church among the gentiles.
Jonathan
It took me a while to get back to this, but - I like what you are saying, too, Jonathan.
I think Pharaseeism is probably a better term for what McKnight is describing, since you don't want to confuse the particular phenomenon that McKnight is calling "Zealotry" with appropriate zeal in general.
Still, I also think McKnight is hitting on a pretty powerful idea here - about how people create extra-biblical rules because they don't trust God or themselves (or God's spirit).
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