Proverbs 19
Verse 2:
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
nor to be hasty and miss the way.
This makes a lot of sense. If we’re going to be zealous for something, we’d better understand what we’re being zealous for. It seems a bit apropos to the Apostle Paul. It would even be ironic if we wrote it this way:
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
nor to be hasty and miss the Way.
Any Bible scholars catch my drift*? The early followers of Christ were said to belong to “the Way.” So if we re-write the passage with that in mind, we totally see how Paul’s zeal was misplaced, and he missed the Way. Paul was zealous for Judiasm. But he missed the gospel entirely. In Philippians 3, he lists his amazing credentials:
[He was] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
In verses 7 and 8, he tells us of his folly:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish…
So indeed, if we are to be zealous, we’d better be educated on where we’ve placed our zeal.