“Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

John 2 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; ¹⁶ and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. ²⁴ But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, ²⁵ and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”  His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”     This along with the next time Jesus again cleared the temple of these sellers and money changers, when He entered Jerusalem for His last Passover, are probably the only accounts where we see Jesus acting in anger. Through all the things that were said about and done to Jesus, even to His torture and crucifixion, He never responded in anger. Jesus did not get angry about the things done to Him, but zeal for His Father’s House, the acts of unrighteousness being done in the Holy place of God, caused Jesus to be angry. We, like Jesus should forgive the things that people do to us. We should neither be offended nor should we respond in anger at what is said or done to us. When Jesus was asked how many times we should forgive those who sin against us, He said: "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:22)

In 1 Corinthians 13, the ”Love chapter”, love is described, it says:   Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered         Love, Godly love, the kind of love we are to have for others, does not take into account a wrong suffered. That is a difficult standard for us to meet, in truth it is impossible in our flesh, in human nature. It seems we can easily forget many of the things we are supposed to do on any given day, but human nature causes us to remember every offense. The love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13 is not human love. It is a spiritual gift, it is something we can only do and express through Christ and the Holy Spirit. We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)  

The reality is that because of human nature, if we wait to respond to the things that people do to us, even if we are determined to respond in forgiveness and love, we will probably at least at times miss the mark. We, like Jesus, like the Father need to decide and determine before the offense that we will forgive. The Father loves us not because we seek forgiveness, but because that is who and what He is. 1 Peter 3:18 says: Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God       In the same way that Christ died once for all sin, once to forgive every sin, past present and future, we need to determine to forgive others past, present and future.

There is another side to this account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Just as we, like Jesus, should forgive the sins and offenses of others toward us, we, also like Jesus, should have zeal for the holiness of God. It’s not that God can’t take care of Himself. He doesn’t need us to defend Him or be His police. But the things that are an affront to Him should also be an affront to us. God says:  I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44) In today’s text Jesus referred to His body as the temple. He said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.      We also are to view our bodies as the temple of God, after all when we are in Christ He dwells within us. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul says:  do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.    Paul is speaking here about sexual immorality.  Verse 18 says:  Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.  

Here’s the thing about this that we often get wrong. God says: “consecrate yourselves”. In Matthew 7:1- 5 Jesus says:    “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”      If we are going to be zealous for the holiness of God, if we are going to be offended by the things that offend Him, we must begin in our own temple. We must seek to know what things it is in our own lives that Jesus would throw out.

For those outside of the church, they don’t need us to zealously overturn their lives. They need to see the light of Christ. They need to know Godly love. Love that is:    patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)  They see and know that, not by our zealousness to change them, but rather as we walk as Jesus commanded us:  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

For those who are in the church, those who are in the body of Christ there is a different response we are to have in zealously seeking God’s holiness. Once we have first judged and cleansed our own temples, Galatians 6:1 says:   Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.     If we live by the Spirit, we should seek to restore others. We need not accept, tolerate or condone the things which are an affront to the cross, but rather in our zealousness seek to restore them to God.  

Every time in scripture when we see people come into the presence of the holiness of God, they are aware and overcome by their sinfulness. Perhaps the best way to be zealous for God’s holiness is to create a place and an atmosphere for the presence of God. We should allow Jesus to drive out and overturn the unrighteous and unholy things in their lives as He does in ours.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; Holy Spirit I am zealous for You and Your holiness. I invite You Jesus to come into my temple and throw out and overturn the things which offend You and the Father. I ask that You would cause me to live in a way that allows others, both in the church and outside the church, to see Your holiness, Your light and Your love.   Amen