John Bradshaw - Misplaced Zeal
In Galatians 1, Paul writes about his call to ministry; he explains his background, speaking about how he once persecuted the church; he says in verse 14, "I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers".
So Paul was zealous, and zeal is good, right? Well, it's good when it's good, but Paul's zeal was misplaced, and it caused great harm. Demonstrations of zeal don't necessarily equate to demonstrations of conversion, sometimes a person's zeal might want to be tempered a little bit.
Being zealous without being guided by the Holy Spirit could be offensive or could do real damage to the cause of Christ, zeal is further for a cause, and every believer should have that, but Saul's flavor of zeal..hmm, not so much. Zeal for Christ and the Bible is good when it's submitted to God, I'm John Bradshaw, for It Is Written.