In the apostle Paul’s day, there were 613 written Old Testament laws that Jews strictly adhered to. If that sounds like a lot, it is. In addition to these hundreds of laws, devout Jews developed a set of traditional customs to ensure they did not violate the original commandments. They called these the “hedge about the law,” functioning like a barrier around a pit to prevent a fall. The logic was simple: if you did not break the “hedge,” you certainly would not break the laws themselves.
For example, there were 39 distinct rules regarding Sabbath-keeping, including the literal number of steps one could take before the action was classified as “working.” This meant people were constantly counting their steps—a difficult task in the pre-Fitbit era. My wife recently learned about this and joked that since I spend my Sunday mornings preaching in one spot, I have technically taken zero steps, while she has been chasing our children all morning. Needless to say, she felt I owed her a drink!
While that is not exactly how our household operates, the point remains. Romans 10:2 says, “I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” This zeal was not always rooted in a proper understanding of grace, leading to a situation where people prioritized truth over sincerity in faith rather than seeking discovery beyond religious knowledge.
OK, so that’s not quite how it works at our house. But you get the idea. Romans 10:2 says, “I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”
The Jews’ problem, Paul says, is not that they lack zeal for God. They counted every single step they took on the Sabbath, after all. Jews were the most zealous people on earth; they’d put modern-day fundamentalist Muslims and Buddhists to shame.
Paul says the problem is that their zeal, admirable as it is, is not pursued with an accurate knowledge about God because your zeal for God is only valuable if it is attached to the right truths about God.
This flies in the face of one of our most cherished cultural maxims, that sincerity in religion is all that matters. Paul is saying that if ever there were a people who were sincere, it was the Jews. But their sincerity didn’t save them. In fact, the Jews’ zeal in religion took them to a very dark place—toward self-righteousness and hatred.
We’ve all seen that, haven’t we? Religiously zealous people can be the worst. They can be violent, judgmental, bigoted and just difficult to be around. Don’t believe me? Just look at Facebook. If all I knew about Christianity were based on what I saw Christians post on Facebook, I would not want to be a Christian. I feel like Jesus would reply to most of these posts with hashtags like #whitewashedtomb or #didIreallydieforthis.
Zeal for God is only valuable if it is attached to the right truths about God. Otherwise, our zeal leads us to a pit.
There is no dark place that we cannot turn from, however. Right before this, Paul talks about his genuine heartbreak that his fellow Jews missed the gospel: “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation” (Rom. 10:1). This is no mere academic pursuit for him.
Not even Paul, after talking about God’s sovereignty, lets that truth keep him from recognizing the role his prayers play in bringing Jesus to others. He knows his zealous prayers are the means by which God works in the life of others, so he doesn’t cease praying for God to open their hearts to the gospel.
And neither should we.
This article originally appeared on JDGreear.com and is reposted here by permission.