Zeal and Diligence

“Zeal” – is the intense/very great/very eager and earnest/serious/determined effort to reach a goal.

Eccles. 9:10 What practical advice does Solomon give?

[God commends/elevates the character trait of zeal and criticizes the character traits of laziness and mediocrity, Prov. 6:6; Rev. 3:16].

Are you doing the responsibilities, tasks, and projects that you’re involved in with all your might/energy/determination, and why?

Col. 3:22-24 What are these slaves told to do in verse 23, and why?

Though you’re not a slave to your employer, do you think that God wants you to serve your employer in the same way as this?

Why?

Rev. 3:15-19 What does the angel tell the church at Laodicea in verse 19?

Why were they told to be zealous/intense/serious/very eager and determined in effort?

Is your Christianity a life-long course of zeal/determined eagerness for God?

If so, how is this evidenced?

1 Pet. 3:13, 14 What question does Peter ask these Christians?

Are you zealous/intense and earnest in your effort to do good?

If so, how did you get/become this way?

If not, what do you plan to do about it, and why?

Titus 2:14 What kind of people did Christ redeem for His own possession? Or, why did He redeem us (Eph. 2:10)?

Are you intense/eager and serious/determined in your efforts to do good deeds?

If not, how could you start, and then increase in your intensity?

2 Cor. 7:6, 7, 11 What did Titus report to Paul, so that Paul rejoiced?

Is there any Christian leader whom you have a zeal/great interest in and devotion to?

If so, how do you express it?

If not, what will it take for you to have this zeal/eager concern for someone?

2 Cor. 9:1, 2 What had these Christian’s zeal/eagerness to financially help the poor Christians in Jerusalem do to the Christians in Macedonia?

Is your zeal/eagerness to be helpful to other Christians contagious?

Why are zeal, enthusiasm, and joy often contagious?

Has another Christian’s zeal/enthusiasm/determination ever motivated you to do something that you probably wouldn’t have done otherwise? If so, what?

Jn. 2:13-17 What did zeal/intense and serious concern for God’s house motivate Jesus to do?

Has zeal to stand up for what’s right/true/just ever gripped you (consumed you) so that you took determined action?

If so, what?

Psa. 69:9 What does king David say about his zeal for God’s house?

How did David demonstrate this (Psa. 132:1-5; 1 Chron. 29:1-5)?

How zealous are you toward God’s present house (your body which the Holy Spirit lives in, if you’re a Christian – 1 Cor. 6:19) to make sure it’s pure/holy, by not committing sin against it (immorality, illicit drugs, gluttony, drunkenness)?

Psa. 119:60 What does the Psalmist say that he hastened to do and not delay in?

Is this your attitude, or do you procrastinate, and why?

How about toward God’s commands for us Christians to evangelize the spiritually lost and build up believers spiritually (Matt. 28:19, 20; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Thes. 5:11), are you intensely eager to obey them, and why?

Rom. 10:2-4 The Jews had a zeal/intense, determined effort to have a right relationship, but not in accordance with what?

Is your zeal for (eagerness to be rightly related to) God based on your own feelings and ideas, on religious leaders you look up to, on your church denomination’s teaching, or on God’s Word, the Bible, and why?

Acts 22:3; Phil. 3:6; Gal. 1:13, 14 In what way was Paul zealous for God before his conversion?

What religions, cults, or churches put most Christians to shame as far as their zeal/eagerness for God, even though their beliefs are in error?

Why do you think that they are more zealous (though in error) than most Christians who have the truth, but are not sharing it?

How zealous/intense are you in carrying out the beliefs and practices of the Bible, and why?

1 Cor. 12:28, 31; 14:1 What should the church earnestly desire (in Corinth at that time)?

Is your church earnestly desiring/wanting to have Christians with the greater, spiritual gift of teaching, 12:28 (since the spiritual gifts of apostleship and prophecy no longer exist today, 13:8-10; Acts 1:21, 22)?

What common element made the spiritual gifts of apostleship, prophecy, and teaching greater than the other gifts, 14:19?

Why is instruction in God’s Word so important that it makes the spiritual gifts of apostleship, prophecy, and teaching greater than all the other gifts, Jn. 4:24; Matt. 15:9?

Is being zealous to have (certain) spiritual gifts (like speaking in tongues, which no longer exists today, 12:8; 14:21, 22; Isa. 28:11, 13; and that judgment came on the unbelieving Jews in A.D. 70 by the Roman army under General Titus), what were these Christians to seek to abound for?

Are you seeking to abound for the building up spiritually of your fellow Christians through the use of your spiritual gift, or are you selfishly seeking to get a good feeling or spiritual high for yourself with your spiritual gift, and why?

Neh. 2:17, 18; 3:20 What did Baruch zealously do?

How zealously do you do the things that you know are the will of God (even manual things like: repairing things for others, yard work, shopping, cooking, cleaning, or just helping your neighbor out), and why?

1 Ki. 19:10, 14 What does Elijah say about himself?

What had Elijah just recently done (18:22, 40)?

Have you ever eagerly shared or defended the truth of God’s Word, the Bible, on any issue with false religious people or cults, and why?

Do you eagerly speak out in class when your professor criticizes Christianity or the Bible, and why?

Or, do you eagerly and unashamedly talk about Christ and the Bible with co-workers, friends, relatives, neighbors, and strangers, and why?

Josh. 24:14, 15 What does Joshua tell the nation of Israel that he and his house (family) are going to do?

Have you ever taken a stand in front of a large group to state your loyalty to serve God? If so, when, and what happened?

Psa. 42:1, 2 To what does the Psalmist compare his intense desire for God?

Is God a bother to you? Are you indifferent or apathetic in your feelings toward God?

Is God merely a spare tire, a crisis-fixer, or just a life-preserver to you, and why?

How would you compare your desire to know and love God?

What do you greatly crave (e.g., pizza, ice cream, a thick juicy steak, barbeque ribs, to watch or to play sports, to know God through reading and obeying the Bible, etc.), and why?

Is your desire to know, love, obey, and serve God with intensity, and why?

Eph. 6:18-20 What does Paul ask these Christians to be intense in?

How zealous are you in praying for other Christians, and especially those on the front lines of spiritual battle who are involved in evangelism and building up believers spiritually, and why?

1 Cor. 15:58 What are we to abound in, and how often, and why?

[“To abound” means “to do in large number or great quantity”.].

What is the “work of the Lord” (Matt. 28:19, 20; Lk. 19:10; Acts 15:38, 36; 14:26, 21, 25; 1 Pet. 2:9; Eph. 4:11-13; Rom. 14:19; 1 Thes. 5:11)?

Are you “always” abounding in the work of the Lord (i.e., evangelizing the spiritually lost and building up believers spiritually)?

If not, what do you plan to do about it, and how soon?

Phil. 1:27 What are these Christians to be “striving together for”?

Are you zealously spreading “God’s glorious redemptive truth which centers in Jesus Christ and salvation in Him” (i.e., the gospel)?

If so, when, and how?

1 Pet. 2:2 What were these Christians to long for (strongly desire or crave)?

[“pure” – true, genuine]. [“milk” – nourishment].

Why?

[“salvation” – here, it means “deliverance from sin’s power unto a practice of holiness”, Phil. 2:12].

For what do you long, and why?

2 Tim. 1:16, 17 What did Onesiphorus do when he was in Rome?

How eager/zealous would you have been to find a Christian in prison in another city who was there for preaching the gospel, and why?

Or, how eager/determined are you to help or encourage other Christians who are criticized today for doing evangelism and building up spiritually and training other believers for Christian service, and why?

1 Thes. 2:8, 17 What was Paul, Silvanus and Timothy all the more eager with great desire to do, and why?

How eager are you, and with how great a desire do you want to see Christians (maybe your fellow Bible study members or spiritual teacher) whom you’re separated from for some reason, and why?

“Diligent” – steady, earnest, and energetic application and effort; painstaking – Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.

Titus 3:13 How was Titus to help Zenas and Apollos?

How diligent/hard-workingly careful/energetic are you in helping fellow Christians leave for a trip, especially for ministry purposes, and why?

2 Pet. 1:12-15 What did Peter say that he will be, so that after he departs/dies these Christians would be able to recall the truths/teachings in verses 3-11?

How diligent/hard-workingly careful are you in reminding other Christians of important Bible truths, and why?

Or, are you apathetic, indifferent, lazy, mediocre, uncaring, convenient-oriented?

Eph. 4:3 What are we told to be diligent in?

How does a person go about doing this, specifically?

Would teaching Bible truths accurately, correcting in love those in biblical error, excommunicating unrepentant, factious-rebellious people from your group/church, having the same biblical goals and priorities help? If so, how?

How diligent are you to do these things?

And how does not compromising purity of doctrine and/or life fit in?

Rom. 12:8 How is the person who has the spiritual gift of leadership to lead?

If you have the gift of leadership, how diligently/hard-workingly careful do you lead?

And how is this evidenced?

Or, whatever spiritual gift you have, are you careful to use it to the maximum, and why?

Rom. 12:10, 11 What are we told not to do, and then to do in verse 11?

Are you intensely earnest and hard-working in your serving of the Lord? If so, how?

Or, do you procrastinate and do things sloppily, lazily, or half-heartedly, and why?

2 Tim. 2:15 What are we to be diligent to do?

Are you diligent, doing your best, to preach the gospel without being side-tracked by pointless debates/arguments that are unproductive?

How are you going about to see that you are handling accurately the word of truth, interpreting it correctly?

2 Pet. 1:10 How is a Christian to be diligent in making certain about God’s calling and choosing him (vv. 5-7)?

Are you diligently practicing the qualities in verses 5-7?

How are you or could you be diligently practicing these things, specifically?

Heb. 6:10, 11 What does the author desire these Christians to show the same diligence in?

Why?

How diligent are you in ministering to your fellow Christians (helping them)?

And how do you minister/help them, specifically?

In describing your life, would others who know you fairly well, list zeal or diligence as characteristic/typical of your life?

If not, what do you need to do so that it can be characteristic of your life?

And, why should it be?

Prov. 12:27 What is the precious possession of a person?

Do you have this precious possession? How did you determine your answer?

Why do you think God calls diligence a precious possession?

If you don’t have diligence (energetic determination) as a characteristic of your life, how could you acquire it?

Will you work on acquiring it? If so, how soon?

Prov. 13:4 What is the soul/life of the diligent made?

Has your life been made fat (i.e., satisfied) because you’ve been diligent?

[If your life is not satisfied, it could be because you’re either not diligent (that is, lazy or mediocre), or you’re diligent in the wrong things (e.g., the wrong goals, activities, priorities, or especially the wrong purpose in life).].

As a result of this study, what changes do you plan to make in your life-style?

When?

How?

Why?