Bible Verses About Religious Zeal

After the synagogue was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

On the following Sabbath, nearly the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they blasphemously contradicted what Paul was saying.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord spread throughout that region.

The Jews, however, incited the religious women of prominence and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue, where they spoke so well that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who affirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

The people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, and others with the apostles.

But when the Gentiles and Jews, together with their rulers, set out to mistreat and stone them,

they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding region,

where they continued to preach the gospel.

In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked.

This man was listening to the words of Paul, who looked intently at him and saw that he had faith to be healed.

In a loud voice Paul called out, “Stand up on your feet!” And the man jumped up and began to walk.

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in the Lycaonian language: “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, hoping to offer a sacrifice along with the crowds.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul found out about this, they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting,

“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.