Bible Verses About Religious Zeal

Along with Titus we are sending the brother who is praised by all the churches for his work in the gospel.

For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting to the Macedonians that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give. And your zeal has stirred most of them to do likewise.

For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.

Neither do we boast beyond our limits in the labors of others. But we hope that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you will greatly increase as well,

so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Then we will not be boasting in the work already done in another man’s territory.

Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?

And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.

But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which they boast.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,

in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.

Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.

In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me.

But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.

That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?

Did I exploit you by anyone I sent you?