Bible Verses About Religious Zeal

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.

For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.

because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.

though I myself could have such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,

and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.

Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained.

Join one another in following my example, brothers, and carefully observe those who walk according to the pattern we set for you.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Yes, and I ask you, my true yokefellow, to help these women who have labored with me for the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances.

I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. I am accustomed to any and every situation—to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need.

Not that I am seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account.

You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.