Bible Verses About Religious Zeal

Did I make these plans lightly? Or do I make plans the way a worldly man does, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” in the same breath?

As surely as God is trustworthy, we don’t say “Yes” when we mean “No.”

For the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who was proclaimed among you through us — that is, through me and Sila and Timothy — was not a yes-and-no man; on the contrary, with him it is always “Yes!”

We are not trying to dictate how you must live out your trust in the Messiah, for in your trust you are standing firm. Rather, we are working with you for your own happiness.

Now when I went to Troas to proclaim the Good News of the Messiah, since a door had been opened for me by the Lord,

I could not rest, because I failed to find my brother Titus. So I left the people there and went on to Macedonia.

But thanks be to God, who in the Messiah constantly leads us in a triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of what it means to know him!

For to God we are the aroma of the Messiah, both among those being saved and among those being lost;

to the latter, we are the smell of death leading only to more death; but to the former, we are the sweet smell of life leading to more life. Who is equal to such a task?

For we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God’s message for a fee; on the contrary, we speak out of a sincere heart, as people sent by God, standing in God’s presence, living in union with the Messiah.

He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open —

God has shown us such mercy that we do not lose courage as we do the work he has given us.

Indeed, we refuse to make use of shameful underhanded methods, employing deception or distorting God’s message. On the contrary, by making very clear what the truth is, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

For what we are proclaiming is not ourselves, but the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, with ourselves as slaves for you because of Yeshua.

We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair;

persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed.

We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too.

For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua’s sake, so that Yeshua’s life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies.

Thus death is at work in us but life in you.

The Tanakh says, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.” Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak;

because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence.

All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.

This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily.

For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description.