Romans 10:2. “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (NKJV).

In this passage from Romans, the Apostle Paul was speaking about his Jewish brethren who had yet to accept Christ. However, he gives us two factors to determine where we are as a Christian: zeal and knowledge.

Type 1: No zeal, no knowledge.
This person is spiritually dead. They don’t know, and they don’t care.

Type 2: Knowledge without zeal.
This is a very dangerous place to be. It was to these types that Jesus spoke in Matthew 18:5 (quoting Isaiah 29:13), “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” We should all be pursuing greater knowledge of the Word, because it’s through the Word we come to know our Lord. But it can be very easy to know all the right things in our heads yet be totally unaffected in the heart.

Type 3: Zeal without knowledge.
This, of course, was the type Paul was addressing in Romans 10. He was writing of Jews who cared greatly about God but remained under the Law instead of submitting to Christ for their righteousness. And as admirable as their zeal was, it would not save them. Knowledge is crucial. When someone first becomes a Christian, this will typically be their state, and that’s ok… for a time. Zeal that is never paired with knowledge is a whole other kind of danger. This person can have a fire to do things for God and tell others about Him, but if there is no knowledge there, they will deceive both themselves and others. For this reason we must “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18a NKJV).

Type 4: Zeal with knowledge.
This should be the aim of every Christian. There are times when our zeal will be strong, and times when it will wane. There will always be areas in which we can expand our knowledge. It is a life-long pursuit to have hearts filled with passion for God and heads filled with knowledge of who He is and what He desires from us. But it’s a worthwhile
pursuit.

So the real question is, which of the other options do I have a tendency toward, and how do I avoid it? Knowing which one we are, praying about it, and applying ourselves to growth is the best way to truly possess both zeal and knowledge.

This is an edited version of an article by Jack Wilkie, Focus Press.