“Your zeal hath provoked very many” (2 Corinthians 9:2).

Hmmm. I wonder how the Spanish 1960 Reina-Valera renders that verse portion . . . . “Your zeal has stimulated the majority.” Not significantly different.

These folks had a zeal for “ministering to the saints” (1).

What am I zealous about? Maybe I have become so laid back that nothing drives me or gets me worked up (in a positive way).

If I am zealous about something, does God approve? Or does He yearn for me to be zealous about something else?

Furthermore, what effect is my zeal having on others? Are they choosing what I am choosing because they see my commitment to it?

These are difficult questions for me to face.

And important questions, too!

This verse left me thinking this morning:

“Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love…” (2 Corinthians 8:24).

Not my gifts. Not my understanding. Not my wisdom. Not my spirituality. Not my anything else.

My love.

If I wanted to show the proof of my love, what would I show?

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Love — living for the good of another.

I wonder how this is supposed to touch my relationship with So-And-So.