From our Sunday service on November 17, 2024, Acts 22, Galatians 1, Philippians 3, and 1 Corinthians 9. Watch the full message: A Fanatic Faith: What is a True Christian Fanatic? on YouTube.
I’m excited about this message. I’ve been thinking about this topic since before the election last month, and it has been on my heart over the last couple of weeks. It originally came from an article I was working on for my website. I realized the topic is so powerful that you could literally write a book about it, so this is a part one. I’m not promising a part two next week, but this is the beginning of something I hope we as Christians begin to understand.
What Is a Fanatic?
It all started during the election season. How many of you watched the news and heard a lot about Christian nationalism and religious fanatics? That got me thinking about people calling us fanatics, and I wondered what that word really means. What makes somebody a religious fanatic that people hate?
In the Bible, the closest equivalent to Christian nationalism was a group called the Zealots. They were Jewish nationalists who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire, and they used terror to try to scare the Romans out of the land of Israel. Jesus called a disciple who was a Zealot, Simon the Zealot. If you’ve watched The Chosen, you’ve seen how violent he was and how God called him out of that radical, terroristic lifestyle to follow him.
But here’s what got me. The word “Zealot” comes from the Greek, and I know it’s a negative term, yet the Bible all the time calls us to be zealous as Christians while it denies the idea of the Jewish Zealot. So what English word best fits that term? I came to the word fanatic, and I think understanding the fanatic can help us grasp what God is calling us to: a life zealous for him.
When we hear the term “religious fanatic,” it normally conjures up a negative image. A fanatic brings to mind someone intense, perhaps overly zealous, who relentlessly pushes their beliefs and ideologies on others. They may adhere to a rigid moral system or withdraw from certain parts of society in the name of faith, and encourage others to do the same, in a way that makes us question their self-control and awareness of those around them. We think of Islamic fanatics who try to push Islamic law on the people around them. We think of these crazy people.
So I looked up the definition. I Google searched “fanatic,” and this is what came up: “a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause.” Notice that single-minded zeal. A fanatic is not excited about multiple things. A fanatic has a single-minded focus and full passion on one specific thing. And for us, the call to zeal that Christ gives is not a political one, but a single-minded passion for Christ.
Zealous in the Bible
The word “zealous” is used in the Bible in a very unique way. We don’t use it a lot in English, and we never did when the Bible was translated into English. The word “Zealot” came straight out of the Greek zelos, which has the idea of being passionate, coming from the word for heat. You have a heat about something, a fire about something. We understand that concept in English without any Greek: it means being fiery about a topic.
In Jesus’s day the word referred to the Zealots, a group of extremists who sought to create a rebellion, overthrow the Roman Empire, and liberate the Jews. The same Greek word is also translated as envy, jealousy, malice, and indignation. Those are some of the strongest English words we have for negative qualities. Nobody has ever said envy and jealousy are good attributes, or that malice is a good thing. The original word is that hostile. I sat there for weeks asking why God would use such a negative word to describe the greatest attribute of a Christian.
Yet despite its negative connotation, God uses this term multiple times to describe the passion a Christian should have. In Revelation 3:19, Jesus himself says:
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 3:19
When Jesus gives the letters to the seven churches, he tells them what they’re doing wrong, and here he says the church is missing one thing: be zealous. You need to be a fanatic about me. You need this single-minded passion, this fire behind you.
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 2:14
Here zealous is used in its practical application: zealous of good works. Put those other negative terms in there and see what it reads: envious of good works, jealous of good works. They have so much passion for good works that they envy the opportunity to do them and long for it. Their entire purpose in life is to do these good works. We’re starting to get a picture of what it means to be a fanatic.
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Romans 12:11
That is the fanatic, the person who wants to serve the Lord in every step of life.
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
Galatians 4:18
Paul is saying you need to have this fanatic lifestyle, where you are obsessed with doing good for others and being good to those around you, with a single-minded passion to do good.
Two Kinds of Fanatic
So despite the negative connotation, Christ calls us to be fanatics. Yet when we compare his definition to the world’s, we find that Christ’s definition of a zealot is entirely different. When we watch the news and hear about a religious fanatic, the definition they’re using is completely different from how Christ pictures someone who is zealous for him. The fanatic on the news is confrontational, trying to control, pushing on others. The fanatic Christ wants you to be is passionate about doing good to others, rather than driven by self-righteousness, ritualistic restraint, conflict, and isolation.
A true Christian fanatic, as modeled by Christ himself, is characterized by self-control, unity, humility, and love. This person doesn’t preach with a hammer but by example and love. They don’t shy away from society but dive in, eating and fellowshipping with sinners and offering grace and mercy. Jesus’s version of a fanatic is driven by an unwavering love that draws others in rather than driving them away.
So there is a wrong kind of fanaticism that Christ calls out in the Bible, and there is a right kind. Our job as the church is to change the picture, so that when the news talks about a Christian fanatic, they’re not saying something negative but something good.
I tried to think of people in my life I would consider Christian fanatics. There aren’t a lot. I’ve told you about my roommate Terren and the miracle white glove. He prayed, and it seemed like everything he prayed for, God just came in and did it. His heart was so aligned with God that when he prayed, it seemed like a miracle every time. He was always excited and passionate about the Bible. I also know people who just give and give and give, and when you think of their names, you can’t help but associate the kindness they push on others. When you hear their name you think, “My goodness, what a life and relationship with God they have.” Every aspect of their life radiates passion for Christ.
I don’t want you to think I’m up here preaching about myself, because I haven’t achieved the role of a zealot yet. Paul himself says he never really attained this. He admits that he still struggled with the thorn in the flesh, and that the things he didn’t want to do, he did. But this is what God wants, and if you haven’t achieved it, don’t be discouraged. Paul says he’s running the race and seeking it daily. I haven’t fully realized it either, but that shouldn’t stop us from running one hundred percent toward the goal of being a righteous Christian fanatic for Christ.
Today is a little different. I’m not going to give you the steps to be a Christian fanatic. I want you to see what the mindset looks like, and when we get to the second part I’ll talk about some attributes you can put in your life. The proposition is that God wants us to be his fanatics, with a single-minded passion for Christ. If we want to know what the conversion from one side to the other looks like, I don’t think there’s anyone better to look at than the apostle Paul. He admits in his own books that he struggles with it, and that it’s a race he’s running.
Paul the Wrong Kind of Fanatic
I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
Acts 22:3–5
Paul himself uses that word zealous. Our modern word for it would be fanatic. He describes himself as a fanatic for God, but this was before he was saved. This fanatic is more like the Islamic fanatic who wants to push his law on others. In Paul’s case he was pushing Jewish law.
Paul was a perfect Jew. He was taught by a prestigious teacher, Gamaliel, and he had perfected following all the laws of the Pharisees. He lived what was seen in his time as the perfect life of a follower of God. He was a zealot for God, a fanatic for God. The problem was that he wasn’t the right type of fanatic. Instead of being on God’s side, he persecuted the church. He was basically the Sanhedrin’s SWAT team. He would break into houses, drag out Christians, put them in jail and put them to death, trying to push Jewish law onto people in society.
The application for us is that we can be fanatics for God and still be wrong. It’s easy for us to become judgmental and self-righteous like Paul and push condemnation after condemnation on other people. We can have a passion for God, but a passion in the wrong direction. Paul thought he was on God’s side, but he was opposing everything God wanted. The persecution he did was in service to God, but it destroyed the mission God was calling him to.
For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Galatians 1:13–16
That word “conversation” means lifestyle, not a relationship with Jesus. Here Paul describes himself the way we’d describe Christian nationalism, but it was Jewish nationalism. By definition he was a Zionist. He was urging people to convert to Judaism to usher in the Messiah while denying the Messiah who had already come, and he likely was there when Christ was put to death in some way, not as a teacher yet but as a student.
He “profited in the Jews’ religion above many.” That word “profit” means he had a benefit or an advantage. The Pharisees he was training to join had great benefits in society. They were set for life financially, they were allowed to set laws over other people, and they were allowed to carry out punishment. In a purely secular sense, when it came to non-spiritual things, this man had it all: money, fame, comfort. He had zeal for God, and it benefited him. You might call them blessings, but he wasn’t doing what God called him to do.
The application is that just because we’re successful in life, we shouldn’t assume our zeal for God is what’s causing it. We can be, quote unquote, blessed financially, with comfort and recognition, and at the same time completely lack the passion Christ calls us to.
Paul was “exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers,” but he found out that the traditions he grew up learning were actually opposed to what Christ taught. “Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” When Christ told him he was on the wrong side, Paul stopped listening to flesh and blood. He had listened to the elders his whole life, with so-and-so preaching to him and teaching him what he should be. Then he found out God said something different, and he learned to stop listening to the teachers and start listening to the word of God. He went out into the middle of nowhere for two years and learned what God actually wanted him to do.
Paul was a Pharisee, and he believed a believer’s success was measured by a few things. The first was his ability to follow rules. The Pharisees had 613 commands, and if they followed all of them, they considered themselves perfect. Paul quickly figured out that his success as a Christian, his ability to be a fanatic for Christ, was not determined by his ability to follow rules.
The second was what they looked like to other people. Pharisees had a very outward, designed appearance. They wore phylacteries, a little box on the forehead holding little Torah scrolls, because God told them to keep his word on their foreheads, and they took that literally instead of storing God’s word in their minds. “God’s word is always in front of me. I’m so spiritual.” They also wore tassels on their robes that identified them as Pharisees, people learned in the word of God, with scholarly qualifications.
In the article I’m working on, I talk about how a Bible education can sometimes be a negative, because you can replace a little of your passion with intellectualism, and that can get in the way of the core message of the Bible. The Pharisees celebrated their academics too much. It’s the equivalent of walking around with a diploma saying, “I know everything about the Bible. I’ve got a degree, I put it up on my shelf, look at this, I’m qualified.” Paul said that wasn’t worth much when God told him he was on the completely wrong side. We must be careful.
Lastly, they measured success by the rituals, the observance of feasts and sacrifices, doing the outward acts more than the inward ones.
Paul the Right Kind of Fanatic
But this isn’t how Paul stayed. He had a false fanaticism, and then he changed. Our main passage is Philippians 3:7-12.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:7–12
Verse 7: what he counted as gain, he now considers loss. All those outward acts that he thought made him a fanatic for Christ benefited him, yes. He had financial blessing and fame when he was a fake fanatic. How many people on TV preaching God actually have very little care for what he says? I’d say the majority of them probably are that way. But Paul realized that what was benefiting him in his secular life, finances and comfort, wasn’t worth anything, because he was missing out on all the blessings God could give him spiritually. What is beneficial for me does not equal zeal for Christ. If I do things purely because they benefit me, then I’m not serving the Lord. I’m serving myself. Blessing in life will never start with blessing yourself. It starts with wanting to bless God.
Verse 8 says he “suffered the loss of all things.” That tells us a fanatic is often going to lose material good in his pursuit of Christ. I’ll define it again: a single-minded, passionate love for Christ. If we’re going to have that zeal, we’re going to suffer the loss of some things. Jesus does call it a sacrifice to follow him, but he also points out that what you sacrifice is worth less than what you gain. Sure, we’re going to feel the loss. But Christ reminds us we’ll look back and say that what we lost was really just a bunch of manure. How many of you have ever been to a farm and thought you should pick up the manure off the ground, put it in your car, and take it home? Paul is saying it’s like, “I want to serve Christ, but before I do, I need to shovel that manure into my car and bring it home with me.” It doesn’t make sense. Nobody would say that person is okay in the head. That’s what you need to realize about all the outward degrees, philosophy, recognition, and money: it was worthless compared to the pure joy of serving the Lord with a single-minded passion.
We will lose material good, but notice it’s not God who takes it from us. It’s the believer who offers it up to God in service to him. God will never force a Christian to be a fanatic. He’ll never come down and say, “You’ve been a terrible fanatic. You’ve been preaching your own ideas. You act Christian around your boss so he’ll give you a raise. Change that right now or you’re not going to be saved anymore.” God doesn’t do that. When God met Paul, he didn’t even tell him to change. He basically said, “Paul, isn’t it a little difficult to fight me?” That’s how he converted Paul. Wouldn’t it be easier to be a fanatic for Jesus than for whatever other thing you’re using as an excuse? Maybe you’re using your Christianity to fit your own agenda or policy. Wouldn’t it be easier, instead of shoehorning your ideas into the Bible, to just follow the Bible?
Releasing Our Own Self-Interest
To free ourselves to serve God, we have to free ourselves from our own self-interest. This is where the fanatic really comes together. We have to release our own self-interest completely to follow God.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
The person who is one hundred percent devoted to Christ kills himself. “I am crucified with Christ.” I have to put myself up on that cross if I’m going to be passionate about Christ. This is the hardest part, and Paul says he has to do it every day. In another verse he says, “I die daily.” Being a fanatic is not easy. We see people and say, “I wish I could be like them, so passionate about Christ,” but we rarely stop to think about the sacrifice it took to get there. You cannot think about yourself and be passionate about Christ at the same time. It’s one or the other.
All Things to All Men
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
1 Corinthians 9:19–23
Paul demonstrates this in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Remember that Paul was a Roman citizen. Ancient Rome is a lot like America today, with its idea of citizenship and the rights that come with it. As a Roman, Paul had rights that other Jews didn’t have, such as the right to a fair trial. You couldn’t just be put in prison without a trial. That comes up in the Bible once, where the guy gets scared because he broke the law. Paul had freedom of speech and many other rights.
Paul says, “Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more,” in other words, gain more for Christ. He had the freedom as a Roman citizen to do what he wanted, go where he wanted, and say what he wanted, and he says that to truly be a servant of Christ, he had to give up some of that freedom and restrain it.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1 Corinthians 6:12
Paul has freedom to do what he wants: say what he wants, go where he wants, start a business, own a business, be rich. And he can do any of those things, because Christ died on the cross for his sins and gave him liberty from sin, spiritually and politically. But Paul says there’s a danger. There are some things we can do that aren’t good to do. And here he gives the example. Verse 20: “Unto the Jews I became as a Jew.” He had to bring himself to the level of the people he ministered to.
The Jews followed the ritual law, so when he ministered to the Jews, Paul became more strict. He was a Jew, and he followed Jewish law even though he didn’t have to anymore, so that he could minister to those under the law. Sometimes you’ll minister to people who have stricter beliefs than you, maybe Christians, maybe unbelievers who just don’t believe the same as you, and we need to connect with them either way. With our stricter brethren, we’re supposed to bring ourselves to their level. In Romans 14 we talked in teens about the concept of the weaker brother. These are people who have fears about doing certain things that are okay. We’d call them preferences. Paul says there are people with preferences more conservative than mine, and if I really want to help them grow in Christ, I need to make sure I’m not doing anything that’s a stumbling block to them.
For example, the Pharisees said you had to wash your hands before your meal or you were a sinner. Was that true? No. But you can be sure that when Paul ministered to the Jews, he washed his hands before the meal. They thought it was a sin, and how could Paul reach the Jews with the gospel if they thought he was a sinner for not washing his hands? There will be people who think you shouldn’t do certain things, and if we’re going to reach them, then maybe we need to be a little more conservative in the way we talk and act. Maybe we have the right to do certain things, but we shouldn’t do them.
Paul also says, “To them that are without law, as without law.” This is talking about the Greeks. With the Jews there was a benefit: they grew up learning the Old Testament, which is why Paul quotes the Old Testament all the time in his books. Not everybody is as biblically literate. The Greeks were not, so what does Paul do? In his other books we see that when he wanted to reach those without the law, he became a little more secular in his teaching style.
…as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Acts 17:28
In Acts 17:28 at Mars’ hill, Paul quotes the Stoic philosopher and Greek poet Aratus to connect with his audience. He took one of their philosophers, who said we are children of the Greek gods, and said that this part is true of the true God: we are his offspring. He found common ground, started with something they understood, and walked from what was true in it all the way to Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 15:33, Paul quotes the Greek poet Menander: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” In Titus 1:12, he quotes Epimenides:
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
Titus 1:12
When Paul ministers to people who understand the Old Testament, he uses the Old Testament. When he preaches to people without that background, he asks where in the secular world he can find a truth they’ll understand, and uses it to teach them about Christ.
I think sometimes we restrain ourselves too much. We think, “I need a really good grasp of the Bible to be a fanatic for Christ. I need every verse memorized and to know exactly what passage to turn to.” That’s just not true. It wasn’t until the last few hundred years that we could even carry a Bible around with us. A couple hundred years ago, people led people to the Lord not with a Bible in their hand but with the Bible in their heart and the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to be perfectly Bible-literate Christians to get the gospel out there. Paul had that qualification, but he didn’t even use it when he was talking to someone who didn’t understand the Old Testament. We need to reach people where they are.
The last group Paul mentions is “the weak.” The weak there refers to the weaker brother, a new Christian who doesn’t understand much. In 1 Corinthians 8 he uses the example of those who wouldn’t eat meat offered to idols. They were afraid they were worshiping gods by eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols and was now being sold in the market. There was no way to know whether meat had been sacrificed to idols, so they just became vegans. This is the weaker brother, who is so afraid to sin that he doesn’t do anything and doesn’t understand the Scriptures. Rather than slamming in his face how dumb he is and how intelligent I am and how ridiculous this all sounds, Paul says, “I become as the weak.” I’m not going to argue over whether eating meat offered to idols is right or wrong, because in the end that’s not going to change whether they’re following God. I want to help them grow any way I can. If I’m going to minister to someone who is weak, I’m not going to get in a petty fight or bring up something that doesn’t matter. I’m going to care about that person and love them the way Christ called me to.
In verse 23 Paul says why he does it: “And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.” In modern English, the word “partaker” would be “stakeholder.” That’s a financial term, but not a stockholder. A stakeholder is somebody who has an interest in an organization, who holds some kind of stake in it, whether their time, their money, or their passion. Paul does all these things so he can be a stakeholder with you, with some investment of himself in every part of ministry.
That is the heart of the fanatic: a single-minded passion for Christ that says, “I want to do whatever it takes to have a little bit of investment in every single person I meet.” Whether that person is saved now or not, I want to have invested in them for the gospel of Jesus Christ. If someone is unsaved, I want to do something nice for them. Maybe they won’t even realize it led them to Christ, but in the back of their mind they’ll remember seeing the love of Christ that one time, and way down the road God will say, “You may not know it, but when that person ran out of gas and forgot their wallet at home, and you paid ten dollars for their gas, that slightly changed their heart a little closer toward me.” When someone was mourning in a really difficult time and you took a little time out of your day to call and encourage them, you don’t know how big an impact that made. Whether they’re saved or unsaved, these little things put an investment in the cause of Christ. The Christian fanatic we look up to realizes that every day and every moment is an opportunity to invest a little. It’s not about investing a lot. It wasn’t always the big things the person we look up to did. They did little things all the time, and those little things add up.
Conclusion
Paul’s life teaches us that true zeal for Christ isn’t about rigid adherence to rules, external appearances, or imposing beliefs on others. It’s about a deep personal relationship with Jesus that transforms our hearts and compels us to love others genuinely. Paul became all things to all people, not to dilute the message of the gospel, but to reach people where they were with compassion and understanding.
God calls each and every one of us to this kind of passionate devotion, a single-minded pursuit of Christ that goes beyond ritual and tradition. It’s a zeal that propels us into the world to serve, to love, and to live out the gospel in tangible ways. This path is not easy. It often requires us to let go of our comforts, prejudices, and self-interests. Yet in surrendering these things, we gain something far greater: the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord, and having that affect the world around us.
So ask yourself today, and I’m asking it alongside you: what kind of fanatic are we? Are we driven by a self-centered passion that may push others away, or are we consumed by the Christlike passion that draws others in to Christ? Today may we all choose to be fanatics in the best sense of the word: zealous for good works, fervent in spirit, and above all rooted in love.
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