IN the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual definition of "zeal" as, "The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love" (p. 599).
After the Day of Pentecost the disciples of Christ Jesus, having by then realized more clearly the full import of their Master's teaching and example, went out courageously, together with some early converts, to spread the truth throughout Judea and Asia Minor and even in Greece and Rome. The book of The Acts of the Apostles unfolds a heroic story of zeal in action, and those first missionaries were surely reflecting the "animation of Life, Truth, and Love."
Among the churches established in Asia Minor, the one in Laodicea fell into a state of apathy and seemed becalmed, without movement. Through the divine message received by the Apostle John, this church was severely rebuked (Rev. 3:15, 19): "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. . . . As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."
