[Sidenote: Ver. 2.] =For I bear them witness,= the witness of one who once was the type of the class, =that they have zeal of God,= an honest jealousy for His Name, His Word, His Worship, =only not in the line of spiritual knowledge (κατ' ἐπίγνωσιν).= They have not seen all He is, all His Word means, all His worship implies. They are sure, and rightly sure, of many things about Him; but they have not "seen HIM." And so they have not "abhorred themselves" (Job xli. 5, 6). And thus they are _not_, in their own conviction, shut up to a salvation which must be altogether of Him; which is no contract with Him, but eternal bounty from Him. Solemn and heart-moving scene! There are now, and were then, those who would have surveyed it, and come away with the comfortable reflection that so much earnestness would surely somehow work itself right at last; nay, that it was already sufficiently good in itself to secure these honest zealots a place in some comprehensive heaven. If ever such thoughts had excuse, surely it was here. The "_zeal_" was quite sincere. It was ready to suffer, as well as to strike. The zealot was not afraid of a world in arms. And he felt himself on fire not for evil, but for God, for the God of Abraham, of Moses, of the Prophets, of the Promise. Would not this do? Would not the lamentable rejection of Jesus which attended it be condoned as a tremendous but mere accident, while the "_zeal of God_" remained as the substance, the essence, of the spiritual state of the zealot? Surely a very large allowance would be made; to put it at the lowest terms. Yet such was not the view of St Paul, himself once the most honest and disinterested Jewish zealot in the world. He had seen THE LORD. And so he had seen himself. The deadly mixture of motive which may underlie what nevertheless we may have to call an _honest_ hatred of the Gospel had been shewn to him in the white light of Christ. In that light he had seen--what it alone can fully shew--the condemnableness of all sin, and the hopelessness of self-salvation. From himself he reasons, and rightly, to his brethren. He knows, with a solemn sympathy, how much they are in earnest. But his sympathy conceals no false liberalism; it is not cheaply generous of the claims of God. He does not think that because they are in earnest they are saved. Their earnestness drives his heart to a deeper prayer for their salvation.