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By Pastor Glenn Pease
In Tiger Of The Snows Tenzig Norgay is a fanatic for mountain climbing.
He and a British companion were going to climb Mt.
Everest.
His wife did not share his enthusiasm, and she felt he was obsessed.
"You are a dare devil," she said, "And you care nothing about what your death would do to me or the children."
He responded, "Of course I care...but this is my work-my life."
She said, "But you are crazy.
You will kill yourself on this mountain.
You will die."
"All right," he said, "I will die!"
For to him, to live was to climb Mt.
Everest.
His life revolved around that mountain, and it was better to die than not to climb it.
This is the kind of fanaticism that gives us our adventurers and heroes.
You have to be something of a fanatic to be spectacular at anything.
In sports, in music, in art, in education of all kinds, and in business, the best are people who are obsessed with their field of expertise.
Show me the half-hearted heroes; show me the goof-off gold metal holders; show me the lackadaisical super successes in any realm of human endeavor, and I'll change my tune.
But until then I'll face this reality-fanatics are the winners.
The explorers, trailblazers, pioneers, and prophets of history have always been called fanatics.
But before we leap on this fanatical band wagon, we need to see the other side.
Fanaticism is also the curse of history as well as the source of great blessings.
Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were also fanatics, as were most of the tyrants of history.
So we see that fanaticism works for evil as well as for good.
So the value of fanaticism is determined by the cause.
If you are fanatical for an evil cause, you will be successfully evil.
If you are fanatical for a superficial cause, you will be successfully superficial.
If you are fanatical for a good cause, you will be successfully good.
This makes Paul the supreme fanatic, for in Phil.
1:21 he sums up his life in this simple statement, "For to me-to live is Christ and to die is gain."
This is the ultimate fanaticism, for it is an all out commitment to the highest cause.
Paul's point is that when your life is devoted to the highest you can't lose, for even if you die it is not loss, but gain.
Fanaticism for Christ is the only perfect fanaticism, for it is the only fanaticism that is a no lose situation.
History is filled with religious fanatics who did not please God, but brought His wrath down on them.
Jesus blasted the Pharisees for being religious fanatics in Matt.
23.
Listen to just one of the 7 woes in that chapter.
In verse 15 Jesus said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
Religious fanatics are the worst, and they make earth a part of hell.
Paul was one of these Pharisee fanatics.
He persecuted Jews who loved Jesus.
He imprisoned them and killed them in his zeal for his religious convictions.
For him to live was the law.
This led him to be a cruel and violent man.
This is a test of the valued or vicious fanatic.
The vicious fanatic will bring horror to others, but the valued fanatic will bring healing and help to others.
Paul hurt people by his pre-Christian fanaticism, but when he came to Christ, he became a fanatic who brought life and health everywhere he went.
Paul meant by this statement, "For me to live is Christ," that his life would be an extension of the life of Christ.
He will use me as an instrument to keep doing in this world what He did when He walked this earth in the flesh.
He will give life and health, and be merciful in aiding all who cross His path.
For me to live is Christ means my body is His body, subject to His Spirit, and doing what He would do in the same situation.
That is the beautiful fanaticism that God wants to see in each of our lives.
This is radically different from being a religious fanatic, and one who is obnoxious because you are obsessed with trying to force everybody to buy into your agenda.
Even your Christian friends do not like this kind of offensive fanaticism.
It is one part of the body trying to get all the other parts to conform to it.
This is offensive because it is counter to God's will which is for the body to be diverse with many gifts.
And eye that wants all members to be eyes is trying to play God, and trying to create all Christians in his image.
History is full of Christians falling for this trick of the devil.
The Catholic church for centuries thought that salvation was impossible without submission to the Pope.
Finally, their theologians came to admit, it was possible for Protestants to be saved.
But some fanatics like Leonard Feeney, a Catholic scholar and leader in the 1940's and 50's refuse to except the change.
He went back to the 1492 doctrine that nobody outside the Catholic church could have eternal life.
He was dismissed from his Jesuite order, and no longer permitted to teach at Boston College.
Did he let this stop him?
Not at all.
He held a rally at Notre Dame denouncing the Protestants they had on their football team.
He was offensive to everybody; even the church he sought to exalt.
He had his convictions, and he stood fast regardless of the cost to himself.
This is usually a noble virtue to be admired, but in a fanatic it can be a curse.
Religious fanatics have done every vile and vicious thing men are capable of doing, and all in the name of standing for their convictions.
They forget the crucial teaching of Paul that even if they give up everything, and lay down their life, if they have not love, they are nothing, and they gain nothing.
A fanatic, even if he is right, is a fool if he does not have a fanatical love to go along with his convictions.
You can be 100% right, and biblical in your convictions, and still be 100% out of the will of God, if your dominant motive is not love.
Christians mistakenly think that being right is all that matters, but they are wrong.
People often reject the truth of God because those promoting it are unloving people.
Christian fanatics often forget love because it slows you down.
Love has to move with caution, patience, and tolerance, and that rubs a fanatic the wrong way.
So they put love on the back burner, and fight evil with evil.
They think the short cut is justified because their cause is good.
Such misguided fanatics may be totally sincere, but they are wrong, for whatever is not Christlike is wrong for the Christian.
A fanatic that is not loving is not a Christian fanatic, even if they are Christians.
Their fanaticism is evil, even if they are good Christian people.
A Christian who is a fanatic is only a Christian fanatic if his fanaticism is Christlike, as was the case with Paul.
Ask Paul what the meaning of life is, and he will say, "Christ is the meaning of my life."
Life means Christ to me.
I live to serve Him.
I eat to have energy to do His will.I sleep to feel good to be a better tool for Him to use.I do all that I do in life as a means to be more effective for Christ.
That is fanaticism, but it is beautiful, for Paul is ready to do anything for people.
If you are a non-believer, he will heal you, pray for you, share the Gospel with you, and anything else that Jesus would do.
If you are a brother in Christ, he will help you bear your burden, give counsel to guide you, go out of his way to do anything to encourage you, just as Jesus would do.
Why? Because, for him to live was Christ.
His life mirrored the life of Jesus, and the Spirit of Jesus.
If he died, he would do that like Jesus also, with full assurance that he would be raised into the presence of God, and gain reward beyond anything this life could offer.
To die was gain, and so he could live free of the fear of death, for it would only be a promotion.
The two statements of Paul are linked so that the second is only true because of the first.
If your priority is different, so will your prospects be different in death.
If you say for example, "For me to live is cash," then you cannot say, and to die is gain, for you loose your cash in death.
You do not benefit from it any longer.
So what fits is, for me to live is cash, and to die is pain.
Death is a threat to your meaning of life.
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