Zeal is a good servant but a bad master, as fire is. Zeal and sincerity are wonderful, but they are never meant to be in control, and when they are, failure follows. Zealots assume that because they are zealous they must be right, but a person can be sincerely wrong and zealous in a false cause. Zeal ungoverned by wisdom and understanding leads to fanaticism, cruelty, and persecution, and it has been one of the most devastating influences in the church's long history. Muslim terrorists are emotional zealots without wisdom, understanding, or truth. The foolish zealot rushes ahead, impatient, seeing only one thing at a time, ignoring consequences, and often harming others along the way. Saul, later the apostle Paul, is the epitome of this: he ravaged the church and persecuted Stephen and other Christians, certain that his sincerity proved him right (Acts 7-9). Yet God can change a self-serving zealot. After God confronted him and changed his mind, Saul's knowledge and focus were right, and his zeal became an asset to God and His people. The wise person gathers the facts, weighs them, and tests them against God's eternal principles, then carries them out with all his energy. He is an instrument who carries out what is right, not the one who determines it. Zeal is a hired servant, never the master.