3:6a
zeal: The word zeal means “a strong feeling in favor of something.” Here it means that Paul strongly desired to be religious and to encourage people to honor God. This was an attitude that the Jews highly respected. You could translate the word zeal (or the phrase “as for zeal”) as:
I strongly desired to honor God.
persecuting the church: Before Paul became a believer, he had greatly harmed those who followed Christ. He beat some, put others in prison and caused others to die (Acts 8:1–3, 9:1–2). He did this because he thought they were against the Jewish laws and the Jewish religion. He thought the best way he could serve God was to get rid of Jesus’ disciples.
the church: This refers to Christ’s followers, not to any building they met in. You could translate this as “those who believed in Jesus” or “the people who followed Jesus.”
3:6b
righteousness in the law: This is literally “righteousness that is in law.” This law refers to the law of Moses, found in the first five books of the Old Testament. Paul meant that he did what was right according to the Jewish laws. He was righteous in an external or legal sense. But this is different from being righteous according to God’s standard, which is based on what people think and desire, not just what they do.
faultless: When Paul wrote this letter, he knew he was a sinner. But here in 3:6 he was thinking about the time before he believed in Christ. He claimed that at that previous time he had obeyed all the Jewish laws. No one could have blamed him or said he was at fault for disobeying any of the Jewish laws. You could translate the word faultless here as “no one could find one law that I disobeyed.” In some languages it may be helpful to reverse the order in this phrase. For example:
There is no one who can accuse me of disobeying the law, because I obeyed it all.
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