I have had this blog in my mind and heart for a couple of months. I have been procrastinating on writing it. I needed time to pray and think through the topic. It is a very important topic that needs to be written about because there is so much at stake. Some will have their feathers ruffled and be upset, some will feel released from the weight of legalism and some will hopefully begin to heal from the destruction of legalism. Legalism is the counterfeit of genuine faith in Christ. Legalism can give the appearance of godliness without ever dealing with the heart. It can lead genuine believers astray. Newsflash, not everyone at church is saved. Legalism can derail genuine seekers and hurt terribly, young believers or sensitive believers. In the book, Pilgrims Progress, Worldly Wiseman distracted Christian from obeying Evangelist to go to the narrow gate and told him to go, instead, to Mr. Legality and his son Civility and they lived in the town of Morality. There were plenty of empty houses waiting to be inhabited. It leads to death. The heart is still a heart of stone not a heart of flesh. When you go through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13) and embrace Christ as your Savior this is what happens Ezekiel 36:26-27 " And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Jesus never backed down from confronting legalism. Matthew 15:8-9 "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Paul addressed it. Galatians 2:11-14 " But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they (Judaizers) came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" No one is immune to legalism but we have to be vigilant and make sure that we are genuine in faith and true to the Gospel. So let us get into the topic.
First, I need to be clear that I am not talking about sin issues. If it was a sin 100 years ago then it is a sin today and it will be a sin 100 years from now. Sin does not change because our culture becomes accepting of it. To spell the sins out, some are: fornication, lying, coveting, adultery, idolatry, etc. God is immutable. He will never change. Isn't that a comfort? In a world that is constantly changing and to know that God does not change is a huge comfort. I am talking about conscience areas and the making of rules like the Pharisees did to try and keep the people far from breaking the law of God but ended up holding to their rules more than the Word of God. This is often what happens. It starts as a good intention then it becomes more important than the Word of God and becomes a weight on the people.
Let's talk about when Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." What commandments was He talking about? What did Jesus say? Matthew 22:35-40 "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." You can look at any law or anything mentioned in the epistles and it falls into one of the two categories of loving God or loving others. God doesn't let us off of the hook with our enemies He says, " You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:43-44) So our job is to keep the Lord's commandments. If we focus on just loving God as we should and loving others I think it will keep us busy for the rest of our lives. There is a freedom and joy in obeying our Savior. Jesus says "take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30)
What happens? Where does legalism come from? Legalism definition according to the Webster dictionary is 1. strict literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code - //the institutionalized legalism that restrict free choice 2. a legal term or rule. In the 1990's legalism was rampant in the US churches. It was more obvious back then because they had so many do's and don'ts and if you did 'a don't' then your were a back slidden Christian. Just to name a few for the don'ts- going to movies, dancing, listening to secular music or even Christian Contemporary music or music with a beat of any kind, drinking wine or any alcohol, women wearing pants, women and men swimming together, etc. People started waking up to legalism and in some sects it probably still exists but as a whole no. Well, not like it was. Now legalism is more subtle so that it is not picked up on very easily. Some of these are how you educate your children, what curriculum, home birth or hospital, vaccinate or not your children, what holidays you celebrate or don't celebrate, use western medicine or natural remedies. Covid days revealed a lot with mask or don't mask, vaccinate or don't, and politics oddly enough, environmentalist or no. When it comes to wars which side are you on. The effects are the same self-righteousness and judgemental attitudes and people being excluded and not loved in the church. People love to appear so godly like they have arrived. These attitudes are NOT godly. Now churches are starting to have thought policing where you cannot express concerns in the direction of a ministry or an elder or whatever it is because instead of being called a back slidden Christian you are now labeled divisive. Unfortunately, I don't think Paul, Peter and especially Jesus would be welcomed. They might be initially but then they would be kicked out for being divisive. We need to get back to what Jesus commands us to do. Love Him above all else and love one another as Christ loved us. Fun fact, did you know that in Ephesians 5 it is the same command to the husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her. That is because marriage is the physical visual of Christ and the church. Our love for others is to be like Christ's love and we can only love by having Christ's love. He loved the 'unlovables' in peoples minds. Let the conscience issue stay exactly that conscience issues between the person and the Lord. Let us focus on keeping the Lord's commandments and don't add to them. Remember the Lord confronted the Pharisees and it was not softly it was brood of Viper, whitewash tombs, blind leading the blind, you are of your father the devil. We want to honor the Lord in our words, actions and attitude. It is hard to love people. I get that, it is hard because people hurt but that is what we are commanded to do so we can go to our Heavenly Father and ask for His love to love them. We are not on our own. Hebrews 13:5b-6 " I will never leave you nor forsake you so we can confidently say; The Lord is my helper I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
First, I need to be clear that I am not talking about sin issues. If it was a sin 100 years ago then it is a sin today and it will be a sin 100 years from now. Sin does not change because our culture becomes accepting of it. To spell the sins out, some are: fornication, lying, coveting, adultery, idolatry, etc. God is immutable. He will never change. Isn't that a comfort? In a world that is constantly changing and to know that God does not change is a huge comfort. I am talking about conscience areas and the making of rules like the Pharisees did to try and keep the people far from breaking the law of God but ended up holding to their rules more than the Word of God. This is often what happens. It starts as a good intention then it becomes more important than the Word of God and becomes a weight on the people.
Let's talk about when Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." What commandments was He talking about? What did Jesus say? Matthew 22:35-40 "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." You can look at any law or anything mentioned in the epistles and it falls into one of the two categories of loving God or loving others. God doesn't let us off of the hook with our enemies He says, " You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:43-44) So our job is to keep the Lord's commandments. If we focus on just loving God as we should and loving others I think it will keep us busy for the rest of our lives. There is a freedom and joy in obeying our Savior. Jesus says "take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30)
What happens? Where does legalism come from? Legalism definition according to the Webster dictionary is 1. strict literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code - //the institutionalized legalism that restrict free choice 2. a legal term or rule. In the 1990's legalism was rampant in the US churches. It was more obvious back then because they had so many do's and don'ts and if you did 'a don't' then your were a back slidden Christian. Just to name a few for the don'ts- going to movies, dancing, listening to secular music or even Christian Contemporary music or music with a beat of any kind, drinking wine or any alcohol, women wearing pants, women and men swimming together, etc. People started waking up to legalism and in some sects it probably still exists but as a whole no. Well, not like it was. Now legalism is more subtle so that it is not picked up on very easily. Some of these are how you educate your children, what curriculum, home birth or hospital, vaccinate or not your children, what holidays you celebrate or don't celebrate, use western medicine or natural remedies. Covid days revealed a lot with mask or don't mask, vaccinate or don't, and politics oddly enough, environmentalist or no. When it comes to wars which side are you on. The effects are the same self-righteousness and judgemental attitudes and people being excluded and not loved in the church. People love to appear so godly like they have arrived. These attitudes are NOT godly. Now churches are starting to have thought policing where you cannot express concerns in the direction of a ministry or an elder or whatever it is because instead of being called a back slidden Christian you are now labeled divisive. Unfortunately, I don't think Paul, Peter and especially Jesus would be welcomed. They might be initially but then they would be kicked out for being divisive. We need to get back to what Jesus commands us to do. Love Him above all else and love one another as Christ loved us. Fun fact, did you know that in Ephesians 5 it is the same command to the husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her. That is because marriage is the physical visual of Christ and the church. Our love for others is to be like Christ's love and we can only love by having Christ's love. He loved the 'unlovables' in peoples minds. Let the conscience issue stay exactly that conscience issues between the person and the Lord. Let us focus on keeping the Lord's commandments and don't add to them. Remember the Lord confronted the Pharisees and it was not softly it was brood of Viper, whitewash tombs, blind leading the blind, you are of your father the devil. We want to honor the Lord in our words, actions and attitude. It is hard to love people. I get that, it is hard because people hurt but that is what we are commanded to do so we can go to our Heavenly Father and ask for His love to love them. We are not on our own. Hebrews 13:5b-6 " I will never leave you nor forsake you so we can confidently say; The Lord is my helper I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
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