What is legalism? How can we know if someone is being legalistic? To answer these questions, it helps to understand three categories for setting Christian standards:
- Things clearly commanded
- Things clearly forbidden
- Things permitted (left to free and responsible judgment to the best of our knowledge and conscience)
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Categories 1 and 2 (things commanded and forbidden),
These are areas where Scripture offers specific requirements dealing with both actions and attitudes. Christians, for example, do not need to debate the morality of murder, adultery, sexual immorality, greed, outbursts of anger, slander, showing partiality and drunkenness. We can be very clear in many areas of moral decision making. Attitudes like jealousy, bitterness, envy, arrogance, and unforgiveness are clearly forbidden.
Other matters are not as clearly defined. We may confidently conclude that we are rejecting God’s authority if we engage in one of the actions or attitudes just mentioned. Yet we cannot as easily determine right from wrong based on matters less clearly defined by Scripture.
Legalism is involved when people demand from others standards beyond the requirements of Scripture (with the exception of house rules which I will discuss later). Christians must guard against a form of sinful conservatism which sets rules and measurements for godliness beyond explicit Scriptural demands. With different shades in varying cultures and periods of church history, the Church has always battled against legalism.
Paul had to instruct the Colossian believers against it when he wrote, “let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).
Before moving to Category 3:
We need to confess that as Christians we have not always done as well as we should in obeying the clear instruction of Scripture. Consider, as an example, the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-21.
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The apostle lists four categories of sinful behavior. At the end of the text he declares that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Three of the categories deal with sexual sins, sins of worship (idolatry and witchcraft), and sins of excess (drunkenness). But the largest category focuses on relational sins (hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envying).
What’s the point?
Much too often Christians denounce the sexual, worship, and excess sins while providing an open door for the relational sins. I suspect that many churches would experience a badly needed revival if they opposed the relational sins as vigorously as the others.
The Difficult Category
Moving to less clearly defined matters, the primary area of debate among Christians is the third category: “things permitted, or left to free and responsible judgment according to the best of our knowledge and conscience.”
When a person establishes a conviction in the third category (which we are at liberty and often responsible to do), the problem arises when the person treats his position as something clearly commanded or clearly forbidden—belonging to categories one or two.
When she does this (and crusades for the issue) she runs the risk of violating the clear command to maintain unity in the church by failing show deference to other believers (Rom. 12:10;14:3; Eph. 4:1-3).
Scripture does not always demand uniformity of opinion among Christians, but it always demands unity of disposition (see 1 Peter 3:8; Eph. 4:1-3). Although we will come to different conclusions in category three, we are always required to maintain unity of disposition out of mutual respect for one another. I realize that this is the point of great challenge.
It’s understandable when Christians divide over things clearly forbidden or clearly commanded. But in areas of freedom we are responsible to relate together in respectful deference to one another.
Final thought:
When we treat our personal convictions as absolutes from God, we threaten the unity of the church. When we reduce God’s clearly stated absolutes to matters of personal preference, we threaten the purity of the church. Stated differently, when we elevate something from category 3 and treat it as a category 1 or 2 issue, we sin against Christian unity; when we demote issues that belong to category 1 and treat them as a category 3 issues, we sin against the purity of the Church.
Steve Cornell
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