Awenydd

We all know legalism is bad. It showed its ugly face most memorably in the Pharisees who constantly confronted Jesus for breaking “the traditions of the elders.”

“Why do you not wash your hands before eating?”

“Why do you do heal on the Sabbath?”

“Why do you eat with sinners?”

Generally when we think of legalism we think of these things. The imposition of man-made rules and restrictions that have no real grounding in God’s law. The Sabbath rule that one ought not lift more than the weight of a dry fig? “Preposterous!” we say. “Don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t play cards” . . . where does it say that in the Bible? Well, nowhere, of course. They’re man-made rules, and they violate the spirit of the law.

Legalists usually have good intentions. Usually the rules are simply unwarranted extrapolations of a rule that is found in God’s law. The Pharisaic rule not to lift a certain weight was originally drawn from a desire to keep the Sabbath law. But when we place rules where God does not, that is where it becomes legalism.

So “don’t be drunk” becomes “don’t drink,” “Do not fornicate” becomes “no dancing,” and “don’t steal” (gambling can be a form of theft) becomes “don’t play cards.”

Yeah, we’re all familiar with those. We are only too sensitive when legalism violates our “Christian liberty.” But what about the other side of legalism? What about the side that says, go ahead and do what you please?

Matthew 15:1-9

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,”Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘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.’”

Anything that violates the spirit of the law while adhering to the mere letter is legalism. There is a legalism that constrains people to man-made rules that fly in the face of the intended purpose of the commandment, and there is a legalism that excuses people from keeping the law by finding loopholes. It is just as sinister as the restrictive legalism, but it is in some ways more difficult to fight.

People like to be excused from their duty and still be able to wipe their hands and say the law does not condemn.