Church Wars: Legalism -vs- Liberalism: Part 1

"[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." - Romans 8:1

Jesus described the road that leads to life as a narrow one and "few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). The truth of that statement has never been more real to me than in the last decade of my personal journey with God. Not only is that road narrow but there are a lot of traps and pitfalls along the way designed to move us from the road of life into the ditches of bondage.

Since Jesus' desire is to break the chains of bondage and set the captives free (Luke 4:18) I believe it is past time to identify the extremist viewpoints in Christianity that are responsible for so much bondage and destruction. So, if you'll permit me, I'd like to spend a little time detailing the two largest ditches of extremism in the church and how to get out of them and back on the road. We'll call these ditches "legalism" and "liberalism".

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'll know where I come out on the subject of legalism in the church. Before I get too far ahead of myself, allow me to define "legalism" for you. Legalism is the belief that God’s favor (grace), and consequently His salvation, is earned by our thoughts, intents and actions based upon an intellectual understanding of God’s Word; strict legalists attempt to force their beliefs upon others by various means of emotional manipulation (shame, guilt, judgment, etc).

Legalism is not a new problem. Jesus battled with the legalists of His day in the form of the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees. If you know your Bible, you know these folks were the only people that Jesus had any condemning words for (Matthew 12:34; Matthew 23:33). Unfortunately, mankind has not learned from Biblical history; legalism is alive and well in many forms and flavors within the Body of Christ.

Legalism is characterized by many traits. For example, legalists usually come from a very strong fundamentalist background. FUNDAMENTALISTS: believe every jot, dot and tittle of the Word of God is the unedited, perfect Word of God. This, by itself, is not a problem as most true believers in Christ believe this and rightfully so.

DEEPLY OPINIONATED: Generally speaking, legalists interpret the Word of God from a more intellectual foundation rather than a Spirit-filled one. Once an opinion is formed on a given subject, the legalist has no problem sharing their opinions (referred to as "convictions") with anyone who will listen to them. Those who disagree are judged and (usually) condemned as ignorant (at best) or hell-bound heretics (at worst).

LOVE OF THE (LOGOS) WORD: The legalist has an intense love of the Bible; they know their scriptures. Nothing inherently wrong with that except I've found the legalist usually does not have a very strong relationship with the author of that Word. Case in point, the legalists in Jesus' day knew their Old Testament backwards and forwards but were blinded to the truth of Jesus' identity. The author of their precious Law was standing 5 feet away from them and they were too blinded by their religion and legalism to see him. Loving the Word is good, but not at the expense of loving its author.

JEREMIAH COMPLEX: Most legalists see themselves as a modern day watchman/woman. They believe it is their God called duty to bring the truth of God's word to the sinful masses by any means necessary. This may sound spiritual and right but the reality is when you engage in correcting perceived error from an unspiritual (carnal) and intellectual place you tend to do more damage than intended. Romans 14 deals with this issue pretty well.

NEED TO BE APPROVED: legalists have an inherent need to be approved by their fellow believers and by God. This approval is completely dependent upon their belief system and their actions (works). In other words, legalists believe their worth or value to God depends on their actions. God won't bless you unless you're doing your faithful duty as a Christian. Of course, that means that other Christians need your approval too and that is only achieved by doing Christiany stuff. This gets into the motive of why we do what we do for God. God wants us to serve Him because we love Him, not because we want Him to love us (He already does).

CONFRONTATIONAL COWARDS: Generally speaking, most legalists do not like to directly confront people they disagree with. They would rather condemn and judge from the safety of a pulpit, picket lines, the internet, e-mail, the United States Postal Service, etc. Most people do not know they are in the cross-hairs of a legalist until they hear about their "error" from someone else.

SELECTIVE INDIGNATION: This trait describes the hypocrisy inherent with legalism. Legalists tend to lighten or ignore their righteous rhetoric when the sin on the table of discussion is one they are guilty of but have no intention of repenting from. It is also not uncommon for "convictions" on the Word to change whenever habitual sins are formed. Like the preacher who preaches against divorced men holding the office of pastor until his wife leaves him or the preacher who rails against Harry Potter books and movies because of the witchcraft plot lines only to be first in line to see the new Lord of the Rings movies because he grew up reading Tolkien and loves these timeless classics. This is hypocrisy and it is one reason Christianity is a laughing stock in the world.

Obviously I could go on, but hopefully you can see the dangers inherent in these traits and attitudes. There are a large number of people who are ignorant of the spiritual application of the Word of God and the need for Holy Spirit to fill us in order for us to be able to accomplish the Word, Will and Ways of God in our daily lives. Legalism depends on the intellect and abilities of man, not Holy Spirit. The subtlety of this problem is founded in our proclivity to self-deception. It is easy to believe we're "walking in the Spirit" when we're actually "walking in the flesh". In spite of God telling us not to lean to our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) I find that the majority of us do just that. God's ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. The desire of God is for us to be completely yielded to Him so we can operate with godly wisdom rather than carnal intelligence.

We are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Unfortunately, legalists have that reversed; that is one reason why Jesus constantly referred to the legalists of his day as "vipers". Much damage has been done in the name of Biblical purity and denominational distinctives. Churches have split, families ruined and many millions have vowed never to darken the door of a church again because of the judgmental condemnation from legalism. The enemy of our souls knows what he is doing and it is our responsibility to soberly investigate the motives and intents of our hearts to see if this evil root is present within us and to take the steps necessary to allow God to permanently remove it and set us all free.

What a glorious day when God's people can come together to worship and serve our King without fear of ungodly judgments and viperous condemnation. I thank God 1,000 times over for removing me from the snare of legalism and I constantly pray for the liberation of many of my fellow believers. This ditch is full of hurting and chained up people who haven't felt the presence or heard the voice of God in their lives in decades in spite of their faithful church attendance. I pray God will open the eyes of His people and set these captives free...

...but not so they can run to the other side of the road an fall into the ditch of liberalism...

(to be continued)