Legalism

Sarah Mae has a great post about what legalism is, and what legalism isn't.

You are *not* a legalist if by faith and love for the Lord you obey His law – people will tell you you are, but you are not.

You are a legalist if you keep God’s law in order to gain or keep your salvation.

I find this interesting because, in the past, legalism has pushed me away from church and (wrongly) away from God. There was a lot of legalism at the university I went to, and I am surrounded by a lot of it just living where I do, among the Amish and Mennonite communities. The older I get and the longer I travel this journey with God, the more my ideas about legalism seem to change - especially since I joined a pentecostal church. And yet you see it everywhere, in every denomination.

Of course, you see the opposite, too - people so wrapped up in "freedom" that they seem to forget that God's rules apply to them, too. They forget that "everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial."

These quotes in particular stuck out to me:

You are a legalist if you think your higher standards make you more righteous.

You are *not* a legalist if you exhort others to obey God’s word.

I hate to have to admit it, but I'm dealing with this in a big way in my own life right now. My husband and I are dealing with a tough family situation... a teenage niece with mounting drug/legal problems... and it has been far too easy to look at the people that raised her and think I'm "better." I really have to give that attitude over to God over and over, every day because I see myself exhorting myself in this situation, where I really have no right to.

I guess that's really where legalism comes from - being so tightly bound in a belief or viewpoint that you can no longer see beyond the blinders on your eyes.

And none of us are completely innocent of it. Pin It