Avoid the Trap | So What? #4

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Legalism.

The word itself is divisive. On one hand you have people who pour all of their hurt and anger toward the church into that word. On the other hand you have genuine believers who are tired of being accused of it.

One person I was speaking to about the message suggested that it’s all about motive. Why do you do the things you do? There’s a lot of truth there. If our motive is to somehow work our way up to God, our once vibrant faith will degenerate into mindless rule-following. On the other hand, if our motive is to honour Jesus, we may do things that look legalistic but are expressions of deep devotion.

It’s not an easy topic.

The believers in Colossae were in danger of trading in their Christian freedom for a toxic mix of human tradition and local customs. Paul reminded them about their death (baptism) and told them they didn’t need to live by the old rules. They’re new people.

We’re new too. You can’t successfully lose weight by just cutting out food, because all you do is think about the food you’re missing out on. In the same way, we can’t please God by avoiding things according to a rule-book no matter how well-intentioned our modern Christian lawyers are. We can only please him by focusing on him, and imitating the good we find.

Here’s a great music video from Derek Webb on the topic: