Despite its beautiful and seemingly sound structure, legalism produces spiritual pollution.
Legalists can fly under the radar in conservative churches a long time. All they have to do is convince others that their understanding is the understanding that everyone should have.
This is not an exhaustive list. Most of these are from Accidental Pharisees, by Larry Osborne, unless otherwise noted.
What it creates in an individual
A self-righteous temper. Ferguson’s PDF P25.
Pride and self-deception, chap 5.
‘Beam-and-mote’ eye disease. They can see and remember the worst in others while seeing and remembering only the best in themselves. Page 49-52.
Judgmentalism. Holding one’s traditions, applications, and ‘fences’ as absolute. Thus creating disdain or contempt for changes that fall under adiaphora.
A sense of exclusivity which desires to use extra rules to ‘thin the herd’ and ‘remove the dead wood’. Or to raise the bar high enough to keep the ‘riffraff’ out.
Exclusivity’s twin: a self-affirmation of elitism, a ‘true church’ within the regular/average church. The “little churches within the church”. Being distinctively reformed and therefore not averagely reformed.
Murmuring against brethren as displayed in the Elder Brother. And as displayed by the laborers in the parable of the vineyard. They are sure that others just aren’t doing their fair share.
The idea that you cannot ever be ‘good enough’.
How it alters one’s view of, and attitude towards, fellow believers
Spiritual comparisons of the self and others. This can include envy of spiritual gifts that others possess. And spiritual score cards concerning the walk, or personal character of fellow church members.
The ‘us versus them’ mentality.
Thinking that church is all about being a ‘holy huddle’ of cookie-cutter believers in a lock-step lifestyle.
The creation of various spiritual litmus tests for fellow church members.
The creation of extra rules and fences for ‘the good’ of the self or others. The importance of their Truth rises above a human’s need.
A loss of freedom in Christ to live and serve Him in obedience according to the law of God. There simply is no Christian liberty in the obedience of the legalist.
“[Legalism can] be disguised as zeal for justice and truth, and even as a concern for Church discipline. But at the end of the day, is an unwillingness to welcome those whom Christ welcomes”. PDF P26.
Some theological results
It leads to Pietism. Bob DeWaay writes about Pietism in Critical Issues Commentary here.
Trust in doctrine and Truth about Christ rather than trust in the Person of Christ. Trust in the ‘right’ words or the ‘right wording’. This includes going out of one’s way to watch for iniquity [on the part of another] in order to make a man an offender over a word. Also, to lay a snare for ‘him that reproveth in the gate’ (the elders); see Isa. 29:21. These are the people that knock on the pastor’s door every Monday morning with their notebook in hand.
Separation of the benefits of Christ from the Person of Christ, thus dividing Christ.
Separation of the law from the loving character of the Law-giver, thus creating a wrong view of God.
The simplification for obedience into black-and-white answers. Answers to life’s issues that are one-size-fits-all no matter who you are.
“God did not make gray. When it comes to moral issues, things are black or white. [There are] no situational ethics”. ~ a legalist from Gothard the Man and His Ministry, Wilfred Bockelman, Gill Publications, 1976, p 117.
The death of mercy, or at least rigid limits on mercy. Along with this is a skeptical eye towards the merciful as ‘spiritual compromisers’.
Ignoring the Great Commission by not accepting believers as God made them racially, temperamentally, and culturally. In other words, trying to make all believers into your ethnic group.
Legalists suffer from ‘the last remnant’ syndrome. They assume that God has no one left but themselves who worship Him. This changes their understanding of the End Times and their church’s calling therein.
Idealizing and idolizing the past
Legalists see the past through rose-colored glasses and wish to return to the ‘good old days’. They put stock in the culture of the past and assume it was more holy. They continually try to recreate it for today’s Christians.
Esteeming doing things ‘the old-fashioned way’ instead of using modern means as ‘more pure’. I can’t help but notice that NO one wants to go back to the 1500’s or the 1700’s. Nor the actual Depression times. Likewise, no one wants to give up electricity, indoor plumbing, or grocery stores. But they want the life their grandparents had.
Sometimes the legalist wants their church to style itself according to the first New Testament church. They assume this must have been the most holy expression of church life. Chapters 13-15.
Other ways legalism pollutes one’s mind and soul
Trading unity for uniformity and conformity.
Holding the notion that the church doesn’t need certain other people, or cultures. The legalists prefer to ‘write off’ the less theologically ‘advanced’ brethren. They also think God passed over some cultures. Or that He has already given all the people from certain cultures over to Satan.
The idea that adopting children will pollute the covenant line of generations in the church. ~Bill Gothard
Unrealistic expectations of others, and the church. Legalists expect others to rubber-stamp their version of discipleship. They exhibit frustration with people who do not respond the way the legalist thinks they should.
Drive-by guiltings. Modern legalists guilt-trip the ‘average’ christian who lives an average, everyday kind of life. Such as Christians who have no special ‘passion’ or ‘cause’. This is in spite of 1 Tim. 2:2.
Money policing, where one watches what and where others spend their money and judge them by it.
Using the Bible literally
Treating the Bible like it is a life-manual. The legalist has a passage and category for everything we encounter in life, even dressing and eating. They implement Old Testament fasting rituals & practices, as well as various other eating habits. Some consider it more biblical, and therefore more holy, to eat green, vegan, or organic. They find foods in the bible to use as God’s medicine while shunning Big Pharma in the process. They condemn those who take manufactured medicines instead of using biblical remedies.
Idolatry of doctrine
Legalism not only makes for self-righteousness, it makes an idol out of the legalist’s version of doctrinal purity. They endlessly pursue of the ‘most pure’ preaching, according to their standards.
They are able to see all the imperfections in the preaching, the minister, or their fellow members. In their zeal for this elusive ‘purest church’, they finally join the growing home-church movement. To the legalist it is more holy to worship alone in their home or with a few other like-minded families, than join a church with preaching or people that are not holy enough.
The legalist readily forsakes the preaching which God provided in the local church for the preaching of their own devising. This is in spite of their solemn affirmation of God’s sovereignty in all other matters except this one.
15 more manifestations of legalism
Blogger Steve Smith lists them, here for part one, and here for part two.
These manifestations of legalism in a person are: fearful, divisive, masochistic, conformist, scandalized, separatist, cosmetic, security, correctness, trite and unbalanced, legislation/control, simplistic, religiosity, materialism, and idolatry.
Legalism is the issue that Jesus instructed against the most in his earthly ministry. He battled the Pharisees who had foisted legalism onto the nation, and therefore his church.
Since we are prone to legalism by nature, we must fight against it in our own minds and hearts. As a church, legalism may not be the lens through which we interpret or understand the Bible. Nor may we replace the Bible and Christian liberty with legalism’s world-and-life view to define the Christian’s walk.
