A Different Take on "Legalism"

There are some people who want Christianity, but they don't want the rules. Thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about the subject of legalism.

What Legalism Actually Means

Legalism is a real thing, and it's a real problem. Matter of fact, legalism, real legalism, is heresy. However, when you talk about legalism, it's like there's this definition, but then there's almost a competing definition, and that's where the water often gets muddy.

So let me start out by giving the actual definition for legalism. Unfortunately, this is not a biblical word, so because of that, it's not in the Bible, and there's no Bible verse that gives the definition, therefore it's somewhat up for.

Grabs.

But, really, legalism, and I've double-checked this with a few websites, so, for example, GotQuestions .org, it's one of the most reputable Christian websites as far as information, asking questions, giving answers, and they do confirm this, so this isn't just my definition or my opinion, but true legalism is when someone teaches that salvation comes through faith and the commandments.

So in order to be saved, you need to believe in Jesus and get circumcised and keep the Jewish feast days, because this was, and the dietary laws, and the other commandments that are given in the Torah.

So this was a real problem in the early church, and you can read about this in Acts chapter 15. There was a church council held, and actually they decided at the end to give some rules of things to do and not to do, but people bristle at rule, we don't like rules.

Rules are legalistic, right? But no, they actually gave rules, and the Bible is full of rules, I don't know if you've noticed that or not, but it is. So rules cannot be legalistic, that's the first thing, but true legalism is a problem.

So teaching that salvation comes through the law, in the book of Galatians, there were a group of false teachers known as the Judaizers, and you think of that term, Judaizer, they taught that in order to be a good Christian, you had to first become a good Jew.

So you had to be circumcised, and you had to do this, and you had to do that, all according to the Mosaic Law. And of course the Apostle Paul is trying to win Gentile converts, so an adult male who is a Gentile, if you tell him in order to be a Christian, you need to first become Jewish in the sense of, as an adult, you need to get circumcised.

That was just a major hindrance to evangelism, as you could imagine. So the Apostle Paul spoke about that, and he clarified that the gospel is salvation by grace, it's through faith alone, Ephesians 2, Galatians 2, verse 15, I believe, it's not through the works of the law, no man shall be justified by the works of the law.

So this is very clear, Romans chapter 4, just verse after verse about salvation is by faith, it's by believing, whether it's John 3 .16 or just a variety, probably a hundred and something Bible verses that say salvation is by faith.

So as soon as you add works, or as soon as you add the works of the Mosaic Law, that's legalism, it's a false gospel, it's very serious. However, even though that is the definition of legalism, any article you read, and even that Gut Questions article that I looked at, they mention this too, because this always gets kind of brought in as, I don't know if it's a secondary definition or a competing definition, but anytime somebody talks about legalism, this is the problem.

Why Christians Get Labeled Legalists

Instead of their mind going to that first and true definition, their mind often goes to this other definition where, oh yeah, yeah, that pastor there in the Baptist Church, he's against alcohol, he preaches against alcohol, he's a legalist.

That pastor says you should be in church every Sunday, what does he think this is, the Sabbath? He's a legalist. That pastor and his wife, you see his wife, she always wears modest skirts that are always to the knee or below, I think they're probably legalistic.

But the people that are free in Christ are skipping church, wearing immodest clothes, drinking alcohol, smoking and doing all this stuff, watching R-rated movies, and they're free in Christ, but it's these legalists that have all these rules.

And see, those are the really bad people, the legalists. You say, well, you're characterizing this in such a way. Well, that's been my experience. If somebody, now here's the other definition, they'll say, if you try to impose your beliefs on others, that is legalistic.

So if you have a conviction that no Christian should smoke, Christians don't smoke, that's your conviction, okay, that's fine if it's your conviction. But if you say something about it and you tell others that they shouldn't smoke, that's legalistic.

Or certainly if you were to preach that or try to impose it in a church setting, that would be legalistic because the Bible doesn't give a commandment, thou shalt not smoke, therefore you can't, so you're making up rules, that's legalistic.

That's typically how this goes. Of course, they would say, well, no, I do have a Bible verse, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we know smoking is terrible for your health. So that, or maybe they'd have another argument.

Here's the thing, the people that are getting called legalists, they almost always have Bible verses. You might not come to the same conclusion, but they do have Bible verses. Now here's the thing, before you assume too much about what I believe, I actually don't come to these conclusions.

I mean, I would probably be on the other side of all of these things. I mean, I wouldn't preach hardly any of these things as a commandment, and I've done a lot of these things in the past six months.

I've gone to the movies, I don't smoke, I do try to go to church every week, I do believe in modesty and music, I like the old-fashioned hymns and not the rock and roll. So I think in some of these cases, people might want to charge me.

One guy actually did call me a legalist, because I said I didn't think you should cancel church on Sunday. When Christmas fell on Sunday, these churches that were canceling services, I said, I don't think a church should cancel services because of Christmas.

I mean, Christmas is a good thing that it's on Sunday. And then a guy got upset and he called me a legalist, and I thought, well, how do you.

Figure that?

But anyways, I would actually probably fall on the other side, towards Christian liberty. My own personal view. But here's what I don't like. I don't like it when people call other Christians who maybe have a higher standard, or they're more rigid, or they have too many rules, well, I'm against calling them legalists, because I don't actually think that's what legalism is.

So even though I don't necessarily share all of their view, we don't agree 100%, I just don't think you should call them Pharisees and legalists. When you call someone a Pharisee, the Pharisees were the enemies of God.

They killed Jesus. You shouldn't call your fellow brother or sister a legalist. So let's just kind of talk about each of these points individually, and then we'll close. But one of the things that often comes up is alcohol.

Alcohol, Teetotalism, and Christian Liberty

So a church that, let's say you attend a Reformed church, a Calvinistic Reformed church, Presbyterian church, the pastor might like to sip on bourbon on a Friday night. He might be out on his porch sipping bourbon and smoking a cigar.

A lot of Reformed people do that. I know one Reformed Bible study, they hold it in a pub. Historically, Baptist churches would never do something like that. Baptist churches typically would be against alcohol.

I know a Baptist pastor who preaches against alcohol, and some other pastors have said things about him that they think he's legalistic. Of course, they probably think that about me too. And I don't actually agree with them necessarily that it's this commandment, no Christian should ever partake, but I don't think he's a legalist.

I don't think people are legalistic.

Why?

Because there are actually Bible verses that speak against alcohol. Now there's Bible verses that seem to say that people drank alcohol and it wasn't a.

Problem.

So the thing with alcohol, there's verses on both sides. This is a disputed issue. So if somebody comes down on one side or the other, I'm not going to call them names, and I don't think you should either.

But, if a pastor is against alcohol, and he preaches against it, like against it completely, he's a teetotaler, 100%, you'd get charged with legalism there. But he would say, I have Bible verses to back this up.

The Bible verse that says about wine, don't even look at it. I mean, he has a biblical argument, even if you don't agree, when it comes to dancing. Well, apparently, back before my time, I was told that our church was, somebody was preaching against dancing, or the church was against dancing somehow.

Now I suspect if a husband and wife went to a wedding and they danced, that wouldn't be a problem, but if, well, there's other types of dancing that, shouldn't we all be able to agree there are certain types of dancing that are not right for a Christian to partake.

In?

I think so. But you could point to David, when David danced before the Lord. See people use that for dancing. David did it. David the joyful dancer. And then other people say, yeah, he did, but then he disrobed and danced in front of the young girls and his wife got jealous and it led to David's divorce.

See, that's why you don't want to dance, because every time in the Bible someone is dancing like King Herod and his wife's daughter, John the Baptist lost his head. So they take things from the Bible.

Someone draws one conclusion, someone draws a completely different conclusion, but oftentimes they're just called a legalist. And it really does seem like the Christian version of, you know, in the culture, when someone has a political argument and the other side can't defend their position because they don't have a leg to stand on, so they just call their opponents racist because they really can't defend their arguments, so they just smear them as racist, well, calling someone a legalist is like the Christian version of that.

So if a Christian or a pastor can't, they don't want to defend their position or they can't, they just smear the person as a legalistic Pharisee, right?

Done.

Movies, Dress, and Modesty as Disputed Applications

Movies. Obviously there's no Bible verse that says, thou shalt not go to the movie theater. I remember hearing about a pastor, a legalistic pastor, who preached that if you are in a movie theater and the rapture happens, you'd get left behind.

Pretty sure that's not true, but, you know, that he was considered legalistic. But here's the thing, obviously there's no Bible verse that didn't exist, so there's not going to be an explicit verse in the Bible, but there are movies that have nudity, graphic nudity.

Wouldn't that be the same as pornography? Wouldn't that be wrong? Or blasphemy or LGBT propaganda? I mean, there are reasons why someone might think, I mean, you would tell your child, any good parent would say, hey, you know, to their 10 year old, I don't want you watching that movie.

Right?

Well, I guess he's a legalist. But there's reasons why adults shouldn't. Now, I've never preached, because have I watched an R rated movie in the past year? Almost certainly I have. But when the language is too much, I shut it off, I'm not going to watch this.

Or certainly if I knew there was graphic nudity, I'm not going to watch it. So there are reasons, there are biblical, okay, blasphemy, let's take the way people.

Dress.

This is another one. So, I remember there was a church where a traveling evangelist came into town, and he preached in a suit and tie. And his wife and daughters all wore long skirts, like the skirt came down to their ankles.

And this other Christian looked at them, this guy was a Christian, and he looked at this family who was very nicely dressed, modestly dressed, and it actually made him angry. And they're just legalistic, and I wouldn't want to associate with the church.

I think some people feel convicted when they see people who maybe have a higher standard. Well, you can't preach that a skirt must come down to the knee or below the knee. Well, here's the thing, the Bible does talk about modesty.

And while I don't preach this as a commandment, there is some evidence to say that modesty, because you have to apply it, okay, the Bible teaches modesty, we all agree. How do you apply that? What does that look like?

Okay, that's when people start getting upset. So there's biblical evidence that would say you don't show the thigh. Well, see, that would be legalistic, because the churches that call people like that legalistic, they have girls in short skirts up on stage dancing on the praise team.

It's really something that Christians, it's sad that Christians argue about this stuff, but obviously this is why denominations exist and why there's different churches who don't fellowship with one another, because people have totally different ideas on how to interpret and apply the Bible.

So here's what we don't want to do. Don't smear someone as a legalist. If they actually have a biblical argument, even if you don't share their conviction, and with some of these things, I do share those convictions, sometimes I share those convictions and I have preached on it.

Some of these convictions I don't share, and maybe I haven't preached on some of these. So I'm kind of like in the middle, I can see both sides. But don't smear your brother and sister in Christ as a legalist.

So anyone who's ever called someone legalistic, or they're a legalist, or they're a Pharisee, or they're this, or they're that, unless they're teaching salvation by works, I think you owe someone an apology.

Thanks for listening, and until next time, may the Lord be with you. Have a great day.