It
wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I heard the term
legalism used and that legalism is wrong for many
reasons. Prior to that time I had heard many a sermon
“preached” extolling the virtues of what essentially
constitutes legalism. I was raised being taught that the
new
testament is the 27 books of the Bible – Matthew through
Revelation – and they
were written to comprise a written code for the people of God
from Pentecost
on, much as the Law of Moses was a written code for the people
of Israel.
I thought that grace was extended to man on the basis of his
meticulous
law-keeping. If we wanted to be saved,
we had better work, which included working a lot and working
right. It seemed that the most important works had
some connection with our assemblies, especially the Sunday
morning assemblies.
It
was a number of years before I fully realized that the letter to
the Galatians
was written primarily to expose legalism.
The apostle Paul told the Galatians that legalism is a yoke
of bondage that not only will
profit nothing, but it causes us to fall from grace.
When
I began to ask questions relative to legalism, I got answers
like, “Don’t you
think you should be obedient to the commandments of God?”
Being obedient to one’s understanding of the
commandments of God is not legalism.
Being obedient to ones understanding of the commandments of God
with the
idea that correct implementation of his commandments will earn
or merit a person
justification and an eternal home in heaven is legalism.
It is an effort on the part of man to relate
to God upon the basis of a legal code rather than through
faith.
Legalism
is insidious. It causes man to reverse
his priorities and values while at the same time it has him
thinking he is
growing in grace and righteousness. It
is much as the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus accused of
emphasizing the
external, less-important things and neglecting the internal more
important
matters (Matt. 23).
Legalism
is a philosophy that has given birth to a number of other
isms that help to perpetuate and reinforce the
concept. They are isms
that have negative connotations and we like to accuse other
parties in the Christian
religion of being guilty of practicing the isms,
but we have defined them and apply them so as to support our
own prejudices
and exclude our traditional practices.
An objective and sincere examination of these isms and a
comparison of them to our practices in the Churches of
Christ will show that we have been throwing rocks while living
in glass houses,
so to speak. Let’s notice a few.
There
are about two dozen factions in the non-instrumental Churches of
Christ. Each one basically thinks it constitutes the
one faithful, loyal and true body of Christ.
The others are all in error one way or another. To be in
the fellowship of each of these
factions is not merely a matter of faith and expressing that
faith in
repentance, confession, and baptism, followed by a sincere
manifestation to be
obedient to God in response to His love, but fellowship in each
faction is
further conditioned upon following the legalistic creed of the
faction.
Brethren
are encouraged to read their Bibles, and are handed the line
that the sacred
scriptures require no interpretation.
But when they come up with an interpretation that is different
from that
of the party’s, it is quickly pointed out that theirs is a
wrong interpretation
and ours is what the word of God
says.
Each
faction of the Churches of Christ insists that we can all
understand the Bible
alike, but what they mean is that we should all subscribe to
their unwritten
creed. If we don’t, we can’t be a part
of their faction and we won’t go to heaven.
Every
faction of the Churches of Christ overlooks a great man
difference within its
own ranks, but it insists upon unanimity of opinion on the
issues that they
have exalted to form their unwritten creed which in turn gives
them their
factional status. Almost every division
in the Churches of Christ has occurred when some men placed their
interpretation or interpretations above brotherhood and sought
to bind it upon
others as the will of God and a condition or conditions of
fellowship. This is creedism and as one of our spiritual
forefathers pointed out, unwritten creeds are more dangerous
than written ones.
Every
person on the face of this earth who has been motivated by faith
in Jesus as
the Son of God and has been “born again” is a member
of the body of Christ and
my brother or sister in Christ. No
faction of the Churches of Christ or all of the Churches of
Christ constitute
the church of God in its fulness.
When
most people associated or identified with the Church of Christ
use the term Church of Christ, they don’t use it to
include all of God’s children. They use
it to refer to an exclusive segment of believers who agree with
the factional
creed relative to the issues that identify the faction.
They
have seized upon a term to designate their church and use it for
all intents
and purposes to the exclusion of all other terms used by the
Holy Spirit. A while back I attended an assembly of a
nearby Church of Christ where I don’t normally
attend. A person was there who recognized me from my
profession as an educator and as he greeted me he said,
“Jim, I didn’t realize
you were Church of Christ.” These kind
of statements reveal our denominationalism.
To denominate simply means to name.
We wear a specific name, and that is denominationalism in the
truest
meaning of the term. In turn,
denominationalism fits right in with legalism because we stress
that wearing
the right name is a part of the “package” that merits
us favor with God and
helps to insure us of a home in heaven.
We use a scriptural name unscripturally, but worse than that, it
does
not cover for our party spirit and the resultant divisions.
It
is interesting to note that the letter which was written to the
Galatians to
expose legalism tells us that even an apostle was affected by
the pressure of
those imbued with the philosophy and as a result he resorted to
hypocritical
isolationism. The apostle Peter had been
associating with some Gentiles who had become Christians until
some Judaizers
came on the scene. The Judaizers were
Jews who said that Christians also had to obey the Law of Moses
because man is “justified
by works of the law.” They separated
themselves from the Gentile Christians unless they would
conform. The apostle Paul “withstood” Peter
“to his
face” and reminded him that we are not saved by obedience
to law, but “by faith
in Jesus Christ.”
The
Churches of Christ do the same thing
today as did those Judaizers. They
regard their interpretations of certain teachings of the new
covenant
scriptures as the law of Christ and if you do not conform they
withdraw from
you in one form or another. At the
most, they refer to you as on of the
“brothers-in-error.” According to what the
apostle Paul told the
Galatians, those who do such withdrawing are guilty of an even
greater error
than those not “fit” to be a part of their
fellowship.
The
party leaders work at keping the rank-and-file from associating
with and
communicating with those in the other parties of the Chrurches
of Christ. They discouraged attendance at any of their
assemblies or being involved in any forums or studies that cut
across party
lines. In the past, I have seen
brethren go “by night” to listen to Carl Ketcherside
because they feared the
party leaders. Quite a few years back I
began attending the Hartford, Illinois forums which were the
forerunner of the
present-day Restoration Forum. One time
an older brother in “my” party told me, “You
shouldn’t go. You’ll get to liking those people
and it
will create problems for you.” It
surely did! Not only with brethren who
attended the forums whom I found to be as concerned, sencere,
and spiritual as
any Christians I knew, but with brethren of “my own”
party who couldn’t
tolerate me “crawling over the wall” to see what
brethren were like. Association with
“brethren-in-error” other
that to “shoot at them” from the pulpit or party
paper, or to meet them in
combat (debate) meant you endorsed their “error.”
Legalism
encourages isolationism. Legalists don’t
want us to know that our so-called “brethren-in-error”
love God as much as we
do and that they generally have as much respect for the
authority of God’s
written word as we do. The job of the
brotherhood mafia is easier if they keep us isolated.
Jesus
said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt.
7:1). The apostle Paul told the Romans, “Who are
you to judge another’s servant? (Rom. 14:4).
Further, he told them “But why do you judge your brother?
(Romand
14:10). Th same apostle told the
Corinthians, “Therefored judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord comes”
(1 Cor. 4:5). The apostle James said, “For
judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no
mercy” (James 2:13).
Obviously
no thinking person would say that any of the above passages were
meant to keep
Christians from being discerning persons and at times exercising
judgment. But the Chruches of Christ have violated the
spirit of these passages. These
passages were meant to prevent the very thing we do. We
pronounce judgment upon our brethren because they disagree
with us. Many times negative judgment
stems from a disagreement about something of which the Bible is
silent.
Who
are we to say that we know it all as it is to be known?
Are we the official and perfect interpreters
of the sacred scriptures? Who has
declared our hermeneutic the correct one?
Are our so-called “erring” brethren to put their faith
in us or to study
the Bible themselves and determine what is, in their opinion,
true and false?
How
merciless we can get in our judgment of our
“bretheren-in-error” is epitomized
by our use of 2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
When I was growing up on the Church of Christ, I used to hear
this
passage quoted frequently to maintain the divisions between our
party and those
who differed with us on issues relating to the setting of the
Lord’s Table (use
of cups) and teaching (the Sunday School).
We classed them as unbelievers because that’s who the
verses are warning
about. We wouldn’t even call them
brethren. We called them by Mister.
How shameful and how judgmental!
Legalism rationalizes such a crass attitude.
The
Pharisees were dedicated legalists.
They thought they could earn their way to heaven by complying
with
meticulous rules and regulations based upon their interpretation
of a law, the
Law of Moses. We have understood the
Law of Christ to be a similar law and to think we can earn our
way to heaven by
strict adherence to our interpretations.
Jesus said that the Pharisees made religion a burden. We
have done the same when our religion should be a joy and
help in our lives. The religion of the Pharisees tended to
build false pride in their hearts because of their apparent
meticulous
observance of the the law. We
pride ourselves upon our loyalty to the
unwritten word. Each segment of the
Church of Christ claims to be the only ones who respect the
authority of God’s
written word and abides by its teachings.
The emphasis of the Pharisees was upon externals. So is
ours, particularly our methods of
corporate worship. The Pharisees told
others to either conform to our rules and regulations or we will
have nothing
to do with you. We do the same to our
brethren in Christ. The Pharisees were
more interested in proselyting people to their sect than they
were in leading
them to worship God. We are more
interested in converting people to our church and our way of
corporate worship
than we are in converting them to Jesus Christ. The
Pharisees rationalized the evasion of weightier matters of
the law and made it of no effect. We do
the same with plain teachings of the new covenant scriptures,
especially in
regard to brotherhood and love. And on
and on!
Sectarianism
is a work of the flesh, yet we have become so twisted in our
thinking and
practice we have made the attitude that defines it a
virtue. A sectarian is a person who forces you to
believe something other than the conditions of salvation to be
in his or her
fellowship. A sectarian lays another
foundation other than Jesus Christ. A sectarian
divides God’s children by saying that if you are not right
with me you are not
right with God. A sectarian substitutes
assent to knowledge of propositions for faith in Jesus
Christ. A sectarian confuses his party with the
Church of Christ in toto. This article
might just as well have been entitled “The isms
of Sectarianism” with legalism being a subtitle because
the two go
hand-in-hand. They thrive on each other
and are so contrary to walking in the Spirit.
There
was a song popular in the 1960’s which went, “I am a
rock, I am an island… and
a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.”
Until we see legalism and its concomitants for what they are, we
will continue to be like a rock and an island.
Our divisions will cause us no real pain and we will never cry
because
of our separation from brethren.
Instead we will take pride in what we mistakenly see as
maintaining
purity for ourselves by separating from brethren who are no more
in error than
we are. Until we truly agonize over our
shameful situation and truly crucify self to serve others, we
will continue to
quench the Spirit of God in our lives and we won’t know the
joy of God’s
children being of “one heart and one soul” upon this
earth. (P.O. Box 811, Corcoran, CA 93212)