Legalism

By Buff Scott, Jr.

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     On one occasion, while at Jerusalem, Jesus visited a pool called Bethzatha which had five porticoes. In these lay a host of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. These wrecked bodies were there for one purpose--to receive healing when the water became troubled. One was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. On this particular visit, Jesus saw him and knew he had been there a long time. The merciful Messiah asked him: "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man replied, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me." Jesus then commanded him to rise and take his pallet and walk. He did.

     As was so often the case, Jesus performed this merciful act on the sabbath day the holy day of the Jews. What followed was opposition from the Jews. When the Jews saw the man whom Jesus healed carrying his bed, they said: "It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." John says the reason the Jews sought all the more to kill Jesus, was because he broke the sabbath and called God his Father. (John 5). According to the Jews, Jesus broke their sabbath by healing those who were ill.

     Luke tells us that on another occasion, Jesus healed one who had dropsy. Perceiving the belligerent attitude of the Pharisees, Jesus said: "Which of you, having an ass or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?" The Pharisees could not reply to this.

     Matthew records another incident. Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of grain and to eat. When

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the Pharisees saw it, they said to Jesus, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath." Jesus replied in this manner: "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?" (Matt. 12).

     From these and other happenings it is proper to conclude that even though God had given certain restrictions concerning the sabbath day, under certain conditions and circumstances he allowed some of these restrictions to be bent. (I use the word "bent" for lack of a better word.) God wasn't so legalistic that he could not show mercy. The Jews were no doubt aware of these allowances, but due to a legalistic attitude they would not go into the kingdom themselves nor allow any one else to go in. (Matt. 23:13).

     How well this attitude is manifested today among those who feel they have encompassed the whole body of truth. Far too many have filled themselves so full of legalism they bind upon their brethren unnecessary restrictions and limitations, and make no allowances for others although God makes allowances for them. Such are void of the Spirit. Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisecs, we will never enter the kingdom of glory. We cannot expect God to be lenient toward us, when we are not lenient toward our brethren. God does for us what we do for others. (Matt. 7:2).

     These words are not to be construed to mean that I am not an ardent believer in doing the words of our Master. Jesus makes it plain. He says that those who do his will are like the man who built his house upon solid ground. But it must be understood that where God makes allowances and shows mercy, we have no right to bind and restrict.

     To give a human example of what I mean by legalism, some time back a car, belonging to a young preacher from a different segment of the brotherhood, broke down, and as he was unable to continue his journey he visited the services of the congregation where I work, worship and serve. After he left, one of the "charter members" said: "Perhaps he can be won over." This member feels that this young preacher (whom she admits is a brother in Christ) is in error because of his position on a certain issue, and therefore needs to be "won over" or converted "to our side." She fails to recognize that she and "her group" could be in error just as much, or more than, this young man, whom she classifies as being on "the other side of the fence." In my mind, she has become as the Pharisees were in that she has drawn a line and enacted limitations that our blessed Lord has not drawn or enacted. We have no right to exclude those whom God includes, or excommunicate those God accepts. It is God who does the adding, and it is God who does the subtracting.

     Because of this thing called legalism, and what it produces, we have twenty-some parties in the disciple brotherhood. One segment will not recognize the other segments as being faithful and loyal. Some go so far as to claim that "if they are not of our group, they are not in Christ." It is certain that if a man has surrendered to the requirements that make one a Christian, no matter what he calls himself or how many convictions he entertains that are foreign to ours, he is a brother in Christ and God's child. We have no authority to exclude him from Christian fellowship. Away with legalism! Away with dogmatism! Away with fanaticism! Away with anything that is not encircled with love, justice, mercy and consideration. We have long been adherents of Pharisaism. Let us abandon the idea that a brother must "see things as we see them" or he cannot see heaven. Perfection is our goal, yes; but what right do I have to exclude a brother who is affectionately laboring toward the same goal as I, although we may not see alike on some items? Jesus sums it up this way: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

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for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others." (Matt. 23:23.) How much mercy and justice are we showing our brethren?

--P.O. Box 463, Gallipolis, Ohio