Adam wrote:I see legalism more as it relates to obeying man-made rules that are extra-biblical and finding apparent loopholes to avoid obeying the plain meaning of what Jesus and the apostles taught. The primary problem of the Pharisees is not legalism but disobedience. They were obedient in the minor matters of the law. Jesus recognizes this obedience and does not castigate them for being legalistic. But he rebukes them for their disobedience in weightier matters and also for disobeying God's laws for the sake of following their man-made traditions.
This is good. Though I do wonder: did Jesus sometimes say that obeying the spirit of the law requires us to do things that might occasionally violate the letter of the law? That really boils down to another question: were any of the things the Pharisees saw as his violations of the law actual violations? I don't know the answer, I spent a few hours asking the question once and found it difficult.
And I think we need to realize that we all do the same thing as the Pharisees. The things we fight about are not usually the clear teachings of Jesus or the weightier matters of the law. We sort of know what Jesus showed us about how to relate to sinners, the poor, our own sinfulness, materialism and the things the world chases after, the centrality of love for God and for our neighbors, deep trust in God rather than being anxious about all things ... but it all gets lost somehow.
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talks about the seed sown among thorns: "but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful". Many of us see those thorns clearly in politicized religion and "trendy causes" religion and "respectable society" religion. But there are also religious thorns that choke the word. That's what Paul is talking about here:
Phil 3 wrote:If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
So often, we are fighting about the kinds of things that Paul calls "rubbish". And we have built great edifices of rubbish, defending them fiercely. Sometimes these edifices of rubbish make it hard to find the things that were central to Jesus. That's easy to see in someone else's religious tradition, but this happens in all religious traditions, including our own. And like the Pharisees, we judge people harshly if they do not have the same rubbish we do.
Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?