Disobedience is one of the main reasons disciples don’t make disciples and churches don’t replicate churches. Disobedience is also the reason we don’t see transformation at every level: individual, family, community, city, nation. Yet when I talk about obeying the commands of Christ, the first accusation I face is, “You are a legalist.” or “You believe in salvation by works.” When did simple obedience to Christ become legalism? When did obeying Christ become a works-based salvation? The answer is ‘Never.’ I think they are easy smokescreens thrown up by a people who have the trappings of Godliness but none of the transformative power that comes with doing what Jesus said to do. If obedience isn’t part of church, then we are not church. If obedience is not part of making disciples, then we won’t see a disciple-making movement.
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6 Responses to Legalism is the New Excuse for Disobedience
Laurie Grammer
Replied on: August 31, 2011, 10:26 pm
I think it depends, don’t you on who is “deciding” what disobedience is. Personally, I wish I saw less emphasis on obedience and more on passion. My kids can do everything I tell them to- but if they do it out of duty and no love, I would just as soon them leave. I have heard about obedience my entire life, I am sick of it. I want to hear about people being passionately in love with Jesus, which doesn’t necessarily include others standards of behavior they insist Jesus requires of me.
Paul
Replied on: August 31, 2011, 10:39 pm
Yeah…I get what you are saying. Obedience should be the fruit of passion. But passion without obedience is empty. It’s like love…I committed to my wife, married her, because I was passionately in love with her. If I hadn’t ever committed to marry her, then was I really passionate to begin with? Or was I just using my passion as a smokescreen to disguise other motives? We have to have both…I think James makes that clear. One without the other doesn’t work well.
Jesse Shanks
Replied on: December 20, 2011, 1:10 am
Laurie, I think a lot of it depends on what a person defines as “legalism.” Obeying Jesus’ simple commands is not legalism. Obeying churches’ made up rules IS legalism. A passion for Christ comes from knowing him, and we only truly know him as we follow him in obedience. But you’re right, we need to always be checking our motives to make sure we’re never doing it out of a heartless sense of duty, but out of a passionate love for the one who rescued us from own self-destruction and filled us with his Spirit!
Adam Shields
Replied on: September 1, 2011, 7:09 am
I agree basically. We need to be obedient to God. Legalism cannot be ignored because so much of the church is concerned more about appearances than about actual obedience.
You make a good argument for the difference. I disagree about your comments about books. We need to discuss and think about how it is that we are obedient. Obedience to a cultural mandate (which is what most Christians are really interested in) is not obedience to God. Good teaching is required for good obedience. But as many have said, we are educated beyond our obedience.
Paul
Replied on: September 1, 2011, 8:12 am
I think there is a surface level of understanding Scriptures that most Christians disobey because of their unending search for deeper insight. Many, if not most, authors focus on unveiling those insights rather than discussing ways to obey the simple truth. People chase ‘Ah-ha’ moments, which are fleeting, rather than obeying what they know, which is eternal.
I’m all for books as long as they are a distant second fiddle to God’s Word. Unfortunately, most ‘Bible’ studies today are book driven rather than Bible focused. I think this is a problem.
Cody Nelson
Replied on: September 6, 2011, 10:48 am
Good words of truth that need to be heard. Thanks for posting this.