17:52, Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Legalism and Christianity

I.    Introduction
      Christians have a tendency to judge each other and non-Christians over minor details in life that will mean nothing in the end, or hold each other accountable to a man made, unreasonable and almost impossible standard, or try to live by (and make others live by) the laws of the Old Testament which are no longer relevant.  This has been going on since close to the beginning of time and is one of the less popular and more annoying traits of humanity?or Christianity.  If we want to draw unbelievers in we have to be open and not as judgmental as we have been in the past and not have a "holier than thou" attitude.   "Keep in mind that the book of Galatians was not written by Paul to lost people, telling them how to be saved. It was written to people who had already received the Holy Spirit. Paul was angry with these baby Christians because they were trying to live out the Christian life by keeping the law!"  (https://www.ptm.org/legalism/legalismConfessions.htm)
II.    Biblical Perspective
A.    Old Testament
     In the old testament, mainly in Leviticus and then again in Deuteronomy, God lays out a vast number of laws for his people to follow.  Some people, today, still take all of these laws and apply them to their everyday lives, but what they don't understand is that God established these laws for a reason.  The laws were simply God, protecting the Jews from themselves.  They didn't have the knowledge that we have today about hygienic or medical issues, and therefore would have unknowingly killed themselves, had God not given them these laws.  Another problem with this is that a lot of these laws have ...
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