Rejecting Legalism: Why It’s Not Good for Us, or for Our Relationships
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2: 42-47 NIV)
We don’t know much about the early Christian church beyond the above description, captured by the apostle Luke in the book of Acts. But it’s safe to say that most iterations of the church that exist today look a little different from the church Luke describes. Let’s look at the Amplified translation, which clarifies some of the points in this passage of Scripture:
“They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to eating meals together and to prayers. A sense of awe was felt by everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Even more stunning, isn’t it?
Jesus, you may remember, summed up the Law of Moses (namely, the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20) in a mere two commandments, saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22: 37-40 NIV). If we look at the ten commandments given in Exodus 20, it’s pretty clear that they all have to do with one of two things: honoring the Lord and honoring other people.
The early church seems to have done a pretty amazing job of upholding Jesus’ commandments, wouldn’t you say? The question may be, is the church today doing just as well?
A young friend who converted from Catholicism to an evangelical denomination not long ago commented to me recently that she feels skipping church on any given Sunday is a sin. She also remarked that tithing less than 10 percent to the local church is a sin, and that Christians should only give to missions or to other iterations of the church after they have already given their 10 percent to the local church. We had a long, rather circuitous conversation about these things based on the description of the church in the book of Acts. It involved questions like, “What should church look like? Does it have to meet in a building on Sunday morning and involve a sermon, five worship songs, a collection, and Communion?” and “Tithes in the early church were not necessarily cash. They were given in the form of whatever people had, and they were distributed back to the people and used to care for everyone–they didn’t pay a mortgage or an electric bill or for VBS materials. How does tithing today measure up against the example of the redistribution of goods?”
I’m not saying here that today’s church ought to look like the early church as a hard-and-fast rule (that would be legalistic, wouldn’t it?). But what I want to do is call out the tendency we have to judge ourselves and others against something more than Jesus’ two simple commandments. We mentally unpack (or allow others to unpack for us) how those two commandments ought to play out in our modern American church culture, and then we use that as a sin-measuring stick against ourselves and our friends. What do we get as a result? Either guilt or condemnation. Before we know it, we are mentally judging the tired-looking married couple who slides into the end of our pew during the third worship song every Sunday morning–maybe without knowing about the colicky baby who kept them up half the night, or the toddler who refused to be dressed that morning. The other day, my young friend, probably unknowingly, spoke words of condemnation over me with her legalism.
I’m not claiming to be exempt from this kind of thinking myself. I’ve spent a good deal of the past year thinking about church, about spiritual practice, about liturgy, about what I personally like and don’t like in a church. I wish the church we attend took Communion more often. I wish it felt more sacramental and less sermon-centered. And so on. But the place I’ve come to is that the church as an institution is truly trying to obey Jesus’ two commandments. Does it look like the church in Acts 2? In some ways, yes. In some ways, no. Are all the individual people who are part of that church behaving like the believers described by Luke? No. And that’s all right. We live in a culture that doesn’t make communal living an easy or natural thing (although some churches are doing it). We don’t live in the emotionally- and spiritually-charged immediate aftermath of Pentecost. But we are all on a journey. And it’s a journey made harder when you add the judgmental tenets of legalism to it. What we need from one another is grace.
One of the wonders of the modern church in all its iterations is that there is probably a church that suits me, and you, and your next-door neighbor. Along with many other things, the Protestant Reformation ultimately brought diversity into the church structure. Whether you like hymns or modern worship music, long sermons or short homilies, weekly or quarterly Communion, you are likely to find a church that feels like home out there–you just have to look for it. And when it comes to personal decisions about tithing, showing up every Sunday, or anything else church-related, we ought to simply ask the Holy Spirit to lead us well in those decisions.
In the meantime, let’s lay down our legalistic measuring sticks and just love the Lord, and others, as well as we can.
has loved the written word for as long as she can remember. A former English teacher turned editor, she has spent a decade working in the publishing industry. A writer herself in the fringe hours of her working-and-homeschooling mom life, Harmony also has a heart for leading and coaching aspiring writers. Harmony lives in Memphis with her husband and two small daughters. She blogs at harmonyharkema.com.
Photograph © Andre Hunter, used with permission
I could have written this myself, except for the precise prose and brilliant grammar of course. I am so totally about my relationship with Jesus rather than adhering to the tenants of other believers. Although I may feel personal satisfaction with my ability (at times) to perform and conform to expectations of the church, I’ll take the blessed peace of knowing the mercy and love my God has shown me instead.