Matthew 12 :2,11-12When the Pharisees saw this, they
said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is
unlawful on the Sabbath."
He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls
into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and
lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
It is easy to get caught up in what we should and
shouldn’t do as Christians. Fortunately Jesus summarized the
law for us as is discussed in Easy Law. Legalism takes place
any time we hold the letter of the law above the spirit of
it.
The spirit of the Sabbath was to provide rest.
Unfortunately the day had become so burdened with
unnecessary rules, it was hard work to make sure that a
person avoided work on the Sabbath. There were so many rules
to follow that it was almost impossible to follow them.
God didn’t give us rules just to see if we would follow
them or to trip us up in our Christian walk. Instead rules
are made to protect us and help us to live better lives.
Legalism takes place when we mindlessly obey rules because
someone set them but we don’t consider the reason why.
Today a church could observe all of the bad things on the
internet and declare that its members should not use it for
that reason. The intention is good, to keep people from
reading and seeing things that would result in temptation
and possibly sin. But such a legalistic ban would deny all
of the good uses of the internet and would unjustly remove
good influences from a person’s life as well.
There are many things that Christians should avoid. God
gave us rules for good reasons and we shouldn’t question
commands from God. When man begins to make laws, even well
intentioned ones, we need to decide whether they are with
good reason. Nothing should prevent us from doing good.
Jesus took on the Pharisees for doing good and sometimes we
may have to stand for good as well, even at the risk of
going against long established rules.
