Legalism and licence are and should be at the opposite ends of the spectrum but many will twist the cry of legalism. The accusation of legalism has to have a biblical basis at its root. The accusation of legalism is never an argument in and of itself; rather, it is a definition of an accusation. You cannot tell someone to steal to avoid legalism because stealing is a violation of loving your neighbor and is condemned in the bible. The bible does not support legalism, but neither does it support licence (Jude 4).
Legalism defined
"Legalism" is as an attempt to
enforce one's personal opinion, tradition, burden, or preference
on another person without moral grounds. By legalism, an action
is enforced which is either unnecessary, results in
evil, or results in the omission of good.
Examples
Mth 9:10-13
The pharisees complained that Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor it is the sick. But go and learn what this means: ' I desire mercy and not sacrifice'." This was an encounter with legalism: the pharisees tried to obligate Jesus to separate from the sinners and tax collectors. They tried to enforce their unjustified tradition. By breaking this tradition Jesus was actually doing God's will, but obeying it would have meant neglecting God's will.
Mth 12:9-14
When the Pharisees asked if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, Jesus said to them "if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you 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."
After saying this, Jesus healed a man with a shriveled hand. In this case, the pharisees held that the healing wasn't lawful; they were trying to press the letter of the law to a point that missed the spirit of the law. It is God's will that we would keep the Sabbath, and it is God's will that we would do good to everyone we can. In a case like this you have to decide which is the priority.
MTH 15
The pharisees asked Jesus "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat! Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said 'honor your mother and father' and 'Anyone who curses his mother or father must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother 'whatever help you might have received from me is a gift devoted to God', he is not to honor his father with it. Thus, you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'
The preceding verses demonstrate another facet of legalism: the pharisees (in the practice they call corban) broke the command of God for the sake of their tradition. Honoring your father and mother had implied taking care of your mother and father in old age; this had been a regular part of family life and part of God's instituted social safety net. Instead, the pharisees said they could relieve their obligation to their parents by giving the money to God. In this case there are two actions which are at issue: Giving to the work of the temple, and taking care of parents in old age. Both actions in themselves would be good, but honouring mother and father is the priority and backed with a command.
Remarks
In these examples we can clearly see several principles for determining legalism. In all of them we can see that legalism is never an excuse for compromise or even pleasure-loving- liberal-living. The criteria in all these situations is still: what is good and pleasing to God, what principle of scripture is applicable, etc. A pharisee is not someone who enforces good behavior for God's honor. A pharisee is someone who acts to make a show for his own honor Mth 6. He commands things that are not justified and actually tries to make his disobedience look pious and religious. They do this by spiritualizing their disobedience, as in the last example.
It is the last issue that I would like to draw your attention to, because it is here that today people have turned the tables. People now will often try to ignore biblical principles and spiritualize their disobedience under the banner of "striving against legalism". The apostle Paul warned that there would be terrible times in the last days:
"people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive....lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of Godliness but denying it's power" (2 Tim 3).
How could it be that they would have a form of godliness but deny it's power? It seems to me they would keep up some outward appearance while twisting the bibles teaching in their hearts and lives. Even in Paul's own day people tried to twist the bible's teaching on grace (Rom 6:1). With this in mind, we should not be surprised when people try and misapply the bible's teaching on legalism.
Smoking is a great example of a so-called grey area where the cry of legalism has on occasion been called.
1) In light of James 4:17, ask: Is smoking the best way to spend your money? You can spend $5 on something harmful like cigarettes, or you can give it to support a missionary. I personally would question the honesty of someone who viewed cigarettes as more important than feeding the poor and spreading the gospel.
2) Does smoking show love for your neighbor? Only a fool would say an addict who poisons others through second hand smoke is demonstrating love to their neighbor. They could say it demonstrates that they're not legalistic, but breaking scriptural principles does not demonstrate their lack of legalism. Rather, it demonstrates that they're like the pharisees in the sense that they've tried to spiritualize their disobedience.
There are only three reasons why people smoke: they either like it, like the image it portrays, or they're addicted. The addict needs to read Romans chp 6-8 Enjoying the effect of something is not a good reason to do something harmful. When you make desires, appetites, and passion the priority over moral principle, you have in effect made a God of your stomach. The apostle Paul told the Phillipians
".. as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears , many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
This type of person can look just like anyone
else, but he has a heart problem: pleasing his desires is really
his God.
Others smoke because they like the image. When this takes on a religious garb, I consider it worse than the pharisees, who would stand on a street corner or give alms to be seen by men. They would do a good action for the wrong reason. Jesus called them hypocrites. Religious smokers are worse than the pharisees in the sense that they are doing wrong actions for the wrong reasons. Today we not only have smokers trying to hide behind religious sounding excuses (ie.: "I'm just proving that I'm not legalistic"), but we also have homosexuals making the same attempt with a different set of excuses. God made me this way etc.
Legalism is not an
excuse for licence
