Is this or that or this other thing legalism?

In 2016 I wrote a four article series on legalism for my blog. I began:

“It would seem that a big danger facing the church today is something called legalism. And the uniting feature of legalism is everybody throws it around - conservatives and liberals. I've been a Christian long enough to remember when preachers warned of heresy, error, and liberalism. Today, one hardly, if ever, hears these words much less the warnings. But we do hear often of the grave danger of legalism.

But what is legalism?? The word never appears in the Bible and this creates a problem: How do we define this danger when the Bible doesn't speak of it? Consequently, everyone's definition is a little different. Hmmm... This is tricky.”

Right off I need to edit this. Legalism does make an appearance in The Message Bible in Galatians 5:22-24. The Message is “a highly idiomatic translation and it falls on the extreme dynamic end of the dynamic and formal equivalence spectrum.” In plain English, it is a paraphrase, and a paraphrase that is often more commentary than translation. Bottom line, there is no Greek word for legalism in the Bible. Which brings us back to our question

Here are a few real life examples or situations. Are any of these legalism?

+ teaching God’s blessings come to those who obey

+ a Christian school with a dress code, which they enforce

+ using the word "commandments"

+ teaching people there are specific things they can do to please God

+ warning folks there are things they might do that would not please God

+ not having a computer or TV in order to avoid temptation

+ having a set time for prayer and Bible reading

+ believing there is only one proper way to have your devotions

+ believing you must keep the sabbath in order to be saved

+ parents setting strict rules for their children regarding social media/cell phone use

+ pastor handing out list of expressions/words to avoid

+ pastor preaching “If you have one drink of wine, you will go to hell”

+ not working, shopping, eating out, or using electronic devices on the Lord’s Day

+ saying, “I need to pray more”

Let me step up and say, some of these examples are indeed legalism and some are not, but which ones are which? Ah, that leads to my next post, in which I attempt to define legalism.

NEXT: With a little help from my friends