I kissed LEGALISM good-bye

“Make no laws upon the saints where Christ hath not made any.”

                                                 Walter Craddock  

  A recent issue of World Magazine (02-17-18) included a feature article, “Hindsight and Hope” about Joshua Harris and his book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Harris—author, former senior pastor of Covenant Life Church is still most famous for something he did at age 21 – his best-selling book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Now decades later, he’s revisiting the subject by working on a documentary called I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In this documentary both Harris and readers question and reflect on the impact of his book.

  The motivation behind Harris’ book was well-intentioned. It was aimed at teens and twentysomethings, discouraging sexualized relationships and proposing that courtship, in which a couple moves purposefully toward marriage with their parents’ blessing and involvement, was a superior model to dating. The book rightly argued that physical intimacy before marriage was a violation of the sacredness of married sexuality and could lead to lifelong regret. It was a reaction to “free love” with a hope of returning to a biblical worldview of purity and saving intimacy for marriage. Where it failed was that it systematized and made “rules,” where Scripture never does. While Harris didn’t do this, others took the book and made the principles in it tests of godliness. One was considered unspiritual if they dated and didn’t choose courtship. That’s legalism! Thankfully it’s a trend that’s essentially died, yet not too many years ago, the rationale was that godly singles practiced courtship while ungodly ones dated.

  God’s Word is clear – sexual relations outside of marriage are wrong (Hebrews 13:4). Jesus even prohibited mental sexual intimacy and self-pleasuring sexuality (Matthew 5:27-30), but Scripture never systematized or gives any commands on dating or how to find a life partner. Today more and more couples are finding their life partner via the Internet or an online dating service. The Bible never prohibits that.

  But human beings like rules. It’s one reason Islam is growing at an escalating rate – it has clear rules. The Pharisees loved rules. When Jesus questioned their manmade rules, they murdered Him.

  Most rules have a good intent, but they easily become anchors around our souls, drowning us in arrogance, self-righteousness and legalism when we systematize them, making them yardsticks of godliness. But that’s always been a human tendency. While Scripture has clear principles of godliness, it doesn’t though clearly outline applications of those principles. Culture changes. Spiritual maturity means walking by faith and being sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in the midst of cultural change. The application of biblical principles must continually morph.

  For example, the Bible teaches that Christians are to pray together, but never sets a time or day. During the revivals of the 1800’s, prayer meetings became very popular. Eventually they were systematized into the “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting.” The Bible never commands that. Most prayer meetings devolved into another preaching time with prayer tacked on at the end. Yet, even today some Christians measure the spirituality of a church based on whether it has a weekly prayer meeting.  

  There are many other examples of this, from how to have devotions, to how often one prays, the percentage of a church budget for missions, to evangelism methods, to what one should wear to church, or even what a church ought to do or look like. It’s legalism to measure spirituality by man-made measures. God’s Word is often silent on specifics, but lists help us feel spiritual and feed pride – the greatest enemy of the soul.

  The Christian life must be lived by faith. Where Scripture is clear, we must obey. There are countless areas where we’re to apply the principles of Scripture the best that we can and trust the leading of the Spirit. We’re also only responsible for our own walk with the Lord, not everyone else’s.

  Personally, I find keeping myself spiritually sensitive and walking with the Lord is more than enough for me. Being someone else’s judge, particularly where Scripture is silent or unclear, is more than my wee mind can handle. I love these words from Augustine: “In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.”

  One Christian hero from another era, who was a seeming legalist, was Eric Liddell. You may know of him from the movie, Chariots of Fire. Liddell sacrificed an opportunity to win an Olympic gold medal because he believed it was wrong to run on Sunday, in his mind, “the Christian Sabbath.” Later, as a missionary to China, when he was imprisoned by the Japanese in a POW Camp, families and children were also interned there. Liddell tutored and was deeply loved by all the children. When the children played basketball, rounders, and hockey, he was their ref­eree. Not surprisingly, he refused to referee on Sundays, yet in his absence, the children fought and Liddell struggled over this. He believed that he shouldn’t stop the children from playing because they needed the diversion. Finally, he decided to sacrifice his convictions to referee on Sundays.

  It made a deep impression on those there. They saw an athlete, world famous for sacrificing success for principle, who was not a legalist. When it came to his own glory, Liddell surrendered it all rather than run on Sunday. Yet, when it came to what was best for others, he’d referee on Sunday. He sacrificed a gold medal for himself (though he ultimately won the gold in a different race) in the name of truth but would bend over backward for others in the name of grace. 
  God doesn’t want us to be people of rules, He wants a relationship. If we have a healthy relationship with Him, we’ll do the righteous thing. We want to because He loves us so much and that motivates us to love Him and want to please Him. 

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