A Better Way To Live, Part 1 Series

Most of you know that I grew up as a pastor’s kid (for some of you, that explains everything). And my dad became an expert over the years at helping wounded churches become healthy…today we call that revitalization. And during the time that I lived at home, he pastored three different churches…and the last one was a doosie. And there were two incredible obstacles that he had to help the church overcome, and one was legalism. And the best way that I could describe legalism from my viewpoint as a teenager would have been LOTS AND LOTS OF RULES. Now, I wasn’t raised in a legalistic house. We had standards that we lived by as a family but never rules for the simple sake of rules. But when we moved to this particular church, it was over the top. Rules about your length of hair and how long girl’s skirts could be. Rules limiting you from listening to any type of music that wasn’t Christian. There were standards about which Bible translation you could read…and don’t even get me started on what it looked like to try to date someone. It was an oppressive way to live…one that was filled with extra-biblical rules and LOTS of judging each other.

A few years ago, I made friends with a guy that grew up in a similar world…except, his dad (also a pastor) was one of the guys writing the legalistic rules. And when we first discovered we had similar backgrounds, we tried to out-do each other, but eventually I learned that I couldn’t hang with him because his family had the craziest set of rules I had ever heard. And to this day, here’s my favorite rule that he shared. Growing up, they were allowed to wear shorts in the backyard as long as their neighbors couldn’t see them. But he said that if it got really hot and they wanted to take off their shirts while mowing or working in the garden, they had to go inside and change into blue jeans. So shorts with a shirt, but if you took off your shirt, you had to put long pants on…there was actually a limit to how much skin they could show at one time. How funny is that?

And the day my friend shared that story, we both had a good laugh because we’ve both come to understand that an external set of rules will never produce a right heart before God. In fact, that’s the best way to define legalism…that somehow following the rules will produce a right standing before God. I hope this isn’t the first time hearing me say this: that “holiness” is TAKING SERIOUS what God has said… “legalism” is ADDING to what God had said. And when you study the Bible, the classic case study on legalism was the Pharisees. They took the Mosaic Law, which was perfect in principle, and added all kinds of extra commands on top of the law with the hopes that those commands would serve as a “fence” around the law.

In other words, these extra commands served as an extra barrier to keep people from ever breaking the law…an added layer of security, so to speak. But what it ended up producing was self-righteous pride in the heart of those trying to enforce it. Aren’t you glad there are no longer people like that in church? Actually, there are three categories of people in church. Let me introduce you to three friends:

• Legalist Lloyd – Believing that if you follow the rules, God loves you. Also passionate about making sure others obey the rules. Lloyd believes that God’s love is based on your performance and not God’s character.

• Licentious Lenny – Believing that because I’m saved, I can do whatever I want. After all…once saved, always saved, right? Any mention of holiness and Lenny denounces it as legalism.

• Spirit-filled Sam – Knowing that I can’t follow all the rules because I’m a sinner. So I’ll yield my life to Jesus and because HE followed all the rules perfectly and he lives in ME, I am free and empowered to obey and follow Jesus each day.

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul is going to make the strong case that intimacy with Jesus is a better way to live than a list of Do’s & Don’ts. Turn with me there this morning where today we’re going to focus on verses 7-11. Since we’re skipping the first 6 verses, let me catch you up to speed. Paul, whose authority as an Apostle has been questioned, has been building a case that he can be trusted. Paul was being opposed by a group of false apostles who had been circulating letters of recommendation to gain approval. They were relying on past deeds, outward appearance, status, and things like that to give them and others confidence in who they were.