Legalistic Reading

Have you noticed the tendency of many Western Christians to read Scripture legalistically? They get it from the Pharisees. Their mind approaches the Word with a legal frame of reference, looking for loopholes and ignoring the wider context of the culture from which Scripture was written.

Thus, we have to deal with various brands of name-it-and-claim-it Charismatics who will attempt to make you feel bad because God, for whatever reason, chose not to heal some malady afflicting you. They forget that Paul walked through his years of ministry with a “thorn in the flesh” — that means something God didn’t heal in his life. Are we better than Paul? Not all maladies are going to be healed, and it’s not a failure of faith when your convictions tell you that God isn’t going to heal this or that issue. It’s legalistic to assume God promised to heal all maladies in all cases.

How many people insist that, because Jesus didn’t say certain things, didn’t do certain things, that somehow it is indicative of something? Jesus came to correct the Jewish people for their covenant failures. Everything He taught was from the Covenant frame of reference. If there was something the Jews were doing well, why address it? Of course He never had to address homosexuality; the Jews forbade it anyway, and rightly so. There were plenty of things they got wrong that He did address. He was very strict about sex and marriage, more so than Moses.

And they forget that Jesus cracked a whip, but insist that we must eschew violence in every situation. Jesus used whatever means were consistent with His calling and context. You need to seek the face of God and be sure you do the same. Don’t assume that Jesus is a literal, legalistic pattern for how we must act. Follow the pattern of faith in your heart. Nobody else can tell you how to act; they can only choose not to serve alongside you.