The Narrow Path Between Legalism and License
The Jews struggled, the early Christians struggled, and we are still struggling to walk the narrow path Jesus trod in balancing love and obedience. Mistakes have been made in every era of church history and by every historic stream of Christianity—including Mennonites.
It is very easy to fall off the narrow path into a ditch on one side or the other: legalism or license. Mennonites have tended toward legalism, as have most other historic streams of Christianity.
Why do we continually slip off the path? There are probably as many answers to this question as there are movements and personalities behind them. I am suggesting two main categories of mistakes that cause us to end up in the ditch of legalism and then will discuss how to avoid the ditches altogether.
God has called his people to radical love, grace, and forgiveness. This is the power of the gospel.
The first category is primarily negative. It comes in many disguises, but boils down to fear of condoning sin. We lack love and grace with people because we are afraid that, if we are too full of grace and mercy, they will feel free to keep on sinning. Another way this manifests is that we are afraid to befriend those living in sin because we will be seen as accepting of sin. This is a sure way to plummet into the ditch.
The second category seems to spring from a positive motivation—the fear of not doing all that is expected. If we keep all the “do’s and don’ts,” we know that we are “good.” We also have a list by which to judge others and call them to account. This may seem noble, but it is also a fall from Jesus’ narrow path.
In slipping from this path, we lose the vital force that Jesus provided for us. God has called his people to radical love, grace, and forgiveness. This is the power of the gospel. There is a pressing need for us to find and persevere on the narrow way while holding fast to Jesus’ commandments.
Love is key. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18 NASB).
Biblical love keeps us solid and grounded enough that we can risk being around those who do not look, think, or act in comfortable ways. Grounded in this love we can risk sharing our lives with “outsiders” in the hope that the Holy Spirit will draw them into the family of God.
Jesus walked this narrow path of love and obedience as an example to us. He invites us to follow in his footsteps.
He was secure in his relationship with his Father. He spent much time in prayer. He had fellowship with his disciples—and with sinners. He was accused of being a drunkard, a law breaker, and consorting with prostitutes and other cast offs.
But Jesus never took sin lightly or ignored it. He dealt with it lovingly and directly as when healing the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda. He said, “Do not sin anymore” (John 5:14). Jesus also embodied obedience to the Father when he prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42 NRSVA).
Jesus’ life and teaching are a clarion call to love and obedience. We read in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission that we are to love God, self, and others rightly and go make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching observance to all that Jesus commanded.
This is the balance Jesus taught. It begins with Love and ends with Obedience. Jesus says simply, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
We must love fully and even uncomfortably, but never compromise Jesus’ commandments. We must be diligent and discerning not to mistake our cultural, denominational, or personal preferences as his commandments. There have always been Pharisees!
The early Anabaptists laid out solid biblical principles in the Schleitheim Confession. Yet it is not hard to see how committed people—in their zeal for Christlikeness—have overemphasized various inflexible and legalistic standards (i.e., dress, food, entertainment, transportation, etc.) that are not expressly scriptural.
This is a struggle we will contend with until Jesus returns! But let us not grow weary in choosing to walk the narrow path of love and grace in obedience to all that Christ has commanded.
2 Responses
Thank you, Daphne. This is a topic that has been on my mind for some time. I have often thought of this as being defined as grace and truth. Grace is the wonderful gift God has given to His children that enables Him to extend room for our unfortunate ability to fall short of His will and forgive. Truth on the other side is the absolute standard put forth in His Word that sets the bar He requires us to measure up to. I grew up in a church where truth was hammered into us to the point there was no room for very little, if any, grace. It was a harsh, demanding, legalistic environment in which to live. One did what one was told or else there were severe consequences.
Over the years I have been out of that environment and now we live in a situation where grace is abused to the point that “what is truth to you may not be truth to me. Your truth is whatever you decide it will be.” I have struggled with the balance between the two. Truth with no grace leads to legalism and harshness and grace without the bedrock of the truth in the Word of God leads to license. Both extremes are equally not what pleases God. A reading of John 1 gives us the pattern in Christ. In Him, we realize the perfection of grace and truth embodied as verse 17 of that chapter which states that He was “full of grace and truth.
May we desire to follow His example in our lives. Especially since we now live in an era where truth has become a casualty because of Satan’s war against the church and the desire to be woke (extend grace) has permeated much the community of faith to the point nothing is really sin anymore.
This is such a timely article — when it seems to me that many in the wider Protestant/Mennonite church are falling over the “license” cliff. And yes, in my desire to obey I’ve been called “self-righteous!” I’m so grateful Jesus came “full of grace and truth” or as you articulate so well — that we are called to “love and obedience.”