Take A Leaf From Big Chuck's Playbook
I have been preaching and teaching through The Freedom Files – Paul’s letter to the churches launched in Galatia. The fledgling Jesus movement was under threat from hardcore legalists who wanted to impose their carefully prescribed acceptance-preconditions to Gentile converts. They have been labelled Judaizers, moral policemen who insisted that the Gentiles had to undergo circumcision to be fully accepted by God. These false teachers were promoting toxic performance based spirituality. Legalists are alive and well today - joy killers, party poopers, grace thieves. Veteran grace champion Charles Swindoll gives sound advice on what to do when a legalist wants to strap you into their moralistic straitjacket:
“The problem with legalists is that not enough people have confronted them and told them to get lost. Those are strong words, but I don’t mess with legalism anymore. I’m 72 years old; what have I got to lose? Seriously, I used to kowtow to legalists, but they’re dangerous. They are grace-killers. They’ll drive off every new Christian you bring to church. They are enemies of the faith. Other than that, I don’t have any opinion! So if I am trying to force my personal list of no-no’s on you and make you feel guilty if you don’t join me, then I’m out of line and I need to be told that.”
