Consider the analogy of a soccer coach who wanted to make sure his players stayed inside the boundary. Instead of telling the players to avoid getting close to the field boundaries, he added a whole new set of lines 10 feet inside from the actual boundary lines. He taught his players to keep the ball inside his new boundary lines so that they would never get close to the real boundary lines. Later some players were afraid of crossing these new lines, so they created a third set of lines even further inside. They never got close to any boundary lines, however they now had a much smaller field to play on.
Religious legalism can work the same way.
Drinking leads to dancing. Dancing leads to kissing. Kissing leads to sex.
Legalism can produce safe and predictable communities for those that can conform. The cost is often a loss of freedom and grace if too much emphasis is placed on religiously following rules. Especially man made rules that have been disguised as God’s laws.
The Pharisees of Jesus day seemed to live life by the rulebook. They liked to debate all the rules. Some were proud that they followed the rules better than others. They used their power and influence to shame those who didn’t follow as good as they did. Can we imagine how the Pharisee type would act today?
Jesus' way was different than that of the Pharisees. Jesus summed up all the rules by simply saying Love others, and love God.
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