“Legalistic†has become a sort of judgmental buzzword people use to put down someone else whose lifestyle in the context of their relationship to God seems to them to be more restrictive than they feel comfortable with. They’ll pronounce someone legalistic when they don’t really know that person’s heart, nor their motives, nor their attitudes towards those who don’t practice as they do. Wouldn’t it be great if Christians who had differing levels of what they considered obedience could accept one another without judging?
When I look at examples of legalism in Scripture, it seems to me that legalism is disobedience masquerading as obedience. I can think of three ways legalism shows up in Scripture, and in the habits and attitudes of people who seem legalistic to me: One, Legalism is keeping commands of men which set aside God's commands. Two, Legalism is a fastidious religious observance one does to be seen by others, in order to conceal their wrongdoing, or to ease their own guilt for their own more grave disobedience. Three, Legalism is when civil law enforces acts of worship. Then one is not really “worshipping†because it is by coercion.
Examples:
1. The Pharisees: in Mark 7:8, Jesus tells the Pharisees, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men,†when the Pharisees criticized Jesus for not doing the ceremonial hand washing routine before eating that they did.
2. Adam and Eve. After disregarding God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, they realized they were naked, and made garments for themselves of fig leaves. They were naked before, and it was never a problem before- but now, they felt the need to embark on a program of dress reform to ease their consciences about disobeying God.
3. The mark of the beast. People will be economically ostracized, and eventually executed for not worshipping in a certain way (obviously, this would be an act of civil law).
