Thought of the Day 02.09.09

One common criticism of conservative Christians is that we are legalistic, teaching people to try to earn God’s favor through good behaviors like attending church, tithing, avoiding drunkenness, and only having sex within marriage. The allegation is that we judge sinners, instead of representing the grace of Christ to them. If this is true, it’s a serious indictment because it would make us the modern-day version of Jesus’s worst enemies: the Pharisees.

But are conservatives the only ones susceptible to this heresy? It seems the same criticism could be leveled at liberal churches, who teach people to try to earn God’s favor by embracing alternative sexual practices, loving all races, serving the poor, and avoiding judgment. In other words, they practice a very different, but equally vigorous form of Phariseeism.

Regardless of which rules they endorse, any church that teaches people to leverage God through good works is misrepresenting Christianity. And neither side of the moral spectrum has a monopoly on this danger.