Legalism and Judgement

I wanted to mention the balance (which most people, myself included) have a hard time with regarding the pull between being too harsh vs. too lenient with sin. Since we just talked about homosexuality, this is a good example of where this might be applied. God sees (and Christians are called to see) the sin of homosexuality as 'abhorrent' and unacceptable. However, we are never to assume that such a practice is unforgivable or that the people doing such sin are somehow less worthy of love and acceptance (by God and by us) than any other human. Practicing homosexuality is no better or worse than bitterness or greed or pride or any other sin you can name. None of us are perfect and we are not God and should never place ourselves in the position to look down on anyone else's struggles.

This is a tough line to walk because we (Christians) should never be afraid to stand up and say 'This is wrong.', even when the world around us hates to hear that. Again, homosexuality is a perfect example of how the world doesn't want to hear Christians speak. If I tell a gay man that he is sinning, I open myself up to be prosecuted for a 'hate crime'. Saying that sin is sin shouldn't be wrong, but it is hard to not make it sound as if I find the person doing the sin as worth extra hatred. The groups that spew vile expressions of hatred towards the gay people are just as wrong as those who are being gay.

Legalism is the idea of following the letter of the law so close that you miss the heart behind it. Non-Christians often love the 'do not judge' verse of the Bible specifically because they think that the verse allows them to tell us that we can't point out when a person is sinning, when in fact the verse is warning people that when they do point out sin, they have to be very, very careful that they are neither being hypocrites nor legalistic. Christians are in fact encouraged to point out sin in the world around us, but we have to be sure that our own lives are up to the same level of scrutiny (and if a person thinks they are perfect in this regard, they are probably succumbing to the sin of pride!).