We do not admire, we hardly excuse, the fanatic who wrecks this world for love of the other but what are we to say of the fanatic who wrecks this world out of hatred for...

I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; it adds to its commands “Thus saith the Lord”, it lies, and lies dangerously.

How do we stay on the narrow path of following God’s will in every sphere of life? How do we maintain sure footing and not fall into the temptation of rebellion on one side, or...

Christianity is at its purest a philosophy about a person, Jesus Christ, and at its dirtiest a philosophy about requirements and law.

God wants you to be good boys and girls.” It is not that there is no truth in that state­ment, but with­out the right con­text and qual­i­fi­ca­tions it is a recipe for hope­less­ness.

It may be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies.

A legalist is not someone who places divine law above all else. A legalist is someone who places human law above all else.

In the end, only God can see the heart of an individual and distinguish the difference between legalistic deadweight and the passion of holy solemnity.

Thus, dear friends, I have said it clearly enough, and I believe you ought to understand it and not make liberty a law…

Every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not.

Legalism is adding human rules and regulations to the Bible, and judging others based on these new humanistic rules. Legalism is not taking the Bible seriously on every point. That is Christianity.

If Christ be a fraud, he was among the most peculiar yet brilliant of frauds in saying that only he was the way, the truth, and the life. This is the importance of grace –...

The main thing between you and God is not so much your sins; it’s your damnable good works.

Although he didn’t care much about any subject for its own sake, he cared a great deal about marks (grades or comparisons).

Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.

God is not a God of confusion, although at times one’s judgment, for a period, may become clouded in the growth process. I stopped fooling myself into thinking that Christ is always for the cool...

Authority is essential to society, but what we called in King Lear “transcendental” authority, with an executive ruler on top, depends on the ruler’s understanding of equity. If he hasn’t enough of such understanding, authority...

It is very bad to reach the stage of thinking deeply and frequently about duty unless you are prepared to go a stage further. The Law, as St. Paul first clearly explained, only takes you...

back-door legalism”).

Without the infinite personal God, all a person can do, as Nietzsche points out, is to make systems. In today’s speech we would call them gameplans. A person can erect some sort of structure, some...

Legalism is when we try to obtain the result of obedience by our own means and strength. It is self-righteousness, as opposed to God’s righteousness covering us, and the two are as different as spirit...

I believe that secularism is not the enemy of spirituality. Our spirits are in fact secular and free. But the enemy of your spirit is materialism which produces legalism. People scramble for the “perfect law”...

We make a big mistake when we conclude that the law is the answer to bad behavior. In fact, the law alone stirs up more of such behavior. People get worse, not better, when you...

You win over people just like you win over a dog. You see a dog passing down the street with an old bone in his mouth. You don’t grab the bone from him and tell...

To dream in doctrines, how tidy!

There seems to be something in our human nature that draws us away from a life-giving relationship with Jesus because it feels more comfortable to focus on what to do and not do. That tendency...

We have invented a moral sense which is rotting now that we can’t give it employment, and when a moral sense begins to rot, it is worse than when you had none. I suppose that...

Must we always comment on life? Can it not simply be lived in the reality of Christ’s terms of contact with the Father, with joy and peace, fear and love full to the fingertips in...

(Pastor Chuck) Smith told his elders in no uncertain terms that if the church had to turn away young people because of bare feet and clothes that they would be better off ripping up the...

Religion to me almost like when God leaves – and people devise a set of rules to fill in the space.

People will do the basest things on account of their so-called honor.

…it is a mistake to reduce every decision about Christian living to a “Heaven-or-Hell issue.”For example, some ask if the Bible specifically says a certain action is a “sin” or will send them to “Hell.”...

I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation. But it was a poor religion; so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.

What we fail to realize is we often become like Pharisees in our ruthless attempts to identify Pharisees (and impostors). While indeed some people use the old laws of religious pride to tear down men...

Law will take over because law always carries with it a sense of security and manipulative power.

What are Christians known for? Outsiders think our moralizing, our condemnations, and our attempts to draw boundaries around everything. Even if these standards are accurate and biblical, they seem to be all we have to...

Our religious institutions are not giving very many men access to credible encounters with the holy or even with their own wholeness. We largely give men mandates, signposts, scaffolding and appealing images that tend to...

These days when Christians bicker they exaggerate passion into a legalistic belief and prosperity into a lukewarm belief.

Everybody makes excuses for themselves they wouldn’t be prepared to make for other people.

No man is such a legalist as the good Secularist.

Accumulating orthodoxy makes it harder year-by-year to be a Christian than it was in Jesus’ day.

This is so whether the said body of citizens or its prevailing part does this directly of itself, or commits the task to another or others who are not and cannot be the legislator in...

The conscious attempt to be a good person without Christ is as legalistic as an attempt to make it into Heaven through empty religiosity.