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“Not of Talk, But of Power” – 1 Corinthians 4

In this passage, Paul closes off, eventually, the question of elevating human leaders. In this case, he brings in two new terms in relation to leaders – “servant”, literally the under-rower on a galley, and “steward”, essentially a housekeeper. Leaders don’t own anything – they just row God’s boat and keep God’s house.

Then Paul moves on to another topic. The Corinthians were mistaking the material blessings of their congregation and society for spiritual maturity. They saw their success as being a sign of God’s kingdom on earth, and so were rejecting the counsel, wisdom and rebuke from Paul. He then shifts into a severely sarcastic mode. “Boy, your kingdom sounds great. Rich, successful, honored, popular, respected. Sounds real nice – us apostles must be doing something wrong, because we’re pretty much dirt.”

Paul paints a very different picture of what the kingdom is supposed to look like. On one hand, you have the Corinthians, a single church plant that happens to be full of prosperous, intelligent, educated, healthy, satisfied, comfortable people – at home in the world and the surrounding culture. On the other have, you’ve got the apostles – handpicked by Christ, spreaders of the gospel, founders of the church. The latter are clearly more deserving of honor and respect, and yet they have given that all up. They are like the captives at the end of the procession of a conquering army, there only to be mocked. They are like the oily, slimy sludge you’ll find in a fetid pond. The world has rejected them, just as it honors and respects the Corinthians.

Paul here is not prescribing suffering and poverty, but rather the behavior that may lead to it. The Corinthians were missing a key piece of behavior, and Paul calls on them to imitate the apostles. There is something missing in the Corinthian outlook and perspective.

Paul begins to zero in on what is missing when he discusses what is going to happen when he comes to confront the “arrogant people”. The kingdom, he says, it’s not about talk, but power.

The term “power” can mean many things, but in the letter so far has not been about secular or even miraculous power, but rather the power of the gospel to forgive sins, sanctify lives and sustain us through persecution. The power of the gospel is also what sparks the persecution, oppression and slander that makes the apostles the “scum of the earth”.

On the flip side, the Corinthians live as if the gospel was untrue – avoiding persecution, keeping relationships intact and remaining comfortable. Like us, as long as they keep their mouths shut about Christ, they can live in peace.

We have typical pushback to this. We don’t know how – and yet, it is as simple as telling our story. We see other things as a priority, providing for physical needs, etc. – and yet, in our culture, particularly in Seattle, focus on those other good things are not at all what is lacking. What is lacking is the courage and boldness for us to share what we believe with the non-Christians in our lives.

It is the use of this power that turned the apostles into slandered, outcast, scum of the earth. And it is the avoidance of this power that leaves the Corinthians having all they want, feeling wise, comfortable and honored.

It is clearly easier to be an admirer of Christ than a follower of Christ. Kierkegaard writes:

The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength, with all his will to be what he admires.

We are all too often apathetic about the gospel. But Christ also offers forgiveness for our failures, as well as the power to share the gospel. He does not promise power to overcome financial or even health issues, but he does explicitly promise the power of the gospel.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

1 Corinthians 4
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The Secret to Rebuilding Paradise – 1 Corinthians 3:6-23

Why do we elevate one human over another? Skill, talents and accomplishments separate some humans from the rest of us. Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, whoever. This is entirely natural—and it can easily bleed into the church. Who can convert the most, preach the most, even suffer the most, separates some Christians from the others.

But Paul here reminds us that this natural way of thinking has no place in the Kingdom of God. We all have our roles as we are called by God, but there is no hierarchy of worth, because God Himself is who animates the actual good outcomes. If you’re planting rocks instead of seeds, nothing’s going to grow, no matter how good of a gardener you are.

Paul then goes on to discuss what sounds like a building metaphor, but the reference to gold and precious stones indicates that we are continuing the garden metaphor, referring all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and the gold and precious stones associated with the garden and the land of Havilah. The story of the Bible is the story of the restoration of the garden, not only the relationship of man with God, but of man’s place in the world and purpose of man’s work.

We see this displayed in the Old Testament with the creation of the Temple, structured to match the Garden of Eden, facing eastward, decorated with images of plants, and designed to be the meeting place of God with man. This temple was built upon a carefully constructed foundation of cut stones, overlayed with gold and silver. This brings us back to Paul’s metaphor, which he then extends from the garden to the temple to the judgement seat of Christ.

All leaders of God’s people will face this. Some will be rewarded—those who have built upon the fireproof foundation of Christ. Others, not so much. Some who have been praised on earth will only get to heaven by the skin of their teeth. Some won’t make it at all. Paul makes the temple metaphor explicit here. Those who destroy the temple—those who cause harm, destruction or division within the church, pastors who are not even Christians, will “be destroyed.”

The point here is not to set up our own seats of judgment, but rather that church leaders do not actually get the credit for their accomplishments, so divisions around which is superior is foolish. The message to the church as a whole is simply, don’t boast in human leaders.

For leaders in the church—whether pastors or elders or deacons or mentors or whatever—we must remember that why we serve and who we serve is more important than what we accomplish.

If, then, any truly good human accomplishment is worthless outside of Christ, what does that mean for us? If we are the kind of people who enjoy doing good, we must understand that if that enjoyment is our only motivation, those deeds are worthless. When our deeds, though, flow out from our faith relationship with Christ. “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

The positive side of this is that Christ can take our works, which may seem like straw or wood, and turn them into precious stones and precious metals. Whether raising children, running a business, going to school, working a menial job—when you live your life with Jesus at the center, all our deeds are worthy of reward. This is the power of the grace of Christ, turning even the mundane into the sacred.

The question then becomes one of motivation. Why do good? Why fight sin? Why discipline ourselves. The Heidelberg Catechism suggests this: “so that with our whole life we may show ourselves grateful to God for his goodness and that he may be glorified through us.”

Elsewhere, Paul writes “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Our entire lives, in the sacred and the secular, in the glorious and the mundane, should be a continual act of gratitude to Christ. And if that is our source, then He is faithful to turn it all into the gold and jewels of paradise.

— Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

1 Corinthians 3:6-23
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Stop Being Babies – 1 Corinthians 3:1-5

Paul had spent a year and a half in Corinth after founding the church there. Apollos had then taken the role of pastor there. A few years later, Paul receives a message that not all is well in Corinth. The intellectual, philosophical congregation there sought more complexity and the “next level” of Christianity.

Paul responds, though, that the simplicity is what they (and we) really need. The simplicity of the gospel is core to its purpose, power and truth. This clashed with the culture of the city and the congregation, which valued rhetorical skill and philosophical intricacies. Paul specifically brought a simple, unadorned message to counter this tendency.

Paul then in chapter 2 clarifies that there is no “next level” of Christianity. They are mature. They have the fullness of Christ. They have everything they need. There is no hierarchy or system of levels to scale.

But then in this section, Paul turns around and calls them babies. (Keep in mind, as Paul discusses milk vs. meat, that there were no bottles, so Paul is essentially saying that he is breastfeeding them.) So the question is, how can Paul call them mature in one verse and infants in another?

This is actually a theme throughout scripture. “Now but not yet.” We are “dead to sin” and yet we still must work to not sin. We are justified, but must still work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

We can also see this more generally in humanity. See the behavior of sums parents at their children’s sporting events. We have been given all the tools for maturity and salvation, but if we do not take up those tools, then we are behaving like infants. We “are not yet ready” as Paul says here. The term he uses here can be translated as “fleshy”.

That was Corinth. Instead of unifying around Christ, they splintered into divisive factions around human leaders. But why does Paul use terms around maturity here, instead of just calling out their behavior as sin?

In part, it is to specifically attack the philosophy of the culture around them, a culture they had imbibed and absorbed, and that was playing itself out in the church. Similarly, Christians today absorb the moral materialism or hedonism of our culture and live out their lives as if the material world was all that mattered. We live our lives to avoid or even alleviate suffering, rather than a relationship with God. We do religious things for the good feelings and experiences. If we are driven by intellectualism, we seek to learn more – a good thing, but not the best thing. Humanism, when we elevate humanity, or specific humans, possibly church leaders, to a level above Christ.
These behaviors can all appear wise and mature. They are all about advancement and performance, constantly seeking control. They get their power from earthly things.

The purpose of my Christian existence, though, is not experience, advancement or even maturity, but to live in relationship with Christ. We get our power from above, and that power expresses itself as loving actions towards other people.

If we do not get our power from Christ, then we get it from one or more of sin, Satan or the world. We will seek to control, rather than to love.

What is your purpose? Is it Christ, or is it ethics, morality, experience, pleasure?Where do you get the power to live out this purpose? Is it Christ, or is it sources below? What is the outflow of your life? Is it the love of Christ, or is it selfishness and a seeking to control?

-Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

First Corinthians 3:1-5
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The Foolishness of God

Go read "The Greater Trumps" by Charles Williams

​In theology, a distinction is made between two types of knowledge. General revelation is available to all – empirical knowledge obtained through the senses within the natural world. Special revelation is that knowledge that comes from beyond the natural world; that is, supernatural.

Paul here discusses the wisdom of the world – secular knowledge and wisdom, everything from engineering to psychology to biology to sociology to history. These are, on the whole, good things, but we must remember to keep them in their proper place. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that it was the wisdom of God that created the world, while human wisdom cannot create anything, but only rearrange what God has already made. We must remember that secular wisdom is very limited.

There is one area in particular where secular wisdom is not just limited but completely inadequate. That is the realm of the spiritual, the metaphysical or the moral.

Paul has to talk about this because the Corinthians (much like us here in Seattle) were enamored of human wisdom. When secular wisdom attempts to move into the lane of spirituality, we get significant problems, and this was happening here, in a culture of debate and status. In this world of wise people, Christians were being told that their stories were primitive and childish. When you hear this from wise, intelligent, powerful, influential people, it can be damaging.

That’s where Paul comes in. You would think that he would jump in to this debate to provide powerful intellectual weapons with which to battle the intellectual culture. Instead, though, he refuses to fight on their terms.

He cites Isaiah, who was speaking to the people of Jerusalem as Sennacharib approached the walls with 200,000 men.  Isaiah counseled King Hezekiah that, despite all the empirical evidence that they should surrender, they should stand strong. The angel of the Lord then wiped out the beseiging army and Sennacharib was forced home with his tail between his legs.

We cannot know God purely through human wisdom. The closest we can get is a general sense that there is a god of some sort. And then, even when God Himself comes down to earth, He does so in a way that is scandalous to the Jews – hanging on a tree, which the Law says is cursed – and simple, rudimentary foolishness to the Greeks – Jesus loves me, thus I know. An itinerant preacher executed before the age of 35. A king with no kingdom.

Why would God make this so difficult for the faithful and the wise to accept? Why is the cross so counterintuitive to human thinking? Paul here writes that it is so that we know that our salvation is not from ourselves. It is so that God’s power is revealed by bringing people out of their own worldly perspective and into His perspective, through no worthiness of our own.

As a whole, the Christian message is most readily accepted by the poor, the outcast and the simple. In Corinth, the notions of nobility and legacy were of utmost importance – but having those, in fact, makes it less likely that you would accept the truth. Paul goes on to out-boast the boasters. God takes on the persona of the boasting Greco-Roman patron, trashing their wisdom and bragging on His methods.

What’s more, God goes even further – not only is the message itself foolishness, the method of the message was foolish as well. Paul reminds the Corinthians that when he first came to them, he did not use the classical rhetorical methods of the day. Rhetoric focuses on the capabilities of the speaker. It manipulates people emotionally and says what people want to hear. It holds out the hope of prosperity and virtue in order to lead people into your side. It manipulates facts in order to sway opinion. We see this today – in politics, in the “prosperity gospel” and elsewhere.

Paul sets up another school of persuasion against that of rhetoric – preaching, serving as a herald of the King. Preaching is different than teaching and rhetoric. Preaching elevates Christ, not the preacher. Preaching lays out truth rather than attempting to manipulate or even persuade – preaching is not even apologetics. Paul is not against rhetoric, apologetics, logic or persuasion (see: the entire book of Romans). But there is a higher call, one that inspires “fear, trembling and weakness”, because there is no one who is truly adequate to the task of passing on the eternal truth of God.

So, God created a method that overcomes secular wisdom and expectations. Secular wisdom is a valuable thing, but it is, at its best, only a discovery of what God has already put in place. We can have faith that, ultimately the wisdom of God will be vindicated.

We should engage with logic, reason, knowledge, writing and rhetoric. We are not called to ignorance. However, we are called to follow the foolishness of God ahead of the wisdom of the world.

We also understand from this passage the importance of preaching as a key method that God uses to convey His truth to His people and to communicate the Gospel. Apologetics is a vital supporting aspect of Christianity, but people are not brought to the truth of Christ through logic and persuasion – they are brought by the work of the Holy Spirit.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

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Against Tribalism

​Humans have two conflicting intense desires – first, to be accepted by a group, and second, to be distinct from the group. The combination of these two things creates tribalism, and a seeking of distinct identities as a piece of one community as opposed to another. We were made to live in community, and this “tribe-shaped hole” in our heart is meant to be filled by the community of Christ. But all too frequently, we treat the church of God as if it were a worldly tribe, as we create sub-tribes, cliques, schisms and divisions.

This was the situation in the Corinthian church. They had divided themselves up based on the leaders that they followed. Some identified with Paul, the founder of the church. Some identified with Apollos, the current pastor and an eloquent speaker. Some identified with Peter, the overall leader of the church in Jerusalem. Others were super-spiritual and identified with Christ. 

This was largely a spillover from culture. In Greco-Roman culture, it was entirely expected that you would seek to elevate your own rank by associating yourself with somebody of higher rank. Similarly, the Sophist philosophy was built around a student’s identification with and imitation of a teacher. Politics, similarly, was primarily about personality rather than ideas. In all these cases, it was the responsibility of the follower to defend the patron in their absence, and to boast in their successes and virtues.

In the church, this entire concept became tangled up with the concept of baptism. This ceremony originated with Judaism, and were in some ways a ceremony of connection between a rabbi and a follower. There were secular and pagan version of the same thing. So in the church, the person who baptized you became seen as your patron, and you would defend their positions abilities and status against the others who are defending their own patrons.

Paul goes after this whole concept by using rhetoric, asking three rhetorical questions. First, can Christ be divided? Can Christ be put alongside mere human leaders as one of many church leaders? Second, was Paul crucified for you? He reminds them that he (and the other leaders) are merely messengers. Third, were you baptized in the name of Paul? He seeks to strip the concept of baptism of its secular, patron/follower baggage. 

Paul emphasizes that he did not come to them to tick off followers or speak eloquently (with “wisdom of words”). He came to pass on the message of the gospel. That message is that Christ himself is our spiritual patron, and we, as followers of Christ, are called to unity in Him. We can have differences of opinion, but we must be unified as followers of Christ. We can and should treat Him as the culture expects – boasting about him and building him up. But all this must be done in humility about ourselves, knowing that our association with this particular important patron does not build us up to be better than others, but in fact does the opposite. 

The biggest danger to Christian unity is not that we elevate our own views above Christ. Rather, we elevate our views or our tribe as being on the and level as Christ. Too often, we see our conservatism or progressivism as being the natural extension of Christ’s teaching, rather than our own imperfect application. We set up our tribe or our leader as equal with or equivalent to Christ’s kingdom. We become more concerned with supporting or defending our side than with speaking truth. 

We certainly see this in the culture today. If Paul were here, he would demand that we keep all that nonsense out of the church. “Did Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump die for you? Were you baptized in the name of conservatism or progressivism?”

How do we know when I am falling into this? When we disagree with another believer and this leads to a feeling of contempt for them, that is a key indicator that something is wrong in our outlook. 

We cannot imitate what is acceptable in culture. Within the church, we must be able to acknowledge our differences but focus on our unity in Christ. Recent years have made this increasingly difficult in the realm of American politics, so we must redouble our efforts to seek love and unity within the diversity of the community of Christ. 

–Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

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Introduction to First Seattleites

Paul had grown up upper-middle class in Tarsus, a center of tent-making, where he learned that trade. He also studied religious law under Gameliel and was a Roman citizen, so this gave him notable status in the community. He was among the many Jewish leaders concerned about the followers of this Jesus – from his perspective, one in a long line of false messiahs who was twisting the scriptures and putting all of God’s people at risk.

So he became essentially a bounty hunter, tracking down and capturing Christians for execution. At one point he asks for dispensation from the high priest to go up to Damascus and bring the Christians back to Jerusalem to face justice. On the way, he is confronted with the living Christ and blinded. When he is healed, he becomes a zealous follower of Christ, and his preaching causes a riot. From there he went briefly to Jerusalem, where he causes trouble once again, and has to be smuggled out. He returns to Taursus and spends ten years there. We don’t know exactly what happened in those years, but presumably they were spent largely in contemplation of the implications of Christ’s coming. Eventually, a man named Barnabas is sent out to find Paul. Paul comes back to Jerusalem, meets with the apostles, and is sent out again, becoming a missionary for the church.

Eventually, he comes to Corinth, where he partners with Priscilla and Aquila and eventually shifts his focus from preaching to the Jews to preaching up the gentiles. He spent a year and a half there building the church, which he then left in the hands of co-pastors Priscilla and Aquila. This letter was written a number of years later to that church.

Corinth was a center of trade, located on an isthmus where ships went overland rather than sailing around Asia is. It was a center of entertainment, hosting the Isthmian Games every two years. It was a center of religion and sex, as the temple of Aphrodite also served as a city-wide prostitution business. The city naturally had a pretty significant underbelly, and had become a Roman byword for debauchery and dissolution. So the church in Corinth had a lot of baked-in issues, issues Paul would not have been able to deal with in his short time there. This meant that the church there was probably the most dysfunctional church that Paul wrote to, riven by factions, infighting, selfishness, and not a little of its own debauchery and dissolution.

Because of these issues, people were actively leaving the faith. The central message of this book, then, was the reminder that a diverse church can only survive and thrive when it is centered around the simplicity of Christ. The thinking of the people of Corinth is remarkably parallel to that of the average Seattleite, so we have much to learn from this book. (It does mean that going through it is not going to push against legalism, but against license).

Like Seattle, Corinth was regionally proud and technologically advanced – they had Corinthian bronze, we have Amazon and Microsoft. They took pride in their sports and sports culture. They were proud of their intelligence and education. They were proud of their wealth and strong economy. They overall felt superior to the rest of the Greco-Roman world. Aristotle himself wrote about this superiority complex. There are a few similarities here.

And when this sort of superiority complex enters the church, we get significant problems. Factions, boasting, judgmentalism – even judging Paul (who, naturally, responded with great heaping piles of sarcasm). This intellectual elitism led to an elevation of their own reason over the truth of scripture. Paul continually has to remind them that the message of Christ was specifically built to be foolishness when looked at with cold reason. Corinth also had an overall distrust of authority, including church leaders, leading to treating of Paul with extreme disrespect, because he’s not treating others with enough respect.

Corinth was more concerned with individual rights than with love. They were more concerned with spiritual experience than with sound teaching and doctrine. They preferred Greek rhetoric to preaching (TED Talks vs. sermons). They preferred unfettered tolerance to holiness and gospel. All these issues are mirrored in Seattle and constantly validated by everyone around us. Rather than self-righteousness and hypocrisy growing out of legalism, we get self-righteousness and hypocrisy growing out of license. Paul usually writes against legalism, but here he writes against license.

There are a number of controversies in this book, mostly stemming from the existence of another letter sent before this one that we do not have (called “Corinthians A”), and another one after this one but before 2nd Corinthians (called “Corinthians B”). These letters are not included in the canon and were clearly not inspired or meant by the Holy Spirit to be passed down. It does help explain some of the very specific-seeming instructions Paul gives.

Overall, the letter is a call to incarnational unity, shedding the divisions and factions created by intellectual elitism and pride in favor of the unity that Christ calls us to and gives us the power to attain.

–Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

1 Corinthians 1:1-3

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Genesis as Rebuke

The first chapter of the Bible these days gets swept up into debates about evolution, science, etc. But how was it understood by the ancient Israelites when it was written? Why did they consider it important enough to be written down?

It is notable that God calls two things good that the ancient Israelites would generally not have considered to be good, but rather terrifying. Darkness and the abyss of the sea were both symbols of evil, danger and chaos, but God calls them “good” when he places them in their appropriate contexts and within their appropriate boundaries.

Another note – vegetation was created before the sun, which may seem strange. But keep in mind that the Israelites knew very well that the sun was required for plants to grow. This order was purposeful, and the contradiction was purposeful.

Later, man was created – in the image of God. This is in stark contrast to how surrounding cultures saw man. The image of God (or rather, of the gods) was restricted to rulers. The Israelites, though, put the basis for equality and democracy right in their own “founding document.”

The book of Genesis may have been formalized, compiled from oral tradition and other written accounts, during the Babylonian exile. If that is the case, this chapter would have served at least in part as a rebuke to the Babylonian creation account, in which Marduk tears apart the body of Tiamat in order to create the world.

The Genesis creation account puts forth two bold statements that go after the theology of the cultures around them. First, there is one God, not many. Second, the creation of the Earth did not happen in the midst of war and conflict, but was rather a purely good act of creative construction.

The counterintuitive order of creation may also have had something to do with this. The sun gods of the era were vital because of the importance of sun for crops, yet here Israel says “no, in the end even the sun is subservient to the creator God, and if He wants plants, he gets plants, and the sun is irrelevant.”

So how does this creation account impact our own relationship with the culture around us? Regardless of how you interpret the specifics of the passage, we all should take from this passage the understanding of the one God as the creator of heaven and earth. How does this understanding of a creator God set us apart from those with their own creation stories, their own gods of science and chance?

–Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

Genesis 1

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Legalism, Spiritualism and Asceticism

Humans don’t know how to function without rules. The Law was given to provide structure around the core concepts of “love God, love others”. It functioned as a starting point, but was ultimately ineffective because it could not cause people to love. Christ came to take the Law into Himself as its fulfillment, model and author. He himself is the new Law, the incarnation of loving God and living others. Through his power we are freed to do that loving. Freedom in Christ is the freedom to live out the spirit of the law.

The expectations were not lowered, but raised – beyond our capabilities, requiring us to depend on the power and forgiveness of Christ. Freedom in Christ is the freedom from guilt and the dominion of sin. The slavery to sin is replaced by slavery to Christ – slavery that is in fact sonship and servitude that is in fact freedom.

But Paul here discusses other forms of slavery even beyond that of sin but that will also separate us from the freedom found in Christ. Paul attacks those here: Legalism, Spiritualism and Asceticism.

First, Legalism. In this case, the legalism of keeping Jewish religious festivals. Christians were being judged for not participating in religious holidays. This can happen in many ways, though. Legalists take biblical principles and turn them into extra-biblical regulations. Applications of principle become new rules by which we judge ourselves and others – and punish and reward themselves and others.

It’s not that morality is relative or that we can’t confront or be confronted regarding sin. Instead, it is that we must not enslave others to the systems, even the good systems, that we develop for ourselves.

Spiritualism is the way of living the Christian life that seeks super-spiritual experiences that then they use as their yardstick for others. Everything from the complex angelic systems of the first century to the elaborate eschatology of the 20th to even otherwise positive theological or apologetic systemics and arguments.

Experience can be a powerful force to trump truth. Be careful of any experience focus that is not focused on loving God and loving others. Do not be bound by the spiritual experiences of others. Seeking experience is simply feeding our flesh desires with a spiritual veneer.

We are also free from Asceticism. We are free from other people’s systems of holiness and standards of purity. Avoidance of pleasure and harsh treatment of the body does not actually kill temptation or prevent sin. It is an attempt to replace Christ with rules in order to solve our sin problem. We now have freedom in Christ to create our own boundaries and standards, but as soon as we start taking pride in these boundaries or judging others by these, we are outside God’s will. (If we pride ourselves on not having these boundaries, it works the same way.)

If we live by these isms, we lose connection with the Head, replacing Christ with rules, experience or some other system built by man. We live as if the rules can do something that only Christ can do. Christ gives us freedom to live in the gray, not just in the black and white.

These rules, Paul writes, have no value when it comes to actually changing hearts. Instead of freeing us to love God and others, they enslave us to rules and self, and then ultimately the system breaks down anyway. Our foundation is not in Christ, and so when that system or leader or whatever fails, we go into a tailspin and are unable to extract the reality of Christ from the falsehoods and human systems.

Per John Piper:

Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn’t look like one. Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one. Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength. Alcoholics don’t feel welcome in church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in church.

In all things, we are to seek to love God and love others, depending on the power of Christ, not the systems of men.

— Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA

Colossians 2:6-23

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