QT 13 Aug 12, Legalism is a great danger to the Church's witness

John 7:19-26 (NIV) Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"

20 "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"

21 Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."

25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ?

NOTE: Jesus did more than one miracle. His statement here is in reference to the invalid of 38 years that he had healed on the Sabbath. Jesus argues that if work can not be done on the Sabbath, then why do we circumcise on the Sabbath? The "appearances" argument ignores what was done, that is, the making a man whole who had been in bondage for 38 years. The right judgment is that, doing good is an acceptable work for the Sabbath. This is the danger of legalism. It evaluates against the rule and not the intent or purpose of the action. Legalism had riddled the Jewish faith and marred the work God intended to do through the nation. In many churches, legalism tries to do the same thing. It removes the love and compassion of the gospel, and replaces it with hatred and discord.

The other interesting point is that there is a great mixture of information regarding Jesus. One group doesn't acknowledge that the leaders are trying to kill him (verse 20) and the other group reference that very fact (verse25). There are other misconceptions about Jesus elsewhere in this passage, such as where he was born (verses 41-42), facts about the Messiah (verse 27), where his authority is coming from (verse 15), and where he is going (verse 35). These also point to one great truth about belief. Those who want to believe will search for truth, and those who don't want to believe will search for objections (while pretending to search for truth).