Legalistic Christians Kinda Suck | Matthew 12:1-8

I was one of them once so I can say that

Author

Caleb Lee
March 11, 2024

We’ve all met them.

I’ve been one of them.

Legalistic Christians.

People with a smug attitude about the way they live their lives while looking down on people who don’t appear to be on “the same level” as them.

(Again, I was like that too, hence the harsh words)

If only legalistic Christians realized they were doing exactly as the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 12:1-8

The passage Jesus is referencing in verse 7 comes from Hosea 6:6

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
 the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

And it gives an amazing picture of God’s desire for us. He didn’t give us the law to punish us or to hold us to an impossible standard because it was fun for Him to do so.

He gave us the law because it was good for us to follow them.

And in doing so, we would be showing our love for Him.

Christianity isn’t about following a set of dull, uninspiring laws.

It’s about following a person.

And it’s about loving that person.

Not because we’re good people by any means, but because He is good. And because He loved us first.

Have a blessed Monday, friends.