How Does Legalism Rear?
All of cancel culture, regardless of which side, is legalism. Folks are legalistic about using plastic bags at the grocery store, or adopting a pound dog vs a purebred. Folks are legalistic about food, weight, exercise, sleep, clothing, views of cultural appropriation, parenting, school, academic prowess. My favorite is when folks get legalistic about grace i.e.. that guy needs sonship, or you're not broken enough, etc. We become like two-year-olds who are convinced that cutting the sandwich diagonally is the biggest sin and an affront to their wellbeing. We get legalistic about music in the church, the preacher's costume, whether or not his sermons are expositional enough, are we singing too many traditional hymns or not enough. Any time someone says, "you gotta" my antenna goes up. The problem with the legalistic mindset (which I have in spades in my dark heart) is that it puts you on hyper alert status which is exhausting for you and for those around you and cannot be ultimately sustained. It will quite literally wear you out. It is in one's best interest to ween oneself off the legalistic drug of being right all the time. Like any other drug, it takes more than it ever gives.
