Checklists, rules, laws - they are meant to be our servants, not our masters.  As servants, they can greatly aid us in our walk with Jesus.  As masters, they lead us astray, for they can never save or sanctify us.

Matthew 23:13, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Checklists, rules, and laws, when kept in perspective, are extremely helpful.  But when we make them the do-all and be-all, like the Pharisees did, we become legalistic, self-righteous prigs.  Sadly, if this is the way we live out our faith, we have missed the point.  We can never follow any set of rules - even God's rules - well enough to be saved or sanctified.  If we are trusting in our own efforts, then we are not trusting in Christ.  What might look to some as incredibly righteous is in fact anything but that.  Legalistic Christians shut the door to heaven on themselves and their disciples.

Quiet Reflections: What checklists, rules, and laws do you use in your walk with Christ?  Do you have enough, not enough, or too many of them?  Are they your servants or masters?  Often the only difference between whether a rule is our servant or master is our attitude toward that rule.  If we are relying on it, and in the process relying on our own efforts, to save and sanctify us, then that rule has become our master.  If, on the other hand, we are using the rule to set godly boundaries for ourselves, then that rule is our servant.  Remember, only Christ can save and sanctify us.  Only Christ. 

Thoughts or comments?

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