Holiness, Sanctification, and Christian Perfection — Unit 8: Holiness without Legalism: Outward Standards and the Danger of Rules without Love

Key Verse

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define legalism and antinomianism and explain why Wesley rejected both.

2. Explain from Scripture how rules without love damage the Christian life (Matthew 23; Galatians; Colossians 2; Romans 14).

3. Describe how Wesley and the later Holiness bodies used outward rules, and state fairly the debate among historians about them.

4. Answer the objection that holiness teaching leads to legalism and the opposite objection that freedom leads to worldliness.

5. Apply five questions to a case of outward standards in a local church.

The Voice of This Unit

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition for Wesleyan students. We are conservative evangelicals who hold the Bible as the inspired Word of God and our final authority. This unit may be uncomfortable for some of us, because our own family has not always avoided the fault it describes. We state the objections of critics fairly, including those who say that holiness teaching breeds legalism, and then we answer from the Wesleyan side. Our answer is not that standards are bad. It is that love is first and that rules serve love.

Two Ditches

A road in the mountains may have a ditch on each side. A driver who fears one ditch can easily drive into the other. Wesley said that holiness has the same danger. On one side is legalism: the belief that we are accepted by God, or that we are holy, because we keep a list of rules. On the other side is antinomianism, a word that means "against law." It is the belief that because we are saved by grace, God cares little about how we live.

Wesley fought both. His friend and defender John Fletcher of Madeley wrote Checks to Antinomianism in the 1770s, in the Calvinist–Arminian dispute described in our Course 1. Yet Wesley and Fletcher also warned against a religion of outward form. The Wesleyan road runs between: grace that really changes the life, and a life that is held up by love and not by fear.

What Legalism Is

The word is used loosely, so we define it. Legalism has three faces in Scripture.

First, rules as the ground of acceptance. This is the error Paul fought in Galatians. Teachers came and said that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be right with God. Paul answered that this is "another gospel." He wrote, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). A believer is accepted by grace through faith, and nothing is added.

Second, human rules treated as God's commands. Jesus told the Pharisees that they had set aside the commandment of God to keep their own traditions (Mark 7:6-8). Paul warned the Colossians against rules such as "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle" (Colossians 2:21), and said that such self-made religion has an appearance of wisdom but does not stop the desires of the flesh (Colossians 2:23). A tradition may be useful. It becomes a fault when it is placed on the same level as Scripture.

Third, rules without love. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees that they paid tithes of mint and dill and cummin but neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). They were exact about small things and cold toward people. Paul says that if I have all knowledge and give all I have but have not love, I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). A church can keep every rule and still be without love.

A Pastoral Observation

Dr. Wayne Cook, founder of Chapala Theological Seminary, has made a pastoral observation from the two Baptist churches he first pastored. Many of the members there came from strict separatist backgrounds, where the focus on what was forbidden was so strong that they wanted something different. Their experience is a warning to every tradition that preaches holiness, ours included.

The Other Ditch: Antinomianism

We must not leave the impression that freedom means license. Paul faced the idea directly: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). Jesus said that those who love Him keep His commandments (John 14:15). Wesley's sermon "The Original, Nature, Property, and Use of the Law" (1750) teaches that the moral law of God remains in force for believers. He saw three uses: to convince us of sin, to bring us to Christ, and to keep us alive and watchful after we have come to Him. The sermon "The Law Established through Faith" argues that faith in Christ does not cancel the law but fulfills it, because love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).

So the Wesleyan answer to the legalist is "love fulfills the law, so do not add to it." The answer to the antinomian is "love fulfills the law, so do not subtract from it." The same verse does both jobs.

Wesley's Own Use of Rules

Wesley was not against outward standards. His General Rules of 1743, which Unit 7 introduced, name some evils to avoid: taking the name of God in vain, profaning the Lord's day, drunkenness, quarreling, wearing gold and costly apparel, and laying up treasure on earth, with others. They also called for doing good and for attending the means of grace. His sermon "On Dress" (1786) urged plainness and neatness. A chief reason he gave was love for the poor, since money spent on costly clothing could have been spent to help those in need.

Yet Wesley handled rules in four ways that teach us.

First, the only condition for membership was a desire to be saved from sin, not a record of perfect behavior. People came to the societies as seekers, and the rules were taught as the fruit that such a desire would bear.

Second, the rules came from Scripture and love. The aim was to avoid what harms the soul or the neighbor and to do what builds up. They were not invented to make Methodists look different.

Third, Wesley separated essentials from opinions. In his sermon "Catholic Spirit" (1750) he taught that Christians who differ in opinions and in forms of worship can still love one another and work together, provided they share the central truths of the faith. We need not think alike to love alike.

Fourth, he removed from the societies those who persisted in sin, but with a purpose to restore. The class leaders watched over each other's souls in love. Paul's rule is the same: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1).

Outward Standards in the Holiness Bodies

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many Holiness bodies adopted lists of outward standards for members. These often dealt with dress and jewelry, with alcohol and tobacco, and with some kinds of entertainment. The Free Methodist Church, for instance, became known in its early years for plain dress and for opposing slavery and secret societies. Church of the Nazarene members were also expected to avoid certain amusements. (Course 1, Unit 7, tells the history.) In more recent decades many of these bodies have shortened or reshaped such lists, and they differ among themselves and from place to place. We describe this history without claiming that every rule was right or wrong.

Historians disagree about what these standards meant. Some see them as a sincere witness against pride, waste and the temptations that harmed poor families, and as a way of helping new converts to leave an old life. Others see them as cultural fences that tied holiness to a particular style of life and made people think of holiness as a matter of appearance. Most would say that both things happened, in different places and times. The Wesleyan view is that standards can serve love, but when they take the place of love, or become the test of who is saved, they have become a yoke.

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: Holiness teaching naturally produces legalism. Some Reformed and Baptist critics say that if you set perfection before people, you must define it, and a definition soon becomes a list. They would point to the strictness found in some Holiness churches.

Our answer. The danger is real, and some of our people have fallen into it. But the teaching itself defines holiness as perfect love, not as a list. Wesley's own definition is a heart in which love for God and neighbor fills everything. The cure for legalism is not to lower our hope but to keep the true definition in front of us. Churches of every tradition have known legalism, so the fault belongs to the human heart and not to one family of churches. No tradition is safe.

Objection 2: Without clear standards the church will drift into worldliness. Others reply from the opposite side. They say that the decline of rules has led to lukewarm churches, and that grace has become cheap.

Our answer. This also is a real danger, and it is why Wesley and Fletcher wrote against antinomianism. Scripture does give plain commands on conduct: sexual purity, honesty, justice, sobriety, and love for enemies. A church that teaches grace must also teach obedience. But what keeps a church from worldliness is not mainly a longer list. It is a living love for Christ, the means of grace, and brothers and sisters who watch over one another. A rule held by fear lasts only while someone is watching. A habit born of love lasts when no one is.

Objection 3: The Bible is silent on many modern questions, so rules are needed. True, and so we need wisdom.

Our answer. Paul gives us guidance in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 on matters where Christians differ in conscience. He says, "for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). The strong must not despise the weak, and the weak must not condemn the strong. Neither should cause a brother to stumble. In such matters love and conscience lead, and the pastor teaches principles.

Five Questions for Outward Standards

When a pastor or a church board faces a question about conduct, these five questions help.

1. Does Scripture command or forbid it plainly? If so, we obey, and we teach it with love.

2. If Scripture is not plain, which principle applies? Examples are love for neighbor, care for the weak, honesty, self-control and good stewardship.

3. Does it help or hinder love for God and neighbor? This is the main test.

4. Is it held with humility and room for conscience? A church may ask its members to follow a standard, but it must not call a custom a commandment.

5. Does it keep the way to Christ open? A rule that shuts out a hungry seeker, or gives an outsider a reason to say he must clean himself first, is wrong, whatever its origin.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Daniel leads a growing church in a market town. Several families have recently come to Christ from lives of drinking and gambling. One of his elders, a godly man, comes to him and says that the new members must not take the Lord's Supper until they dress as the older members do, stop watching television, and stop wearing jewelry.

Pastor Daniel meets with the elder and uses the five questions. He asks first what Scripture plainly commands, and they list the clear things: no drunkenness, no gambling that harms a family, honesty, and purity. He agrees that these should be taught firmly. Then he asks about dress, jewelry and television, which are matters of principle and wisdom, and he reminds the elder of Wesley's concern for modesty and the poor. He recalls that the new believers are only months old and that Wesley's societies welcomed seekers. Finally he suggests that the elder and he visit each family, teach them the Word, and walk with them in a class meeting. In a year, they say, we will look for fruit. The elder agrees to wait, and the Supper table stays open to all who repent and believe.

Summary

Wesley rejected two ditches, legalism and antinomianism. Legalism makes rules the ground of acceptance, treats human traditions as God's commands, or keeps rules without love. Antinomianism says that grace makes obedience unimportant. Wesley and Fletcher taught that the moral law still stands, and that love fulfills it. Wesley used outward rules, as in the General Rules of 1743 and his sermon "On Dress," but admitted seekers by desire alone, grounded rules in Scripture and love, separated essentials from opinions in "Catholic Spirit," and sought to restore the fallen. Many Holiness bodies adopted outward standards, and historians debate whether these were a faithful witness or cultural fences. A pastoral observation from Dr. Wayne Cook shows the cost of a focus on prohibitions. We answer the charge that holiness breeds legalism by returning to the definition of holiness as perfect love, and the charge that freedom breeds worldliness by teaching obedience from love. Five questions help a pastor weigh any standard.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies" (1743).

• John Wesley, sermons "Catholic Spirit" (1750), "The Original, Nature, Property, and Use of the Law" (1750), "The Law Established through Faith," and "On Dress" (1786).

• John Fletcher, Checks to Antinomianism.

• Phoebe Palmer, The Way of Holiness (1843), for the Holiness movement's emphasis on consecration.

• Holiness Through the Ages, the Master's textbook for this course.

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