Last week we noted that we don’t grow very much from doing many things one or two times. No, we grow from doing a few things many times. That’s a key to practicing the spiritual disciplines. We have to engage in these spiritual disciplines on a regular basis in order to fully experience God’s power to grow our souls.

But I need to point out another key principle: Practicing the spiritual disciplines is about grace, not law. That means that the spiritual disciplines aren’t about works righteousness; it’s not about creating badges of spirituality. This stuff doesn’t make anyone a “super Christian” — there’s no such thing. And practicing the spiritual disciplines isn’t about legalistic observance of religious rituals either. These disciplines open us up to the grace of God. They’re not to be done to prove that we’re right — that’s legalism.

Legalism is one of the greatest threats to our spiritual lives. Some people in the church will use terms like “progressive” and “conservative” to describe either themselves or groups of fellow believers who hold a different view. And that’s really unfortunate, because those terms are just divisive. Those are political terms that we’ve incorporated into the church — which is a really dangerous thing to do. And in some of the conversations I overhear, those who proudly call themselves “progressive” will use the term “legalism” in a derisive way to describe their brethren who would call themselves more “conservative.” But you know what? Those who like to call themselves “progressive” are often times just as legalistic as the ones they deride.

• A “conservative” tends to be legalistic about the traditional ways of the faith — the old paths and the way things used to be.
• But a “progressive” is just as legalistic whenever he thinks he’s found the new right way of practicing faith. He’s guilty of doing the same thing he mocks his brother for doing!

I just want to say that this series isn’t about any of that nonsense. We’re not setting out to be legalistic about these practices. The idea is that these practices are the means God uses to grow us. If we experience any spiritual growth, it’s because of God, not us.