I am fighting a battle right now with an enemy that is relentless, merciless, and only multiplies when you try to mow it down. You guessed it, I am battling with the weed called "creeping charlie"! It began behind my shed and is now taking over not only my lawn, but two of my neighbors lawns as well. I bought some weed killer specially formulated to kill creeping charlie but from what I've read the stuff is really hard to get rid of. One person joyfully recounted how they finally took a blow torch to it and watched each leaf wither and burn with a kind of cruel pleasure.

Creeping charlie reminds me of a spiritual weed that can run amok in the Christian's life and in the church if we're not careful. It's the "creeping charlie of legalism" - the noxious weed of trying to earn God's approval through our own efforts. It can begin small and seemingly harmless - just a desire to draw "clear lines" or guide our behavior for the better through rules. It can start behind the shed - just a small patch in some unseen area of our lives, like our personal Bible reading or prayer life, or in areas of personal opinions like what we believe about our kids education or the kind of music that should be played in church. But once legalism takes root in our lives, it's really hard to get rid of it, and it spreads like crazy! Little by little, imperceptibly, we increasingly measure our relationship with God by how well we're "keeping the rules", and then it's a small step to start measuring other people by how they're keeping the rules we've established. I know there've been times when I've felt spiritually superior because I'm feeling good about how I'm keeping my standards - and very subtley begin to look condescendingly on others (who aren't keeping my standards so well). At other times I have felt discouraged because I'm not doing so well - and I find my heart unconsciously moving away from my heavenly Father because I "know" I'm not measuring up. The creeping charlie of legalism chokes our spiritual life in many ways.

As Paul was saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders for the final time, he left them with this word: "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." God's answer to the creeping charlie of legalism isn't to pull it up and leave a barren patch of dirt, or to leave a "scorched earth" in its stead. His answer is the lush and healthy lawn of a life built on, and filled with, and nourished by grace. We are saved by grace! And only grace. And we are built up and sanctified by grace - and only grace. Because grace is built on, and focused on, what Jesus Christ has done for us, not what we do for Christ. 

So we know that our heavenly Father loves and accepts us because of what His Son did on the cross. We know that our heavenly Father forgives us when we fall short of His holy standards (His standards, not ours! - and those standards are total perfection!) so that we can draw near to Him, confessing our sin and receiving His cleansing forgiveness so that we can continue on without guilt or shame. We can abide in Christ and find his life coursing through our veins, enabling us to grow in joyful obedience to his commands, not because our rules demand it, but because our hearts desire it. We can accept one another with all our faults and weaknesses and idiosyncrasies (or, as my kids like to say, idiotsyncrasies), and sins and failures, because Christ has accepted us that way (Romans 15:7). Grace doesn't have us fighting sin by clenching our teeth, but by walking by the Spirit (Gal 5:16-26).

Where the grace of God is increasingly active in His people, there will be a lush sense of life and joy and health and spiritual nourishment! And God's grace is the best blow torch for burning up the creeping charlie of legalism - and I think we are allowed to take pleasure in watching those legalistic little leaves burned to a crisp. 

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 1 Cor. 16:23