“No Legalism: Let Faith Express Itself Through Love!”

No Legalism: Let Faith Express Itself Through Love!”(Gal.5:1-6).
I started my pastoral ministry in Berabe in Donga-Mantung. That was way back in 1992. During the first few weeks, I observed that during church services when worshippers are supposed to stand, some who, for one reason or the other, could not stand raised one hand up with one finger pointing upward. This was uncanny.
One Sunday during service, I asked to know the reason for raising a hand while sitting. I was told that when one is not able to stand when people have to stand, the one raises a hand to represent standing. I stopped the practice. God knows why you cannot stand, and it is pointless to represent standing by raising a hand.
There are many such subtle enslaving practices here and there. When I came to Njenka in 2022, I noticed that when an elder was bringing the cross outside for procession, worshippers would rise in respect of the cross. To make it lighter, I asked that the cross should be brought through a side door.
Symbolism may offer some psychological strengthening to worshippers, but it gradually degenerates to law that enslaves!
Paul categorically points out , “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
Ministers of the gospel often face great difficulty trying to educate the Christians to dissuade from certain traditional religious practices that indirectly show that Christ’s sacrifice did not cleanse. Christ died in vain if we insist on certain traditional religious practices as a means of salvation. We are not by this condemning all cultural practices and values – except they are inimical to the gospel of salvation!
The gospel of Christ has been in the continent for so long such that it has become one of Africa’s most powerful traditional religions. In some areas of life it becomes replacement, but in most areas of life it merely fills with new content. Where the gospel informs, it transforms by rearranging the room, maintaining the old furniture. However, something new happens. Rearrangement helps to see the debris that had gathered where the broom hardly reached.
The gospel is usually not a new building; it serves as the renovation of an existing building.
This is not making concessions nor compromising the gospel! The incarnation came in the form of a naked child who took on the culture of the land of his birth! In the same way, Paul was hard on the Gentiles, who thought salvation in Christ was made complete through circumcision.
We alienate ourselves from Christ and fall from grace when we try to be justified by the old Jewish laws. “Through the Spirit, we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
This last verse is very important. Christians have often been torn apart by doctrinal wars instead of allowing their faith to express itself through love. May we be guided by the Spirit to shelve our differences so that we can do the only thing that counts: Faith expressing itself through love!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, guide us away from legalistic faith to faith that expresses itself through love. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
30/01/2026.